As many of you know, a big earthquake struck Ya’an, a rural county located in the southwest of the Sichuan province in China. No doubt you’ve been reading about the rescue effort, and donations and condolences are flooding in. For instance, Apple has pledged to donate approximately $8 million to victims of the natural disaster. For companies doing business in China, it is highly important for them to provide timely and appropriate support to demonstrate they are socially responsible. However, sometimes the language goes wrong even when you have a local team.
The below image shows that during the latest Shanghai International Auto Show (opened just a day after the earthquake happened), one of the auto manufacturers set their expo stand with a stage backdrop saying “守望相助，安雅加油” (“In loving unity we support, go An’ya”) to express their condolences. Unfortunately, their local team got the name of the district “Ya’an” wrong. It wrote “An’ya” (which happens to be a Taiwanese celebrity/actress’s name). The mistake was picked up by one of the audience members at the exhibition. He took a photo of the stage and posted it on Sina Weibo, with a comment saying “a typical PR disaster”. This post soon went viral due to the sensitivity of the topic, and the manufacturer company was criticised for its carelessness as well as its insensitivity in dealing with the issue.
(Image source: Chong Qing Morning Post “重庆晨报”)
Nowadays, the Chinese government and consumers’ expectations towards foreign companies has significant changed. Simply bringing your money to the country is far from enough, and they expect foreign business operators to demonstrate commitment to the country’s long-term development and sustainability, such as timely and substantial responses to nationwide natural disasters. It is vital for businesses to ensure that such responses are accurate and culturally appropriate. And the first thing they have to do is to get the language right!