中西文化对比

SOME GENERAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CHINESE AND AMERICANCULTURESCULTURE MATTERS Culture matters Will I have "cultural shock"? What is American culture? Differences between Chinese & American culture Chinese ideas How to adjust? Quiz for chapter 4Major inspiration for this chart comes from the Li Qing presentationlisted in the References . Another important source was the Aguilar andStokes publication, also listed in the References.CHINESE AMERICANSConception Of the Self Collectivist : Higher value placed on group cooperation and individual modesty. Individualist : Higher valueplaced on self-reliance.Self-promotion is moreaccepted. High value placedon "freedom"from externallyimposed constraints.Social Relationships Formal, hierarchical. People most comfortable in the presence of a hierarchy in which they know theirposition and the customs/rules for behavior in the situation. Informal, egalitarian. Peoplemost comfortable with theirsocial equals; importance ofsocial rankings minimized.Friendship Small number of close, lifelong friends who feel deeply obligatedto give each other whatever help might seem required. Large collection of "friends"and acquaintances whichchanges over time andinvolves only limited mutualobligations.Obligation Relationships with other people involve reciprocal obligations. People avoid interdependentrelationships and situations that might entail long-termobligations.Task vs. Relationship Orientation Relationship-oriented: Maintaining a harmonious relationship has priority over accomplishing tasks. Task-oriented.Relationships are lessimportant than getting thework done.Harmony vs. "Truth" Avoid direct confrontation, open criticism, and controversial topics. Concern maintaining harmony and with "face ." Willing to confront directly,criticize, discusscontroversial topics, presspersonal opinions aboutwhat they consider "thetruth. Little concern with"face ."Role of laws, rules, and regulations More faith in personal relationships than in written rules and procedures for structuring interactions. Written rules presumablyapply to everyone and areassumed to produce fair ,reasonable procedures anddecisions.Time Consciousness Relatively more attention to thepast and to the longer-term future. Less interested in the past;eye on near-term future.Ascribed vs. Achieved Status Traditionally, a person's status inthe society was based importantlyon inherited characteristics suchas age, gender, and family. Thisis changing.People's status is basedmainly on their ownachievements, includingeducation obtained and levelof success realized in theirline of work.The cultures ofChina and the West really distinguish each other a lot. This is because the culture systems are two separate systems on the whole. There are several aspects we can discuss. And from this, we can understand or at least get an idea, that is, the difference betweenChina culture and western one.1. Major Pairs of Contrastive Values in Different CulturesWestern culture is based on individualism rather than on collectivism. For instance, in theUS, you always talk about individual rights, instead of placing the whole society above your own self. This is clearly different inChina where a country, society or family is placed above your own self. That is a culture based on collectivism.Now, we discuss a case.Wang, one of my best friends, is an excellent engineer in BOSCH (Peking). Joe is his new German friend who came toChina to work inPeking only two months ago. They work in the same department. Last month, Wang was promoted as deputy director of the department. Hearing the good news one day, Joe suggested going out for a drink. But to his great surprise, Wang told him that he had declined the promotion. When asked why, Wang took a Chinese saying like“树大招风” in broken English as the response which made Joe even more puzzled.“树大招风”means a big tree is easily destroyed by the wind. Just like the big tree, a famous person or a well-known person will be easily exposed to the public criticism.Joe comes from German, which tends to be defined as a more individualist culture. In his culture, people value independence and have pride in being unique rather than similar to others. As a result, they do not fear the actions that call attention to the self. In fact they often seek the notice of others. While in collectivist culture, great importance is attached to a person's conformity instead of their uniqueness. Consequently, people are not likely to socialize in ways that draw attention to the self. Standing out on one’s own is not favored and would even arouse criticism from the others. They are afraid of being different from the others.Wang is a Chinese, whose culture could be regarded as collectivist-oriented, he is also afraid of being independent and unique. To be promoted to the position of deputy director means not only responsibility but also uniqueness and fame. Although he is an excellent engineer, probably he doesn’t want to be more famous by being deputy director with the fear that a famous person tends to be the target of criticism and can easily be found fault with, just as the fat pig and big tree would first take the risk of losing their lives2. GreetingGreeting is the first step to form a culture, because people begin to communicate with others. The individuals become a community.How do we Chinese greet each other? Informally, if we meet a friend in the street, we are used to say: “Hi, have you had your meal?” or “Where are you going?” When it is the case of two gentlemen, they tend to shake hands.However, in the western countries, the above questions are just questions, not greeting at all. They may think you’re inviting them to dinner if you ask about their meals. Usually, they’ll just give each other a smile or greet with a “Hi.”. They’ll shake hands only in some formal situations. By the way, Westerners can leave a party or meeting halls without a formal conge, nor should they shake hands with every attendee like most of us will do here.3. DiningThe ways people eat, that is, the table manner, really distinguish a lot. The reason for this isprobably because of the different dining tools and menus.Chinese use chopsticks. The thin and long chopsticks cannot be used to cut food, so we usually useour teeth to act as knives. We hold our food, meat or vegetable, with the chopsticks, send them tothe mouths, bite off a part of it and remain the other part on the chopsticks. That’s the usual way weeat. We are also used to hold up our bowls when having rice or soup. It is very easy to understandwhy we hold up our bowls. Because using sticks, instead of using spoon, is impossible to pick uprice or soup. But all these habits are considered rude in the Western countries.The etiquette in the West requests that when eating, bowls and plates cannot leave the tables. Foodshould be cut by knives to fit into the mouths. Of course your mouth cannot touch the plates orbowls. So the regular process is like this. You cut your steak on the plate with fork and knife, sendthe meat cube into the mouth with fork and nothing will be returned back but the fork alone.Up to now, we can see there are really a lot of difference betweenChina and Western culture. But wecannot deny any of the cultures. We should get to learn how to coordinate the different cultures.By the way, as I know, Chinese culture and Chinese people are always complicated for a foreigner.A foreigner is really difficult to understand Chinese culture even living inChina several years later.And there are also a lot of misunderstandings aboutChina. In my opinion, several factors lead to thisresult. The first and also the most important is value. Chinese people are collectivism. They areafraid to be different even during communication. This stops them to express and talking freely andeveryone believe “silence is gold” at last. Without communication, how can a foreigner learnChinese? There is only an imagination aboutChina for them. So misunderstanding is inevitably. Thesecond is the unbalance between fast developing and publicizing. As well knowChina has a rapidly developing at the recent 20 years. For example before 25 years ago there is nearly no mansionhigher than 10 floors in Peking and now 30 floors CDB is just normal in Peking. And just 15 yearsago telephone (fixed-phone) is a luxury commodity for Chinese. But according to the market report(2007) of information industry department there are nearly 487,4million handy users inChina. Comparing with the developing speed ofChina the appearance ofChina for foreign maybe still stayin 20 years even 50 years ago. Some of them maybe still stay in 100 years ago. Please believe meand this is really not a joke. So I think Chinese people should be more open to let the world to knowChina to learnChina. Only in this way can reduce the misunderstanding aboutChina!China is not only making news headlines about the Olympics but every broadcaster around the world is reporting on China’s thriving business and economic growth. As China opens up to the world the culture attracts both businesses and individuals keen to sample what this developing nation has to offer.We all see images of China on the internet, in magazines, newspapers and on television, and with the influence of Western society China no longer seems so different to any other place we are used to living in so we “jump” right on in with certain expectations and generalizations about China.Soon East meets West and differences between people within any given nation or culture are much greater than differences between groups. Education, social standing, religion, personality, belief structure, past experience, affection shown in public, and a numerous other factors will affect human behavior and culture.Often, observations on cultural differences are based on our own weakness and reflect our inability to connect with that culture. Paying attention to customs and cultural differences can give someone outside that culture a better chance of assimilation or acceptance. Ignoring these can get an unsuspecting personinto trouble. Learning a few polite expressions in another person’s language; and showing appreciation for the food and music of another culture can have especially positive effects.My first culture shock was how business was conducted at the most basic level, for example buying something at the market. Part of the Chinese culture revolves around relationships and bargaining is part of establishing a rapport with the seller, refusing can sometimes offend a salesperson. Depending on your bargaining skills or business experience, you could bargain the item down so low that the sales person does not make a commission or even generates a loss. So why, would any salesperson waive their commission or even lose money when selling?The mentality is very simple, “money will come back, but this customer may not”. The salesperson would rather lose some money than a customer; otherwise the customer will gladly cross the street and buy the same item in a different shop. Of course there’s a limit to bargaining, you will not get anything for free.This example applies to large business as well. Any business that wants to establish itself in China must invest capital from the very start in order to generate a lasting customer base and a solid development platform. This does not mean that just by investing large sums of money, any company will be successful. This means that getting the customer to appreciate the product without focusing on profit is significant for future development. This purports to the difference between business in China and other Western Countries. Western businesses include the commission in their item costs and are generally not-negotiable, it is a fixed priced. This makes Chinese companies more appealing due to low product cost. Also Western companies will normally solve a problem and/or fulfill a need at a higher cost. But does this also mean that you will receive a lower quality product? Some Chinese companies that have been around for a while are able to deliver the same quality as Western companies, and as you know a large majority of products sold by western companies are manufactured in China so we know the standard can be the same if not better. So if manufacturing is already being outsourced in China, technical services outsourcing seems to be the next logical step. Already outsourcing, when utilized correctly is an effective cost-saving business strategy. When you take advantage of the comparative labor costs in emerging nations such as China, Buyers can search for both quality and a fair price. is a powerful business resource tool enabling Professionals and SMEs to outsource technical services such as:。