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Moqi is a commonly understood concept in China, describing a shared, unspoken understanding between two people. Despite its frequent use in daily life, the theoretical exploration of moqi has been limited.

Image courtesy of interviewee. December 15, 2024

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This video video discusses the concept of "mochi," a term used in China to describe a unique, non-verbal form of communication where two people understand each other perfectly through subtle cues or shared experiences. The speaker, who has experience living in both China and the US, observes that this phenomenon is widely recognized in Chinese culture, yet lacks a name or recognition in other cultures. The speaker wants to explore the academic side of mochi and expose it to the broader world.

Mochi involves mutual understanding in specific contexts, which can occur even without trust or favorable feelings toward each other. This video video distinguishes mochi from related concepts like leader-member exchange (LMX), which is based on trust and rewards in the workplace, and implicit coordination, which refers to action-based teamwork without a deep mutual understanding. The author discusses how implicit coordination, mind reading, trust, and rapport differ from mochi.

The concept extends to how cultural communication styles influence the development of mochi, emphasizing indirect communication tendencies in specific cultures that allow for deeper mutual understanding. The speaker also touches on self-construal, explaining the contrast between independent and interdependent self-views and how interdependence may facilitate mochi due to heightened sensitivity to others' behaviors and cues.

The ultimate aim is to highlight the importance of meaningful interactions in developing mochi, suggesting that workplaces could become more efficient and harmonious through this understanding, fostering strong connections between colleagues. Repeated, meaningful interactions are deemed essential for cultivating this phenomenon in any environment.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Concept of 'Mochi'**: Mochi, as described in the video, is a phenomenon where two people communicate and understand each other perfectly without the need for words, often through mutual understanding developed over time through many interactions.

2. **Cultural Observations**: The author notes that while mochi is a widely recognized concept in Chinese culture, similar dynamics exist in the U.S. workplace, yet this understanding is not explicitly named or discussed.

3. **Distinction from Related Constructs**: The video differentiates mochi from other constructs, such as Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and implicit coordination. Whereas LMX focuses on the exchange of rewards and trust in professional relationships, and implicit coordination emphasizes action without verbal communication, mochi focuses on mutual understanding in specific situations regardless of trust.

4. **Role of Communication Styles**: The author highlights that communication styles, such as direct versus indirect communication, significantly influence the formation of mochi. Individuals who are more sensitive to nonverbal cues and implicit meanings are better able to achieve this mutual understanding.

5. **Interdependent Self-Construal**: The concept of interdependent self-construal is introduced, explaining that individuals who see themselves as part of a collective rather than as independent entities are more likely to form deep connections (mochi) because they are attuned to others' needs and nonverbal cues. Repeated meaningful interactions contribute to the development of this understanding, enhancing workplace efficiency and happiness.

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Here are some key quotes extracted from the video that summarize the main ideas and concepts discussed:

1. **Definition of Mochi**:
- "That is when two people can communicate without words, but understanding each other perfectly just by like one look or one sign or something—that mutual understanding is called mochi."

2. **Cultural Observations**:
- "It's interesting because this is such a widely observed phenomenon in China, and people know what mochi is."

3. **Cross-Cultural Comparison**:
- "I thought because I lived in China for a long time and now actually I lived longer in the US than in China... I also observed a similar phenomenon like in the US convideo."

4. **Conceptual Distinctions**:
- "Mochi is something beyond... the workplace; it is after a lot of interactions... you know that, you know, my boss is thinking the same way as I do."

5. **Differences from Related Concepts**:
- "LMX, which is leader member exchange... Over time they develop some kind of trust... but that is not really mochi."

6. **On Implicit Coordination**:
- "Implicit coordination... mainly about action, and coordinated action... it does not mean that you have this mutual understanding."

7. **Mind Reading**:
- "There are a few, like rarely there are a few, some people who have this talent they can read other people's mind... it does not mean that person can also understand what you know."

8. **Trust and Mochi**:
- "Trust might be a consequence of mochi... but not a component of mochi."

9. **Example of Mochi**:
- "Mochi is the mutual understanding about a specific target in a specific situation."

10. **Communication Styles**:
- "Some people are more direct... some people are more indirect... If I'm doing more of that, it's more likely for me to capture what other people... mean."

11. **Interdependent Self Construal**:
- "When we draw a figure, it's like self in the middle... you tend to see yourself as interdependent with other people."

12. **Communication Efficiency**:
- "If that is the case in general, then the workplace will be... a really happy place and also an efficient place."

These quotes encapsulate the central themes of the video, focusing on the idea of mochi, its cultural significance, how it compares to other forms of communication, and its implications in the workplace.

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Is interesting because this is the, such a widely,

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observed phenomenon in China, and people know what mochi is.

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That is when two people can communicate without words,

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but understanding each other perfectly just by like one look

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or one sign or something that, mutual understanding

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and that is called mochi.

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It's named as mochi.

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Um, I thought because I lived in China for a long time

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before I came to the US

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and now actually I lived longer in the US than in China.

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But, but I also observed similar phenomenon like,

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in the US context, right?

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So like me and my friend

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or my colleague in the same department,

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after we had a lot of interactions and so on

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and so forth, I felt there is more cheat between us.

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However, no one talks about this phenomenon, you know?

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So I thought, wow, this is, quite interesting.

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That is something so pervasively known

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to everyone in a culture,

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but no one names it in another culture.

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So, I would like to explore it sort

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of in a academic way, to

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expose this construct to the whole world so

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that later when you find a person that had that kind

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of connection with you, you can name it, it's more cheap,

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similar, the constructs,

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like in my paper we discussed quite a few.

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Um, and you also give me the questions about these.

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So one is called LMX, which is leader member exchange.

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So that is the relationship between leader

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and a member in the workplace.

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So the exchange meaning that they have,

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the, so like the, the workers do their job

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and the leaders praise them and reward them.

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So that's the exchange, right?

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Over time they develop some kind of trust that, you know,

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I know you are a good worker, you always get things done

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and, and the worker knows that once I do that,

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you will reward me.

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But that is not really mochi

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because mochi is something that beyond, first of all,

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beyond the workplace, but be in the workplace.

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It is after a lot of interactions.

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When you, when you deal with a specific

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like a person or a specific incident in a specific

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situation, you, you guys have the mutual understanding.

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You don't even need to communicate with each other.

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And you know that, you know,

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my boss is thinking the same way as I do.

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Uh, so it is,

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and there's not necessarily trust between you,

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it's just like you have the same understanding about the

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same situation, but you know, could be

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you guys don't like each other,

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but you have the same understanding.

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So that is one, construct that is different.

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And another one is we often talk about this

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implicit coordination.

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So implicit coordination, you can imagine

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that in the assembly line, right?

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I do this thing and I move it to you and you do that.

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And, and so it's like mainly by about action

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and coordinated action.

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And you don't need to talk to each other about this

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'cause you have been doing this for so long.

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But it does not mean that you have this mutual understanding

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like in mindset that you have that connection.

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So the moji, there's a connection there.

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The connection is in your mind, you know that person.

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You understand that person

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and you understand the, the situation well.

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So the coordinate implicit coordination is about action,

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mainly about action, not about mindset.

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And another one that's quite interesting is called,

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mind reading.

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You know, so like I can read your mind.

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Uh, in reality I think there are a few,

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like rarely there are a few, some people

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who have this talent

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or this like sixth sense thing,

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they can read other people's mind,

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but it does not mean that person can also understand

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what you know or what you think.

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So there's no mutual understanding. There.

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Trust might be a consequence of mochi

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because we have, you know, so many times

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we reach the same understanding about a specific situation.

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We start to trust each other.

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So it could be an outcome of mochi

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but not a component of mochi

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because rivals can also have mutual understanding about

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a specific situation.

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'cause they have been, you know, interacting

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with each other in the past,

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but does not mean that they trust each other.

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'cause trust is about about being you,

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you, that is like, you know,

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other people have in good intention.

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So you are willing to be vulnerable to another person.

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And that is trust.

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Um, so much is different from trust

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report is oftentimes when when you have a good conversation

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and friendly manner and you have a good report.

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But report does not necessarily mean you have

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the same understanding, contextualize understanding about.

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So I often emphasize this specific situation

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and a specific object or person or target.

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We say in general. So the,

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mochi is the mutual understanding

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or perfect understanding between two people

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about a specific target in a specific situation.

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So for example, like you are my department chair,

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I am the deputy chair, right?

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And we have one, one faculty in our,

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department whose performance is not very good, you know,

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year after year it's not good.

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So the first year it happened, we discussed

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that person's situation

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and we thought we should give a low evaluation

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and we should not give, you know, reward

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and anything like that.

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And we also discuss how to communicate with that person.

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Okay? So this is the first year

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and second year same thing happened again.

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And we don't need to discuss so much more, right?

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Because we know exactly like what we should do

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and how we, look at this, evaluate this person, okay?

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Third year, same thing.

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So for us, you know, between these two department chair

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and deputy chair, they have much about this specific person.

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When that person performs poorly.

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Now if a new situation occurs, it's still about this person,

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but this person did something unethical, okay?

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It's not about bad performance,

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it's about ethicality of the behavior.

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And in that case you don't know,

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like if you are the department chair, you don't know

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what I would react to that.

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So the more she previously we established about

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that person's bad performance would not app automatically

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apply here, but you might guess that what I would think so,

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which needs to be extremely specific,

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which means if we have in one situation does not necessarily

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me or would transfer to another situation that we,

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without communication, we have much to

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how much she would be, based on a lot

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of previous interactions.

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So if we talk about that like, I don't know, Pepsi Cola,

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Coca-Cola, you know, Coca-Cola has this like a new product,

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zero, whatever, you know,

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and Pepsi was like, okay, they come up with this, we need

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to react in certain ways.

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And Coca-Cola probably would think when we promote this

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and they will do certain things,

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so the rivals somehow have this much between them.

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Or when I drop a price or you, you would do what?

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And I will do what, you know, that kind of

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mutual understanding of a situation.

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It means because mochi are composed

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by two Chinese characters, right?

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One is more, more means silent.

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So she means, fit agreement.

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In that case we call, we, we talk about communication style.

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Some people are more direct, straightforward,

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explicit in their communication.

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Some people are, they are more indirect,

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you know, and implicit.

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So for these people, they are more sensitive

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to other people's nonverbal cues in try to understand

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the message that they are are conveying.

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Um, and so if I'm a very direct person,

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I always just talk about what I think

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and explicitly then I tend to less likely

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to pay attention to people's these nonverbal cues.

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So if you, you are used to communicate

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with other people using words only

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or mostly words, then it's it's less likely

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for you to warm more chew with another person

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because more needs to be silent, no words.

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So implicitness, it's a, a similar meaning.

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Implicit meaning the meaning of implicitness is

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that I do not say things in a way that

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explicitly reflect what I mean,

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but I say it in a way in a,

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like sometimes I use more abstract words

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or some vague words.

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So you guess, right?

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That kind of, so we, we call

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that like high context communication.

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Um, if I'm used to that, then again it's the same thing.

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I'm more likely to guess what other people actually mean

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behind their words.

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So if I'm doing more of that, it's more likely for me

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to capture what other people,

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when they are not even saying things like their,

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nonverbal expressions and so on

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and so forth to say, Hmm, now I understand that person

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actually that person thinks this way and that way.

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That's, that's why we are, talking about

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that in person is indirectness in a person's communication

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style is more likely

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to facilitate more g formation.

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How about interdependent self construal influence?

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Yeah, so the interdependent, constru self constru,

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it's a more, a little bit more complex construct.

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So ba basically in psychology, we study a lot of,

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a lot of things we study is about self.

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One important thing is how people define themselves, right?

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How do you define yourself?

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So one type of self, we call it independent self,

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is that I define myself as an independent entity,

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although I have interactions with other people

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and other peoples have different views

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and evaluations of me, but I know who I am

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and I know I have a lot of,

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distinguished characteristics that other people don't have,

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but I have and I'm proud of them

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and I don't want to seek commonality

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between me and other people.

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I want seek uniqueness.

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So that's called independent self constru.

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Then the interdependent self constru is a little bit the,

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sort of the opposite.

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That is when these people view their relationship

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with others, they see themselves as a part of the collective

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or as an in interdependent,

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they are interdependent with other people.

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So when we draw a figure, it's like self in the middle.

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And then all other people, like your parents, your friends,

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your colleagues, they are all interact with you.

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So part of them also enter into your own self definition.

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So in that case, you tend to see yourself

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as interdependent with other people,

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inseparable from other people.

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So in that case, you will pay more attention to

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what other people do and how other people see you

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because how they view you

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and evaluate you, you'll also enter yourself definition

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like who you are.

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So when you are more sensitive to other people's,

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not just words but also nonverbal cues in reaction

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to your behavior, you are more likely to

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form more achieve

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because you pay attention to these nonverbal cues more.

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It, it will be so fantastic if all workers

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have merged between themselves

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or they are like working partners, right?

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Because that way you don't have

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to explain everything in detail in words,

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and you just say this

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and people immediately understand that is

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communication efficiency, you know, with little words, yes,

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people understand perfectly

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and if you sometimes it it sort of reflects in a way

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that when I say something I couldn't explain clearly,

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but my colleague would immediately like, continue my,

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what I was saying

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and like articulate in such a fantastic way that I was like,

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my God, you really know what I'm thinking.

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So that kind of mochi

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and, if, if that is the, the case in general,

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then the workplace will be I think a really happy place

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and also efficient place to reach this

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really wonderful stage of mochi.

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People need to have a lot of interactions.

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We call it repeated interactions

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between you and your colleagues.

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And these repeated interactions should be

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meaningful interactions.

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Not just say, hi, how are you? And that's it.

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No, you talk about deep stuff.

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You, you self expose and you talk about your experiences

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and you also listen to other people's experiences,

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not only about work, but maybe also about life.

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And so the mixture of work and life

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and that sharing between you

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and your colleague will help you a great deal to reach

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that stage of mochi.

Exploring Mochi: A Phenomenon of Silent Understanding Across Cultures

00:00:00 - Is interesting because this is the, such a widely, observed phenomenon in China, and people know what mochi is. That is when two people can communicate without words, but understanding each other perfectly just by like one look or one sign or something that, mutual understanding and that is called mochi. It's named as mochi. I thought because I lived in China for a long time

00:00:33 - and now actually I lived longer in the US than in China. But, but I also observed similar phenomenon like, in the US context, right? So like me and my friend or my colleague in the same department, after we had a lot of interactions and so on and so forth, I felt there is more cheat between us. However, no one talks about this phenomenon, you know? So I thought, wow, this is, quite interesting.

00:01:07 - to everyone in a culture, but no one names it in another culture. So, I would like to explore it sort of in a academic way, to expose this construct to the whole world so that later when you find a person that had that kind of connection with you, you can name it, it's more cheap, similar, the constructs, like in my paper we discussed quite a few.

Understanding Mochi: Beyond Leader-Member Exchange

00:01:39 - So one is called LMX, which is leader member exchange. So that is the relationship between leader and a member in the workplace. So the exchange meaning that they have, the, so like the, the workers do their job and the leaders praise them and reward them. So that's the exchange, right? Over time they develop some kind of trust that, you know,

00:02:10 - and, and the worker knows that once I do that, you will reward me. But that is not really mochi because mochi is something that beyond, first of all, beyond the workplace, but be in the workplace. It is after a lot of interactions. When you, when you deal with a specific like a person or a specific incident in a specific

00:02:42 - You don't even need to communicate with each other. And you know that, you know, my boss is thinking the same way as I do. so it is, and there's not necessarily trust between you, it's just like you have the same understanding about the same situation, but you know, could be you guys don't like each other, but you have the same understanding. So that is one, construct that is different.

Understanding Implicit Coordination and the Concept of Mochi

00:03:12 - implicit coordination. So implicit coordination, you can imagine that in the assembly line, right? I do this thing and I move it to you and you do that. And, and so it's like mainly by about action and coordinated action. And you don't need to talk to each other about this 'cause you have been doing this for so long. But it does not mean that you have this mutual understanding like in mindset that you have that connection. So the moji, there's a connection there.

00:03:44 - You understand that person and you understand the, the situation well. So the coordinate implicit coordination is about action, mainly about action, not about mindset. And another one that's quite interesting is called, mind reading. You know, so like I can read your mind. in reality I think there are a few, like rarely there are a few, some people who have this talent

00:04:13 - they can read other people's mind, but it does not mean that person can also understand what you know or what you think. So there's no mutual understanding. There. Trust might be a consequence of mochi because we have, you know, so many times we reach the same understanding about a specific situation. We start to trust each other. So it could be an outcome of mochi but not a component of mochi

Understanding Mochi: Beyond Trust in Interpersonal Dynamics

00:04:47 - a specific situation. 'cause they have been, you know, interacting with each other in the past, but does not mean that they trust each other. 'cause trust is about about being you, you, that is like, you know, other people have in good intention. So you are willing to be vulnerable to another person. And that is trust. so much is different from trust

00:05:19 - and friendly manner and you have a good report. But report does not necessarily mean you have the same understanding, contextualize understanding about. So I often emphasize this specific situation and a specific object or person or target. We say in general. So the, mochi is the mutual understanding

00:05:48 - about a specific target in a specific situation. So for example, like you are my department chair, I am the deputy chair, right? And we have one, one faculty in our, department whose performance is not very good, you know, year after year it's not good. So the first year it happened, we discussed that person's situation and we thought we should give a low evaluation

Understanding Mutual Evaluation in Professional Contexts

00:06:17 - and anything like that. And we also discuss how to communicate with that person. Okay? So this is the first year and second year same thing happened again. And we don't need to discuss so much more, right? Because we know exactly like what we should do and how we, look at this, evaluate this person, okay? Third year, same thing. So for us, you know, between these two department chair and deputy chair, they have much about this specific person. When that person performs poorly.

00:06:50 - but this person did something unethical, okay? It's not about bad performance, it's about ethicality of the behavior. And in that case you don't know, like if you are the department chair, you don't know what I would react to that. So the more she previously we established about that person's bad performance would not app automatically apply here, but you might guess that what I would think so,

00:07:22 - which means if we have in one situation does not necessarily me or would transfer to another situation that we, without communication, we have much to how much she would be, based on a lot of previous interactions. So if we talk about that like, I don't know, Pepsi Cola, Coca-Cola, you know, Coca-Cola has this like a new product, zero, whatever, you know,

Understanding Mochi: Communication Styles and Mutual Awareness

00:07:54 - to react in certain ways. And Coca-Cola probably would think when we promote this and they will do certain things, so the rivals somehow have this much between them. Or when I drop a price or you, you would do what? And I will do what, you know, that kind of mutual understanding of a situation. It means because mochi are composed

00:08:24 - One is more, more means silent. So she means, fit agreement. In that case we call, we, we talk about communication style. Some people are more direct, straightforward, explicit in their communication. Some people are, they are more indirect, you know, and implicit. So for these people, they are more sensitive to other people's nonverbal cues in try to understand

00:08:56 - and so if I'm a very direct person, I always just talk about what I think and explicitly then I tend to less likely to pay attention to people's these nonverbal cues. So if you, you are used to communicate with other people using words only or mostly words, then it's it's less likely for you to warm more chew with another person

Understanding Implicit Communication and Interdependence

00:09:31 - So implicitness, it's a, a similar meaning. Implicit meaning the meaning of implicitness is that I do not say things in a way that explicitly reflect what I mean, but I say it in a way in a, like sometimes I use more abstract words or some vague words. So you guess, right? That kind of, so we, we call

00:10:00 - if I'm used to that, then again it's the same thing. I'm more likely to guess what other people actually mean behind their words. So if I'm doing more of that, it's more likely for me to capture what other people, when they are not even saying things like their, nonverbal expressions and so on and so forth to say, Hmm, now I understand that person

00:10:32 - That's, that's why we are, talking about that in person is indirectness in a person's communication style is more likely to facilitate more g formation. How about interdependent self construal influence? Yeah, so the interdependent, constru self constru, it's a more, a little bit more complex construct. So ba basically in psychology, we study a lot of,

Understanding Independent vs. Interdependent Self-Concepts

00:11:04 - One important thing is how people define themselves, right? How do you define yourself? So one type of self, we call it independent self, is that I define myself as an independent entity, although I have interactions with other people and other peoples have different views and evaluations of me, but I know who I am and I know I have a lot of, distinguished characteristics that other people don't have,

00:11:37 - and I don't want to seek commonality between me and other people. I want seek uniqueness. So that's called independent self constru. Then the interdependent self constru is a little bit the, sort of the opposite. That is when these people view their relationship with others, they see themselves as a part of the collective or as an in interdependent,

00:12:08 - So when we draw a figure, it's like self in the middle. And then all other people, like your parents, your friends, your colleagues, they are all interact with you. So part of them also enter into your own self definition. So in that case, you tend to see yourself as interdependent with other people, inseparable from other people.

Enhancing Workplace Communication through Mutual Understanding

00:12:38 - what other people do and how other people see you because how they view you and evaluate you, you'll also enter yourself definition like who you are. So when you are more sensitive to other people's, not just words but also nonverbal cues in reaction to your behavior, you are more likely to form more achieve because you pay attention to these nonverbal cues more. It, it will be so fantastic if all workers

00:13:12 - or they are like working partners, right? Because that way you don't have to explain everything in detail in words, and you just say this and people immediately understand that is communication efficiency, you know, with little words, yes, people understand perfectly and if you sometimes it it sort of reflects in a way that when I say something I couldn't explain clearly, but my colleague would immediately like, continue my,

00:13:45 - and like articulate in such a fantastic way that I was like, my God, you really know what I'm thinking. So that kind of mochi and, if, if that is the, the case in general, then the workplace will be I think a really happy place and also efficient place to reach this really wonderful stage of mochi. People need to have a lot of interactions. We call it repeated interactions

Meaningful Interactions: The Key to Deep Connections

00:14:18 - And these repeated interactions should be meaningful interactions. Not just say, hi, how are you? And that's it. No, you talk about deep stuff. You, you self expose and you talk about your experiences and you also listen to other people's experiences, not only about work, but maybe also about life. And so the mixture of work and life and that sharing between you and your colleague will help you a great deal to reach

00:14:46 -

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