Two cultures

Driving in China can be "a big mess", he says, adding that he took up driving to gain freedom. He isn't bothered by the constant cutting off of other vehicles and pedestrians because he realizes "it's live and let live".

While both Chinese and Israeli culture emphasis education, Israelis tend to think "out of the box", and Chinese are more "disciplined and organized, putting everything in their own shells".

"These qualities come in handy when we have a company that must be innovative but also requires mass production. But life is analog, not digital, so we should not be blinded by these generalizations," he qualifies.

"The necessity of the Chinese people to always move in a group," Hurvits has noticed, "means they rarely challenge you, be it an authority or a law of physics."

When his Chinese colleagues don't agree with him, they'll tell themselves, "He is a foreigner", a magic word that seems to justify all responses, he says, adding that there's a lack of equality in such an attitude. "They are either looking up or looking down."

But he finds ways to bring balance within his team.

Outside of work, Hurvits loves to travel. He has mastered the subtlety of the Cantonese morning tea, which eludes not only foreigners but most Chinese outside the Pearl River Delta. "The dim sum in the US never tastes like the one here," he says. "I always say, 'Don't eat Western food in Zhuhai. Eat Chinese instead'."

Yang Yang contributed to this story.

(China Daily 04/17/2015 page21)