 time you made a compromise. Anyone with a toddler knows how difficult a compromise can be. But it's just with toddlers and surely should be better with adults, right? Not at all. And that's why my whole thesis is about how Chinese managers do business in Papua New Guinea using compromise. If you watch the news, you might think Chinese company operating in Papua New Guinea the same way they do in China. Dominating the people they improve is leaving no space for compromise. My thesis asks, is this really what happens on the ground? I am an anthropologist studying how Chinese and Papua New Guinea staff work together in the Chinese NECO processing plant. During 14 months of field work, I talked directly to two groups of employees documenting how they learn to compromise after years of misunderstanding and conflict. The situation in the workplace was very similar to soldiers on the battlefield who reach a stalemate. Neither side could win, so both sides were forced to find a solution to stop fighting. Imagine me, a Taiwanese man standing on no man's land trying to collect stories from the two sides. This project was not easy. Chinese multinational companies tend to treat employees differently than those in Australia or in Papua New Guinea because they expect workers to endure hardship and work long hours. But this approach doesn't work with Papua New Guinea staff because they are familiar with Australian standards around workplace safety and formal training. Papua New Guinea personnel were also not as downtrodden or powerless as media stories might make you think. I saw Chinese managers were forced to compromise and provide proper workplace training and rules. I also found Papua New Guinea staff were adaptable and resourceful in managing conflict with Chinese managers. I'm not sure how life might change in a factory in the future, but these lessons around compromise are valuable to us all since we are facing a more interconnected and cross-cultural world.