Business Chinese for the First Meeting: Greetings That Open Doors

Somewhere in the first minute of a first business meeting in Chinese, most non-native speakers realise they are lost. The greeting has already gone by, names have been exchanged in an order that made no sense, and somebody is talking about the weather while a colleague writes down questions they cannot yet understand.

The difficulty is not a language gap. It is that the meeting is following a structure, and the structure was never made explicit. Once you know the order, the opening becomes something you can take part in.

The order of the opening

Chinese business meetings tend to move through the same sequence:

• A greeting — 你好 (nǐ hǎo), often 您好 (nín hǎo) in more formal settings
• Names, and the question of what to call each other
• Position or organisation — what each person does, and where they are from
• Some small talk, often about the weather, the journey, or the food
• Only then the business itself

None of this is small talk for its own sake. The first three steps establish who is dealing with whom and on what footing, and the small talk is the space in which people confirm the details before getting to the point.

Names and titles do more work than in English

Two conventions repay attention. First, the surname comes first: 张先生 (Mr. Zhang) is the normal way to address someone, and given names follow the surname, not the other way round. Second, titles are used more consistently than English speakers expect. A director, a manager and a colleague from the same company are not addressed the same way, and using the wrong one reads as either too familiar or too distant.

There is also a rule about the introduction order that is worth learning early: people are generally introduced in order of status, and the order tells you a great deal about how the meeting will run. Watch it, and you will usually be able to guess who is expected to speak first.

Wait to be offered the first name

Chinese business partners often move to first names fairly quickly, and it is common to hear yourself invited to use one. That invitation is the signal. Until it comes, address people by surname and title, and do not offer your own first name unprompted either.

Once the shift happens, it is genuine rather than formal, and the register changes with it. The important thing is not to move earlier than your counterpart does.

The small talk is not a test

It is easy to read the opening chatter as filler you can skip. It is more useful as a rehearsal: the people you are meeting are practising the same thing, and the exchanges are short, repetitive and therefore very learnable. Typical lines include a question about how long the journey took, a comment on the weather, and a question about whether the other person has visited China before.

Learning three or four of these and using them at the right moment does more for the first five minutes of a meeting than a large vocabulary of business terminology would.

The meeting is not the only place Chinese matters

Most first meetings end with a request to follow up in writing, and that message is often where the real negotiation happens. A Chinese business email is more formal than the meeting it follows, and it usually repeats the key points in a structured way, because the reader may not have been in the room.

Three features are worth noticing. The opening states the relationship, usually with 您好 or a reference to the previous meeting. The body arranges the agreed points as a list rather than as running prose, which makes it easy to answer point by point. The closing proposes the next step and a time, often 期待您的回复 (looking forward to your reply) or 请您确认 (please confirm). Learn these three moves and you can write a follow-up that is unmistakably professional Chinese rather than a translated English email.

Three mistakes that are easy to avoid

Translating your English email word for word. English business writing is often more compressed than Chinese business writing. A literal translation ends up thin. Writing in Chinese and then adjusting for tone works better than adjusting an English draft.

Using 您 inconsistently. The polite form is easy to overuse in a message that mixes it with 你的. Pick one register for the whole message and keep it there.

Leaving the next step vague. A Chinese business email without a specific proposed action tends to go quiet. Closing with a concrete request and a suggested timeframe is not just good manners, it is what makes the message work.

How to practise this before the meeting

None of this needs a formal rehearsal, but it does need a few minutes of deliberate practice. Say the greeting aloud, including your own name and organisation, at the speed you will actually use it. Say the request for a repeat. Write one short follow-up paragraph in Chinese and read it back to yourself.

Ten minutes before the meeting is enough for this, and it is far more useful than a longer session spent on unrelated material.

The point is not to memorise phrases. It is to make sure that when the moment arrives, the words are already available and your attention can stay on the person in front of you rather than on finding the phrase. Learners who do this short rehearsal report that the first meeting feels like a conversation rather than a sequence of translations, and that difference is visible to the other side.

What to do when you do not catch everything

You will not catch everything, and everybody in the room knows it. The most useful skill is asking for a repeat without apologising for it. 请您再说一遍 (qǐng nín zài shuō yí biàn, please say that again) is completely acceptable in a first meeting. A softer version, if you caught most of it, is 对不起，我没听清楚 (duì bu qǐ, wǒ méi tīng qīng chu, sorry, I did not catch that).

The instinct to nod and pretend is the one to resist. It tends to produce a meeting where everyone leaves with a different idea of what was agreed, which is exactly the outcome the small talk exists to prevent.

Business Chinese practice at XINSCHOOL focuses on the spoken register of meetings, phone calls and email, with the cultural context that makes the register make sense. The XINSCHOOL blog collects the conventions behind these openings, from titles to the farewell that closes a Chinese meeting.

Preparing the opening, not just the agenda

Before a first meeting, rehearse three things in Chinese: a greeting that suits the setting, how you will introduce yourself and your organisation, and one question you can ask that opens a conversation without turning into business immediately. That is a small amount of preparation, and it changes how the first ten minutes go.

You may also find it useful to rehearse the two words that do the most work in a Chinese meeting: 我们 (we, our side) and 贵公司 (your company). Using them correctly at the start of a sentence signals that you understand who is speaking to whom, which is the foundation everything else in the meeting rests on.

FAQ

What is the usual order of a first business meeting in Chinese? Greeting first, then names and titles, then a mention of position or organisation, and often a short piece of small talk. The business itself usually comes after that sequence rather than at the opening.

Should I use my first name with Chinese business partners? Wait to be offered it. In a first meeting, address people by surname and title. If a host switches to first names, that is the signal that the relationship is shifting, and you can follow their lead rather than guessing.

How formal should the language be? Formal in structure and neutral in tone. Everyday vocabulary is completely fine, but keep the polite forms and avoid slang in the opening. The register that reads as professional is the one that avoids too much familiarity too early.

What if I do not understand everything said in the small talk? This is normal in a first meeting, where the small talk often moves quickly. A simple request to repeat, in Chinese, is a better move than silence. Asking 请您再说一遍 (please say that again) is entirely acceptable in a first meeting with a new partner.

The first ten minutes decide the rest

Chinese business meetings reward the same thing that most business cultures do: preparation, clear introductions and respectful attention to other people. The difference is that the order is fixed, and the way in is through language that acknowledges the other side. Learn the opening, and the rest of the meeting has a much better chance of going well.

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常见问题（FAQ）

Q1: What is the usual order of a first business meeting in Chinese?
Greeting first, then names and titles, then a mention of position or organisation, and often a short piece of small talk. The business itself usually comes after that sequence rather than at the opening.

Q2: Should I use my first name with Chinese business partners?
Wait to be offered it. In a first meeting, address people by surname and title. If a host switches to first names, that is the signal that the relationship is shifting, and you can follow their lead rather than guessing.

Q3: How formal should the language be?
Formal in structure and neutral in tone. Everyday vocabulary is completely fine, but keep the polite forms and avoid slang in the opening. The register that reads as professional is the one that avoids too much familiarity too early.

Q4: What if I do not understand everything said in the small talk?
This is normal in a first meeting, where the small talk often moves quickly. A simple request to repeat, in Chinese, is a better move than silence. Asking 请您再说一遍 (please say that again) is entirely acceptable in a first meeting with a new partner.