I’ve been in Asia for a year now and I still don’t get the double handed business card pass. When an Asian does business in the UK, I don’t see them in bowler hats and tails with a James Smith cane or umbrella. Only James Bond villains dress like that. So I have to assume that any gwei lo in Asia bending over at the waist and proferring their business card like some sacred offering must be some kind of villain.
Its also highly impractical. In a large group I tend to deal my cards out like a croupier at the Rendezvous Club. In smaller groups I use a single hand exchange where I deliver between thumb and index and receive between index and mid. The counterparty can symmetrically engage. Its quick and efficient. If everyone in the room practices the double handed delivery we’d take all day to exchange business cards. And if we also have to bow, the likelihood is that the taller gwei lo is going to head butt the oriental on the way down. In my book assaulting a counterparty is not a good start to a business relationship.