Our big boss’s age is a big secret!

Earlier this year, my boss’s boss, the VP based in our head office in Singapore came to Beijing for a couple of meetings. One of our clients, a state owned company, wanted to give him a present – something that indicated his animal sign. Well, that equals to asking for one’s age, which is invariably a secret. Both our boss and his assistant happened to be out of the office that day, so I turned to another colleague for help. She texted the boss, but got no reply. Later she told me on skype that it was rooster. “He didn’t reply, but I guessed after asking around for his age. It’s 99.9% correct.” Hmm…the mystery is solved, but cultural differences exist forever.