Cultural barriers and intercultural communication in Sino-Italian work environments: a survey

The text explores cultural differences between Italy and China, focusing on various dimensions such as masculinity vs. femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term vs. short-term orientation, and indulgence vs. restraint. It highlights how these cultural dimensions influence family structures, gender roles, and societal behaviors, as well as communication styles, workplace etiquette, and nonverbal communication. The research also addresses cultural barriers in business collaboration, historical misunderstandings, and the significance of proxemics in intercultural interactions, emphasizing the need for greater awareness and understanding to enhance cooperation between the two cultures. The scope of this analysis is the examination of cultural differences using the Onion Model, taking both the Italian and the Chinese cluster into account. This is a work in progress: its limitations are mainly of a theoretical nature and include the difficult generalization from the in-depth consideration of a few cultural differences to the comprehensive analysis of all of them.