Chinese business cards and job titles explained

In English, using someone's first name is a friendly move — it closes distance. In a Chinese office it does the opposite: given names are for family, partners and childhood friends, so "Hi, David!" to a company's general manager reads either as childish or as a small claim to an intimacy you have not earned.

The normal register between colleagues, even ones who like each other, is surname + title. 王大伟 is 王总 to his staff and 王总 to you. Note the order: the surname comes first in a Chinese name, so the title attaches to the first syllable, not the last.

One rule covers the uncertainty: round up. Calling a general manager 经理 diminishes them in front of their own team. Calling a manager 总 is a small, easily forgiven flattery.

Don't know the title? Ask: 您怎么称呼？ (nín zěnme chēnghu) — “what should I call you?” It is a polite, entirely normal question.

1. Stand up. Cards are not slid across a table.
2. Present with both hands, holding the top corners, with the Chinese side facing the recipient so they can read it as it arrives.
3. Receive with both hands as well, and take the other person's card before you look away.
4. Read it. Two or three seconds, genuinely looking. This pause is the ritual — it is the moment of respect, and skipping it is what people notice.
5. Place it on the table in front of you, in the order people are sitting. It doubles as a seating plan for the meeting, and it signals you are still paying attention to who they are.
6. Never write on it in front of them, fold it, or put it in a back pocket.

Start with the most senior person in the room and work down. If you genuinely cannot tell who that is, following your host's lead is the safest possible move.

• An English-only card. It costs nothing to print a Chinese side, and its absence quietly says the trip was not prepared for.
• A machine-translated job title. Get a fluent speaker to check it. "Vice President of Growth" produces some memorable results otherwise.
• Running out of cards. They are exchanged with everyone in the room, not just the person you came to see. Bring three times what you think you need.
• Taking a card one-handed while still talking. The two seconds of silence are the point.
• Using a given name because they used yours. They are accommodating your convention; that is not an invitation to drop theirs.

What if my counterpart has an English name?

Many Chinese professionals adopt one specifically to make life easier for foreign colleagues, and using it is fine — that is what it is for. But use it the way they introduce it, and keep the surname-plus-title form for anyone more senior, and in front of their own staff.

Are paper business cards still used in China?

Yes, alongside WeChat. The card is exchanged in the room, the relationship then lives in the chat — so do both: take the card, then scan each other's QR code before you leave. See WeChat and staying in touch.

Do I use titles in emails too?

Yes. 王总，您好： is the standard opening line of a Chinese business email, and the same form works in an English email to a Chinese counterpart. It reads as considered, not stiff.