Many Cultures in the Pacific Rim

Businesses must learn to respond to the diversity of “Pacific Rim peoples” if they are to be successful in selling their products in the various Asian communities, said business owner Lilly Lee, chairman of the United Way’s Asian Pacific Research & Development Council.

“The lesson to be learned is, there’s no such thing as the Asian community--there’s the Japanese community, the Korean community, the Chinese community” and other groups, Lee said in discussing a recent study by the United Way of Asian and Pacific Islander communities in Southern California.

Mainstream business has done a poor job penetrating many of the Asian communities, said Lee, who owns a real estate management, syndication and development firm in Beverly Hills.

“I don’t think anyone has realized the potential of this market,” she said, because the Asian communities have been under-counted in recent censuses. “It’s a young market, it’s a growing market, it’s a family-oriented market,” she said.

The Asian population has grown rapidly during the last decade and the demographics are changing as thousands of new immigrants, many of them refugees, arrive from such countries as Vietnam and Cambodia, Lee said. In addition, recent immigrants are vastly different from Americans of Asian descent.

Cultural differences crop up frequently. In advertising, for example, when the phrase “We’re No. 1” is used, Lee said, it is considered boastful in many Asian communities and “then there’s not a lot of credibility to your product.” Koreans are “direct communicators” who ask lots of questions but often will not look another person in the eye, she said, which can create problems in business if the non-Asian business person is not aware of the difference.

Vietnamese, on the other hand, are much more indirect and might be offended by close questioning, she said.

“It goes both ways,” Lee said. “There has to be cultural sensitivity from Asians to American culture and vice versa if both are to survive.”