Every place in this world has a distinct culture, and each one determines people’s unique perspectives and methodologies while providing an identity of it. A mixture of those distinctions is involved during every day’s work and often creates disagreements and conflicts. While China is on its way to globalization, there are more and more of them between Chinese and people from all over the world. In this article, I will list some most well-known but the easiest forgotten characteristics between the cultures of Chinese and common Western’s.
1. Privacy
There is no need to mention how important of the privacy for westerners. Certain topics are avoided in every day’s conversations, like ages, marriage, incomes, work, living places, religions and political perspectives. Also, it would be rude if you look someone’s work furtively from his back while he is concentrating on it, or even that person is just reading a newspaper. People prefer to leave some spaces for others to avoid been felt offended or lack of privacy.
The situation in China is almost the same when two are not very familiar, such as they haven’t known each other for a long time or only contact in formal situations, to avoid awkwardness. Things are totally different when the relationship is getting better. Talking about personal life in Chinese is a sign of good relationship to some extent, and some prefer to use these to detect how good a connection is between peers. The problem is worse between two generations if the younger one doesn’t accept this traditional idea. Elders usually ask questions, directly, that are very personal and can up to the sexual activities, to show their concerns.
If you’re uncomfortable about the question being asked, you can simply say it in a polite way, this also applies in China.
2. Suggestions/advices
We all give or are given suggestions or pieces of advice, but the main difference here is how people will give their suggestions or advice to you. The western way if often more indirect and give the listener some room to show what is his thought to respect his independence. So you probably won’t hear your friend telling you something like a commander, even you’re very close friends.
On the other hand, Chinese are more direct by giving what they are thinking about your problem or question. Words like should/shouldn’t, do/don’t, are very common in this context, leading some foreigners to feel been offended. The idea behind this is they are trying to show their concerns by giving you what they will do under the same circumstances. So there’s no need to think they’re trying to command you, take it easy.
3. Time
Westerns usually show a strong sense of time, and also a clear separation between work and like. An appointment is always preferred before visiting your friends, colleagues or neighbors and a sudden drop by will disturb them. Additionally, the separation makes people focus on activities in different periods. So it would be a bad idea for you to talk about too much work in after-work time, and vice versa.
We Chinese prefer to do things without concerns of the time. People tend to be late for things, especially who are in a higher position, and do whatever they want no matter what the time is. Though there’s clear trend that more and more people who have bachelor degrees or higher prefer to strictly follow arrangements, it also would be naive to consider elders to follow this.
4. Attitude to praises
The traditional Chinese culture is reserved and doesn’t in favor of personal differences, no matter it is good or bad. People try to follow the mainstream in their contexts. Showing any difference would be criticised about 30–40 years ago, and still won’t be favored in traditional companies and cities. A praise breaks this homogeneity, so responses of a praise intend to make it subtle and also show some honesty. Sometimes they even use self-abasement to show it.
This definitely has given a huge drawback when in a multi-cultural company where the Chinese culture doesn’t dominate and well understood, leading more and more Chinese failed to achieve positions equal to their performances and leaving people outside China have misaligned impressions. Luckily, China has a huge scale of economy to absorb those talents.
5. Presents
Though both westerns and Chinese like to give and receive presents to or from their family members, friends, the attitudes, and perspectives are totally different. For value, westerns pay attention to the initiatives of givers rather than focusing on the actual value or usability. Small and simple ones are enough. In China, people are more willing to evaluate the value of them, the reason behind it is that the better a relationship is, the more valuable a present will be.
For ways of giving presents, there is a clear difference. Westerns prefer to open gifts right after receiving them and show how they like the presents. Fail to do so will often be considered as that the receivers don’t like presents. Chinese don’t like to open them in front of people who give them since all know that the value represents how close their relationship is. Awkward occurs when the value doesn’t match expectations, especially significantly lower. Also, opening gifts shows that the receiver can’t wait to know the value of the presents, which is considered rude in China.
All in all, differences are everywhere, even between cities and provinces inside China. People currently prefer to judge or even prejudge others by their backgrounds using criteria of themselves. There’s no set way of solving these issues, and understanding and be always open to accept different things may be the best way. I am in favor of known customs and cultures before traveling to a different place, and then gradually getting better and better.
What are other differences between Chinese and Western cultures you think are distinct, please leave them in the comment.
