u.s. and china

i'm reading a book right now about the great famine in china. and it got me to thinking about the differences between the american and chinese zeitgeist. the chinese govt (as it stands) could never shut down because the chinese are into collectivism whereas americans believe very strongly in individualism and therefore a govt shutdown is seen as a viable choice.

even outside of our political systems, our cultures tends towards these philosophies (and thus we "chose" our form of government).

lifestyle: independent vs dependent

there is no shame in lack of cooporation in america. if you know the other guy is wrong, you should stand your ground no matter what. forget that you may not have facts to back you up [creationism] or that this really isn't a right or wrong situation anyway [gay marriage], or none of your business [abortion], you shouldn't give in to the other side when you know you're right.

the boss

the chinese, on the other hand, don't really believe in that. they tend not to challenge the opposition [you have to respect your elders]. you shouldn't try to convince the other person that they're wrong. you should just agree with them and then do your own thing [probably why bribery, corruption, and cheating are bigger problems there than here].

problem solving

on a kind of separate topic. i never realized how much the chinese culture changed because of the great famine (and i assume the cultural revolution, etc). i know very little about chinese history. it's mostly what we learned in school (so, basically, nothing) and a few random things i picked up. this book, while not a total surprise, has certainly educated me about china and maybe why it is the way it is today. it's a good read, tho definitely hard to stomach at times (the author writes that 45million people died within the four years of the famine). i want to eventually read more about the cultural revolution and communist takeover in china. it's interesting to me, not only because i'm chinese and go to china every once in a while, but also because china seems like such a weird place sometimes. with the occasional news articles about the country, it's hard not to think of them as barbaric at times (milk scandal, smog, heartlessness, pollution...) [not to say that america is any better. we have really ridiculous and crazy shit going on here too], which is a bit hard for me to understand considering all the amazing wonderful civilized things from before.

infographics are by yang liu and in a series titled east vs west