The Collective Culture versus Individualism – 1/5

September 1, 2010

I’ve noticed while taking part in virtual debates and from comments here that some Westerners from individualist cultures don’t understand what a collective culture is, and he or she appears to hate what they don’t understand.

It might surprise many in the West that China is not the only country with a collectivist culture.

Along with China, one list I saw had Argentina, Brazil, Vietnam, Egypt, Greece, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Scandinavia and Portugal on it.

For individualist cultures, there was Canada, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and the United States.

In Chinese society, collectivism has a long tradition based on Confucianism, where being a community man or someone with a social personality is valued.

In a collective society such as China, each person is encouraged to conform to society, to do what is best for the group and to not openly express opinions or beliefs that go against it.

Group, family or rights for the common good are seen as more important than the rights of the individual. Laws exist to promote stability, order and obedience.

Working with others and cooperating is the norm.  Being uncooperative is often seen as shameful. Source: Psychology – Collectivist and Individualist Cultures

Discover Cultural Differences and China’s Changing Legal System or go to Collective Culture versus Individualism – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the lusty love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

#1 - Joanna Daneman review posted June 19 2014

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Shang Dynasty (1766 – 1122 B.C.) 2/3

August 31, 2010

The excavations of several rammed earth palace foundations at Xin Xu revealed the Shang Dynasty was a highly developed slave society.

The most valuable discovery was oracle bones, the evidence of China’s earliest writing system.

Tortoise shells, due to their hardness and longevity, were used for the oracle inscriptions.   However, tortoise shells were not the only material.  Animal bones were also inscribed.

The inscriptions carved into bones and tortoise shells were questions to the high God Shang Di, lesser gods and ancestors. 

These questions were on issues that concerned the dynasty such as harvests, childbirth, and from everyday advice to military campaigns.

Oracle bones, also known as dragon bones, were often ground into powder and used in Chinese medicines, which explains why oracle bones were also a myth at one time.

What makes the oracle bones important today is the script carved into the shells or bones—the roots of the Chinese writing system.

The Chinese writing system is the only language that still uses the same methods used more than three thousand years ago. The narrator of the video explains briefly how Chinese characters evolved.

See The Han Dynasty

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Discrimination Against the Chinese in America

August 30, 2010

The first major wave of Chinese immigrants came to the US after the California gold rush of 1849.

Then in 1882, The Chinese Exclusion Act formalized an ugly American prejudice.  In fact, there are still Americans who feel this way evidenced by a few comments left on this Blog. However, we are fortunate that more Americans appear open minded and accepting than those who do not feel that way.

This act stayed in effect de facto until 1965, when racist provisions of U.S. immigration law were removed during the Civil Rights era, liberalizing immigration by all non-European groups.

Most of these Chinese immigrants worked hard in industries like railroads, mines and canneries.  The Chinese were willing to work for lower wages than European immigrants were demanding.

When there were labor strikes, companies often used Chinese workers as strikebreakers.  This led to hate among European immigrants and demands that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese laborers from entering the US.

This was the first time the US passed a law to bar a specific race or ethnicity from entering the country. Source: Tenement Museum

See Cultural Differences and the Ignorant American

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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The “What If” Housing Bubble in China

August 29, 2010

Charles Hugh Smith writes for the Daily Finance and claims that China’s Housing Bubble Will End Badly.

That’s not going to happen for several reasons. The first reason is that China’s economy does not depend on the housing market to survive. Most people in China still don’t own their homes even in the cities.

In the US, housing loans to GDP were 79% but in China, that number is about 15%, which means real estate in China doesn’t prop up the economy.

Let’s look at one fictional individual who loses his job in China and can’t make his mortgage payment.

If he always lived in the city and has family (even distant relations), he will move in with them and rent his home to make the payments. The family may even pitch in so he doesn’t lose the home.

If that fictional Chinese man came to the city to work from a village, he returns home.  The peasants in rural China don’t have to worry about losing those homes.  In fact, it’s as if China had two economies: rural and urban.

If the government needs to develop the land the peasant’s home sits on, a new home is provided. More than seven hundred million Chinese live in villages owned by collectives and the central government. Those peasants don’t have a mortgage payment, pay rent or property tax.

Even in urban China, people only pay property tax once when they buy the home they live in.  Property tax for your home isn’t an annual burden as in the US.

Another factor is that the average savings rate in China is 40% and the wealthiest Chinese own about 40% of urban real estate.

See Betting Against China’s Housing Market

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Growing Private Education in China

August 28, 2010

Here is another sign that China is evolving. During the Tiananmen Square incident, it was reported that Deng Xiaoping said that China wanted to become a democracy but the people were not ready and education was the key—not just for a handful of elites but also for as many people as possible.

If you still want proof that China is moving toward change without a bloody rebellion, read the East Asia Forum about the growth of private universities in China and India.

The East Asia Forum says, “First, both countries are used to seeing the public sector as the sole provider of education services. Their higher education architecture has evolved consistently with such a monopoly.”

However, in September 2003, China invited foreign universities to set up shop in China.  India made a similar invitation in 2010.

It isn’t easy for foreign universities to open campuses in China since the culture is different from the US or Europe. The East Asia Forum advises that foreign providers for higher education must be patient and persuasive.  They point out early successes like the University of Nottingham in Ningbo, China and the Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University.

If a successful transition takes place, one day there may by a Stanford Shanghai University or a Beijing Harvard campus. Someone must open the door to a better understanding between cultures.

Learn more about China Investing BIG in Education

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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