If you work in games during the next 5 years, you will probably work for or with Chinese companies.
Here in Southern Europe, the story was: China does things quickly and cheaply by copying. Today, in my industry and others, the story has changed. China now does better games. Maybe that story about doing things fast and dirty to arrive at perfection was true, in the end.
I have completed 5 months with Chinese developers and had challenges. I want to share my learning and also learn more from other people in my network and outside.
First of all, I have to say that I was born in Naples, Italy, and live in Barcelona, Spain. I speak 5 languages, and I am genuinely interested in other cultures. But still, I am biased like everyone. My intention is not to be disrespectful. I just want to share my observations through the lens of my context. And I repeat, I am interested in your takes.
Here’s what I have learnt in 5 months of working every day with Chinese colleagues:
1. They work a lot, and not because they are slaves of some system of sorts. They work a lot because they believe in community. Our concept of hard work here in Europe is related to our individual growth and improving shareholders’ value. In their case, it’s different: they work hard because they believe it improves society.
Fun fact: once I said “sorry, I don’t work on weekends”, and then I discovered that my sentence was offensive. Of course, it’s like saying, “Sorry, I don’t want to contribute to society” under their lens.
2. They will not argue nor question anything. A colleague told me that there is a saying in China: “Peace is the most valuable thing”. Here, we are way straighter in saying things, and sometimes we need conflict to progress. There, on the other hand, they are very polite. It was like working in the Italy of the ’50s in some cases.
Fun fact: during a meeting, an artist, red in the face, told to a European colleague, “you say a lot of f* words and it’s funny…”. It was embarrassing for them. Like I said, in the Italy of the ’50s, you didn’t say bad words!
3. They didn’t renounce their myth. In our culture, we passed (to say this very shortly) from myth to philosophy to science. Now, we “believe” in science mostly. For us, the term “myth” is similar somehow to a lie. “This is a myth” is like saying “this is false”. China has integrated the myth with the science, instead. And this reflects on their behavior and culture, a lot.
Fun fact: once I asked them, “why have Chinese games always hypersexualized characters?”. The CTO of the company answered me: “Because to us things like those are not important. These are just games and we want to sell them.”. Important things are others, in a society that didn’t lost the myth.
If you work with or for Chinese developers, please comment your thoughts!