“My post was meant to fight ignorance. Indeed, the views are those expressed by the artist.”
Fair enough. As I said, I don’t believe you meant any malice.
However, I’m sure there’s a level of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the author’s intent. Especially if they were possibly meant to be tongue in cheek or over generalizations. It’s like hearing a joke and thinking it’s absolutely true.
Fair enough, I accept that view and possibility of misunderstanding.
Right. The “Middle East” is West Asia after all.
LOL! Like my parents, I’m super nice to those I like, but completely ignore those I don’t! And yes, I’m an a-hole because I’ll make it obvious who I like and who I don’t! I like you, everything is YES! I don’t like you and everything is NO!
I wonder whether this list is more stereotyping, as opposed to what some call “archetyping”. Whereas stereotyping is done from outside the group, and can easily be derogatory as well as inaccurate, archetyping describes tendencies from a within-group perspective. Comments like “more reluctance to speak the truth” and related mentions about social harmony stood out to me. In an archetypal list I saw relating to African-Americans, there was a prominent item that ran in the opposite direction, the inclination to speak difficult truths rather than hiding the truth just to smooth feelings. IIRC this was described as having come from cultures in Africa and persisting through the slavery period in the US. I like the idea that the group choosing a restaurant would thereby accomplish going to the one most liked by the group.
The title of the book is “East” but it is fairly clear she is discussing a view of China (as the book includes the Chinese words). Maybe the original material is better since they might be open to a little interpretation. I wanted to avoid copyright issues, but permission is claimed.
And, for the sake of completeness, the first book I read.
Re : breaking up with one’s non-Chinese partner to marry a fellow-Chinese, per advice of one’s parents. The blatant racist sentiment is explained away as being overly respectful of one’s parents. Besides, you don’t get to inherit the family fortune if you disobey.
I know just about zero about Asian culture. But what you describe here is also very much NYC culture. At least compared to the culture in the other US good-sized cities.
I suggest it’s simply a reaction to population density. Both at the individual and at the cultural level.
I think there’s generalizations of both Westerners and Easterners. I’m not sure it rises to the level of racism, but I could see offense being taken. Depending on who considers what behavior to be virtuous.
Readers may enjoy EvaComics: I can’t find much online (maybe facebook?), but there is a selection here:
I Show The Cultural Differences Between Japan And Other Countries (30 Pics) | Bored Panda
and particularly Eva, Kopi and Matcha: Neo, Evangeline: 9789810910686: Amazon.com: Books, where she explores (in 2 or 4 frames) the differences between Japan and Singapore. Hint: after visiting Japan, it was a relief to me to be back in Singapore, where no-one is more polite than I am.
The Malaysia/Singapore Chinese I am related to, talk about money by talking about money. How much did you pay?
The standard disclaimer–as others have posted above: there is no one “Asian culture”. Asia is a mighty big place and there are a lot of different cultures here.
more reluctance to speak the truth
I think this one’s not that accurate. The issue is not a reluctance to speak truth, but rather an issue of who is speaking that truth, to whom, and especially about whom.
networking much more important
This one’s a bit tough, too. In any society, networking is important. A family is a network, after all. I’ve seen outfits in Korea, Japan, and China where you need to always be on the lookout for “connections” and also outfits in the same countries where that does not extend beyond getting the product or service marketed. I’ve seen networking required in the United States, especially in naval aviation–one of the reasons I despised my few years assigned to such a unit. (That short stint actually brought me to hate a sport I loved as a child and young adult, golf. I’m getting back to enjoying golf, now, though not much chance to play.)
inability to queue
Oh, there’s an ability to queue. It’s just not done so often in the more crowded areas, at least in the not so distant past. During my current tenure here in Beijing, I have noticed that the city’s campaign of “Let’s line up in a civilized manner” is working*. A couple of years ago, I saw a guy cut in line to get on a bus and he was physically pushed to the back of the line by the other passengers.
smiling though feeling sad
I don’t think this is specifically something encountered in various places in Asia. I’ve seen–and read in stories–about “embarrassed laughter/smile/etc.” A lot of people are very private and a lot aren’t. Given the population of, say, China, even a small percentage is still a lot of people.
much less cliquishness at parties or with newcomers
This one’s hard to say for me because most parties I’ve been to, even in the US and Germany, were connected with a larger group (military unit, company, church, sports club, etc.) The clique, so to speak, was already the entire guest list at the party.
more respect of seniors
Utter malarkey. The level of respect for seniors runs the gamut from appreciating them and their supposed wisdom to feeling agrieved having to deal with or support them. This seems to be the same people feeling the same way as those I’ve encountered outside of Asia.
similar ideals of beauty
It’s kind of a given that if a society is composed of, say 100% black-haired people, that society is going to consider black hair to be classically beautiful, isn’t it?
going “around”, not “through” problems
I’ve no idea what that is supposed to mean. If it means not addressing problems directly, that’s not the case. There may be, just like anywhere else, a tendency to treat the symptoms and not find out why the problem existed in the first place.
talking about money by emphasizing relationships
?
counting by bending, not extending, fingers
Hah! I’m still trying, after over 40 years exposure to this, to do the Korean finger counting for one through five by holding out all five fingers on one hand and then bend the fingers one by one to the palm of that hand–and here’s the hard part–starting with the pinky and not even moving the other fingers at all when you bend one finger.
sleeping with the windows closed
I’m in constant conflict with people who insist on sleeping with the window open because either “the stale air is bad for you” or “the electric fan will kill you if you close the window”.
showering at night
My wife (Korean) insists I shower at night. My entire life before we got married, I showered in the morning just like the Army taught my father to do and he taught me and I had to do when I was in the Army and the Navy. I’m starting to come around to it after three years, but still feel a little odd not having the morning shower.
enjoying rainy days more
Now this one really depends on the season and where you are. Some rainy days are not enjoyable at all, especially during monsoon season, or when it’s might cold like in Beijing.
Mind you, those are all just my personal opinions formed from my personal experience. I think the entire list posted in the OP is pretty much what a number of folks in Asia want to be true about Asia. It’s kind of a badge of honor, I guess, if it were all true.
Yes I had the same thought.
Basically if you grow up in a city where almost everywhere is crowded, then human bodies can basically become background noise.
As I say, it’s not just queuing (which as mentioned above, is improving in many Chinese cities) but e.g. people will walk into you in the street, only noticing you and dodging at the last possible second. Similarly for road “safety”.
People will also stand in places that will block other people; nobody minds, they just find a way to get round or tell the person to move. In my country (the UK), people would be slightly annoyed that you didn’t look first to see whether you would be blocking people.
But…if you go to London, it’s still more British culture than “crowded place” culture. So I would agree with you, but add that it’s not only a population density thing.
No it’s not. Someone cutting in line here in NYC will absolutely be thought of as a jerk and will be told to get to the back of the line (probably with several “fucks” interspersed in there.)
Tokyo and Osaka are, I suspect, every bit as densely populated as NYC. And yet Japanese folks don’t behave like that.
Hard to get around this one. To the average American, Japan and China are indistinguishable, and all of those other little Asian countries - Nepal, Tibet, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and so many, many others - don’t really register in their minds at all. Looking for common traits among Asians is like looking for common traits among North Americans (i.e. Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans) or Africans.
Wondering if Monty’s “constant conflict with people who insist on sleeping with the window open” is somehow related to the fact that his wife is Korean? 
That was the one that got me in Korea…
Fan death is a belief that running an electric fan in a closed room with unopened or no windows will cause death. Despite no concrete evidence to support the concept, belief in fan death persists to this day in Korea, and also to a lesser extent in Japan
I’m South Asian, not East Asian but a lot of these cultural traits ring true to what I know from friends. And at least some of them are shared by South Asians.
“Respect for elders” is so well known as a cultural trait that it’s kind of a cliche now.
And Asians don’t form lines. That one is painfully true. The old ladies are very aggressive and will unapologetically barge right ahead of everyone else. That’s just the way it’s done. It’s a free-for-all.
Yeah, as expected this thread is just an excuse to post man those non westerners are weird, like it was a 1920’s travel book.
In my experience westerners are, without exception, lousy at cross cultural communication.You come across East Asians, South Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans etch who are bad, but you will find good ones as well. Westerners, to my surprise, as illustrated in this thread, even when they understand the concept of cultural differences on an intellectual level, can not grasp it in practice. Maybe it comes from being the dominant culture last few centuries and not needing to worry about it. Maybe in a few hundred years our descendants will say the same thing about Picturn Islanders?
Agree the deliberate cutting in line part is not acceptable in NYC. But sometimes people do blunder into the middle of a line. They’ll learn about their mistake from the rest of the crowd pronto. But they still make it occasionally. At least IME.
Wiki even has a specific article on Korean Fan Death and the special fans sold there to ward off this danger.