Asian Taboos in Gift Giving

There is no doubt that gift-giving plays an essential role in facilitating business practices and enhancing relationships. As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, an increasing number of companies are doing businesses abroad in China. With that being said, it is important to recognize the process of gift selection in the East. Where gift giving is much more elaborate than the West, a heavier emphasis is put on symbolism rather than the actual gift itself. Since implications contained by gifts vary among culture, it is very feasible to give a gift with an unintended message.

Here is a list of common gifts considered to be taboo in Chinese culture:

Clock
Among all of the gift giving taboos, clocks and watches are considered to be the biggest faux pas of all. The act of giving a clock is "送鐘" in Mandarin Chinese, pronounced as "song zhong" which shares the same homophone as "送終 ", meaning to bid farewell to a dying person. Therefore, gifting a clock is best avoided, especially to an elder as it signifies the end, which the recipient could associate with death.

Knife
Not only unique to Chinese culture, it is a common superstition across the world that knives and other sharp objects alike imply cutting ties between the giver and the receiver. Offering a knife as a gift might lead the recipient to conclude that you want to make a clean break.

Shoes
In Cantonese, the pronunciation of shoes is "hai" which shares the same homophones as the sound of a sigh. Giving a pair of shoes could suggest sending the recipient misfortune and unhappiness. Another interpretation is that by offering shoes, you want the recipient to leave your life, thus ending the relationship between the two of you.

If it is inevitable that these gifts must be given, the taboo can be broken by enclosing a small dollar amount with the present so the recipient could promptly use the money as "payment" in exchange for the item. Strictly speaking, this exchange then becomes a transaction.

Russian Roulette at the Dinner Table

The infamous Japanese specialty “fugu” or puffer fish is so poisonous that a single mistake in preparation could be fatal. Famed for its lethal insides, the fish contains a high concentration of anhydrotetrodotoxin 4-epitetrodotoxin, so potent that a dose smaller than the head of a pin could kill 5 full grown men.  Up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide, the ovaries are considered to be the most lethal. However, consumption of other organs such as liver and roe are just as deadly- all of which are incinerated after processing in accordance with Japanese law.

Typically, this gelatinous delicacy is prepared raw as fugu sashimi. Delicate leaves of translucent flesh are served on a large patterned plate, arranged in the shape of a chrysanthemum- a flower symbolic of death in Japan. Other times, it is served cooked as fugu tempura or as a broth for noodle dishes and stews. Due to high risks, fugu chefs undergo years of rigorous training and examinations to obtain a preparation license. As a result, this near-death experience often comes with a hefty price tag. If there is even the slightest quantity of toxin present in a served dish, tingling of the lips would be the first indication of tetrodotoxin poisoning.  At a significant dosage, there would be a growing paralysis of the body, eventually leading to respiratory arrest, then death, all while the victim is fully conscious. Unfortunately, Tetrodotoxin has no known antidote.

With advances in fish farming, breeders are now mass raising non-poisonous puffer fish. However, the poison-filled version is as popular as ever among both chefs and diners. Naturally, fugu chefs are outraged by the emergence of this new market as they want to protect their vested interests. As for Japanese restaurant go-ers, the thought of their “very last meal” is perhaps part of its allure. 

“It’s not about shoes”

The Amazon owned online retailer recently logged its longest customer service call at 10 hours and 43 minutes, breaking its own internal record. In typical corporate culture, employees are often denounced for their inefficiency, but this particular employee expressed that his colleagues had gone as far as offering him food and water throughout the call to show their support. This customer-friendly company is none other than Zappos, a 17-year-old e-commerce giant.

Established in 1999, Zappos was founded on striving for purpose beyond profit. Understanding the highly competitive market, the company heavily invested in building a culture internally, and externally with customers. Rather than spending a fortune on traditional advertising, the company focused its efforts on satisfying its customers to generate organic publicity. In fact, employees are encouraged to go to extra lengths to please customers by staying on support calls for as long as needed and even offering free service upgrades whenever employees deem necessary. This unique customer-centric culture eventually became the number one driver in the company’s tremendous growth.

Earlier this year, the company began adopting Holocracy; a forefront management system where power is removed from the management hierarchy of the organization. By distributing authority across the board, CEO, Tony Hsieh believes that it will cultivate a collaborative mindset and instill a sense of self-organization and management in its employees. In conjunction with a campus featuring an open layout, Hsieh has seemingly defined the perfect link between a productive work environment and a workforce built on close knit friendships. Never mind maintaining a work-life balance, Zappos has once again proven itself to be the leader of avant-garde business management.

Sugar Substitute Sends Shockwaves Through the Food Industry

It goes without saying that a high-sugar diet over time often results in a barrage of symptoms such as increased risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. A new sweetener named rare sugar has come onto the scene with claims that it will not only eliminate the harmful effects of sugar overdoses, but is even beneficial to the human body.

In 1991, an Agricultural faculty member at the Kagawa University discovered a microorganism that carries the key enzyme necessary for converting fructose into rare sugar in the university's own soil. Rare sugar, as the name suggests is a sugar that occurs in very small quantities in nature. A decade later, Professor Ken Izumori officially began leading a team to research the possibilities of commercializing rare sugar in a lab environment. Rare sugar contains almost no calories, yet is said to be 70 percent as sweet as regular sugar. As a matter of fact, lab results have shown that rare sugar contains blood sugar management capabilities by inhibiting a spike in blood glucose. Moreover, this sweetener substitute can even boost resting energy expenditure during darkness, raising the possibility that rare sugar may actually play a proactive role in fighting obesity.

In 2011, rare sugar was formally introduced to the local Kagawa Prefecture and rolled out to the rest of Japan in 2012. With increasing health awareness, both nationally and globally, rare sugar has been praised as a healthy substitute for conventional sugar. Since then, the designated research team at Kagawa University has partnered up with Japan's leading health food manufacturer, Matusutani Chemical Industry to introduce the sweetener into a range of products from salad dressing to soft drinks. Currently, a majority of these products on the market contain only 15 percent rare sugar, but the industry has expressed hopes in developing products that contain 100 percent rare sugar as their sugar content in the near future. Since its debut in Japan, this surprising sweetener has been exported into the mainstream of a few Asian countries, and within a few years, rare sugar is expected to make its way into Western markets, forever changing the way we eat.

Support Translators & Interpreters to Work Free from Fear

Red T is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting translators and interpreters in conflict zones and other adversarial settings. Advocating on behalf of those at risks, the association informs the public on their role as impartial linguistic facilitators. From legal systems to combat zones, these professionals are confronted with varying degrees of discrimination and persecution from all sides due to the public's translator-traitor mentality, a shorthand term brought forth by Maya Hess, Founder and CEO of Red T to "capture the continuum and spectrum of distrust T/Is have been subjected to throughout the ages."

Without the service of these professionals, thousands would be deprived of access to pertinent information. Intelligence operations abroad would not be able to be carried out, linguistic minorities would not be able to participate in legal proceedings, and many would be denied of basic human needs. 

At present, translators and interpreters are not under the protection of legislation, A UN Resolution would be the first step toward ensuring protection under international law and it would mandate member states to prosecute crimes perpetrated against translators and interpreters. Please show your support today and sign the petition below to help these professionals work free from fear: https://www.change.org/p/urge-the-un-to-protect-translators-and-interpreters-worldwide

Pokémon Company Under Scrutiny Amid Heightened Cultural Sensitivity in Hong Kong

In the last decade, there has been a failing presence of Japanese games in the entertainment software industry; however, the latest launch of Pokémon Go has become a global craze in just a few days since the game was released. A spin-off of the long running Pokémon series, this immensely popular installment is a location-based augmented reality mobile game. Making use of the mobile device’s GPS and camera of mobile devices, the game allows users to experience digital game play in a real world environment.

This worldwide phenomenon would not have been made possible without localization. Due to great cultural differences between Japan and other countries, the business of localization is not merely a process of literal translations, but rather, involves complicated alterations in order to retain the original user experience with added local cultural vibes. In recent events, localization has proved to not be a smooth process after all.

In celebration of The Pokémon Company’s 20^th anniversary, a new pair of video games, Pokémon Sun and Moon will be released by the end of 2016. For the first time ever, this console series would be available in traditional and simplified Chinese, aiming to be distributed in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. Up until now, Pokémon creatures have used different names among those three regions to reflect local language. However, the franchise has planned to unify them in this new game installment. Originally translated as 比卡超 in Hong Kong, it now shares the same translation as Mainland China -皮卡丘(Pí kǎ qiu). While the Mandarin pronunciation sounds similar to the global name Pikachu, when read in Cantonese (Bei Ka Yau), it sounds nothing alike. Since the announcement, dozens of protesters have gathered at the Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong, threating to boycott Nintendo if the company refuses their demands. Many emphasized that although it is disappointing to see name changes in characters, it is more outraging that local culture and language is being threatened. Although this language unification might simply stem from a commercial standpoint and seem culturally significant for the franchise, local Hong Kongers see this modification as a political threat and a step further away from independence from China. 

The Tanabata Festival

Tanabata, also known as the Star Festival, is celebrated to commemorate the story of two lovers who are separated by the Milky Way on the 7th of July of the Western calendar. The story, which originated from a Chinese folklore, depicts two star-crossed lovers; Orihime, a talented seamstress and Hikoboshi, a young cow herder. They were madly in love and married soon after they met; however, they became so attached that they began to neglect their duties and responsibilities. Outraged, the gods of heaven forbade the lovers to be together and separated them with a vast river. Time went on and upon seeing the disheartened Orihime, the gods decreed that the couple would only be allowed to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month. It is said that if it rains on that night, the raindrops are the teas of the reunited lovers.

This festival gained widespread popularity by the early Edo period. Those in Japan celebrate by decorating the streets with colorful streamers made out of bamboo and paper. In celebration of this holiday, girls often pray, wishing for improved craftsmanship whereas boys pray for refined technical skills, in homage to the legend of Hikoboshi and Orihime. Although the folktale varies in different countries, this festival is also observed in Chinese and Korean culture as the Qizi Festival and Chilseok Festival respectively.