Page 111 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics
P. 111
THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.71, # 1, 2014, pp. 99-119
Social and Cultural Considerations
Social and cultural considerations play a major role in shaping public attitudes toward
Chinese FDI. Cultural consideration came to particular prominence in November 2012 when
Chen Weidong, chief energy researcher at the CNOOC Energy Economics Institute, chose a poor
analogy to describe oil sands development.
“It’s the same situation as the leftover single women. … It will be the same for the oil
sands, they will be outdated just like unmarried single women.”
The Globe and Mail called the comment “jarring to Canadian ears”. Bloggers call it worse
– Mr. Weidong is now the subject of much online abuse in the blogsphere, with “Chinese oil
industry asshole” being one such title. Nevertheless, a twist on Hanlon’s Razor appears required
for conducting international business.
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by cultural differences.”
Such consideration is required because on closer inspection the term “leftover women” is
commonly espoused by Chinese government ministries. Leta Hong Fincher comments in the
New York Times that the China’s state feminist agency, the All-China Women’s Federation,
defines leftover women “as unmarried women over the age of 27” and runs regular articles
stigmatizing educated women who are still single. While distasteful, cultural relativism must
carry some weight.
As is our objective in this paper, we seek to look deeper into the cultural implications of
such a controversial statement. The prima facie assessment of the remark is grim: it appears that
this is a vaguely misogynistic comment from a representative of a nation that is still rife with
chauvinism. Nonetheless, we assert that there are three underlying considerations that ought to
be considered by sophisticated observers before passing judgment on the statement.
111
