I checked this book out from the university library Called "The Way We Think: Chinese View of Life Philosophy." It's Supposed To Be a guide for foreigners to Understanding Chinese culture. Of course, I do not know how much We Can Rely on the statements of one person in Such Matters, But It's written by a Chinese person, printed bilingually in Chinese and Inglés, and published by Sinolingua in Beijing (2009). So Even if all Chinese people Would not Agree with the statements this author Makes (and maybe They Would, I do not know), we can at least comfortable Be That it is an actual Chinese point of view, Not an Explanation of Chinese culture by a foreigner, foreign-looking through colored glasses. In Other Words, under the culture when to eat off sounding bad in Some Respects, Because it's not somignorant foreigner is misunderstanding it.
To A Certain Extent, of course, We Should Respect Cultural Differences. Most cultural Differences Are Not only harmless But interesting, and learning about us rethink Can Make Them Our Own ingrained prejudice. Make us realize That The Way We Are Used To Doing Things Is not Necessarily the only way of doing Things Out There, and May Not Be the best way. On the Other Hand, Taking this philosophy to an extreme Can Be Dangerous. Some "cultural practices", like wife-beating or female genital mutilation, plow horrendous, period, and Should not Be Given The cover of "but that's just Their culture." And in between These Two Are some practices poles That Might Actually be bad or stupid or Illogical in Some Way, But Are not That big or maybef a deal, so it doesn't really matter that much. Every culture has their prejudices and inconsistencies.
As an example, one silly (but inconsequential) aspect of Chinese culture is the way people often greet each other. Instead of just saying \, were like, \the things about our own culture which are dumb? I've certainly never shied away from pointing out the idiotic aspects of American culture, as I see them. I understand that, from a learning-language point of view, you should understand the language as it's spoken by the people. But we (foreign students) understood the concept; we just disagreed with it. Our teacher kept thinking we weren't understanding it. She, and the other guy, were unable to admit that something about their culture might be silly. Not even something that trivial. (And I think that's true fairly often; see for example my last post about Chinese medicine.)
But back to this book. I haven't read much of it yet: only the first section, about mianzi , which is to say \\t in Chinese culture than Western culture. In the US, we may be more likely to value independence or something, in situations where the two values come into conflict. I don't know. I thought the addition of the word \a positive moral value; insisting that other people respect
me
I just find egocentric and narcissistic -- especially because most people think they deserve more respect than other people think they do.) Again, in the US, I would say these people are mostly men, mostly older. And mostly who vote Republican. (In my experience.) (Not to get sidetracked, but I really do think there's an important correlation there: people who are more concerned that they themselves are getting the short end of the stick are more likely to vote Republican; people who are more concerned that others are getting the short end of the stick are more likely to vote Democratic.) But here's the silliest part; the thing that really made me want to share this with you, o readers. The author tells this story of a military general from the 200s BC who was defeated in battle, and instead of returning to his hometown and facing the people, he committed suicide. As the author puts it, \at \d returned. But the shame wasn't in the Returning and Facing Them, the shame WAS in the losing the battle to begin with. Whether I returns to face Them or not, the battle is still lost. The shame is still there. Avoiding acknowledging the Circumstances Does not Actually shameful shameful cause the Circumstances Not to exist. By Refusing to go home, I Refuse To Admit His only failure and to face the Consequences. He Takes the easy way out. How does Refusing to take that stand Enhance historical standing in the community? If anything, from my perspective, It Would Weaken it. But Either way, it erase the failure Certainly Would not That He Was ashamed of in the first place, and make him "revered in history." What the heck is up with that? .
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