22
THE PROPOSAL

On one of my more interesting business trips, I was part of a negotiation in China for a couple of weeks. Over the course of the meetings, the near-retirement leader of the customer's team would pop in and out to interject, insist on various things and then all of a sudden be super nice to our team. He was a bit unpredictable albeit usually pleasant and took a keen interest in me that became worse as the days went by. He would call me his young old friend and also compliment my competence and looks. I was travelling with all men as usual and didn’t count on them even noticing the awkward situation with the client.
Fast forward to the end of the business trip, we went to dinner with both negotiation teams and sat at a giant circular table. I ended up directly across from the customer’s leader and unsuccessfully tried to hide behind the centrepiece as much as possible. He then proceeded to ask my local colleague to translate for him and ask if I was married. Since the answer was no, he then proceeded to mention that he knew many successful businessmen that he could introduce to me. Naturally, he assumed it would be a huge honour for me to stay in a small Chinese city and end up in a real-life horror version of a matchmaking show. Isn’t it every young professional’s dream to be set up with decades-older businessmen with ties to the Communist Party? I think not.
His sales pitch continued intermittently over the course of the long dinner with my local colleague happily translating (which added to the awkwardness considerably). I varied my responses from pretending to not understand, to smiling and nodding awkwardly to changing the subject. He was pretty insistent that he could find me someone local yet. It’s a point of pride that I made it through those business meetings, that dinner and back home unmarried!