@previous (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)
A vampire novel, and also a non-fiction Westerner's guide to China.
@previous (D)
You think I am crazy? Post it so people here can steal it and stalk me?
@previous (Freewrite™ !0QvmXU0iNY)
You posted your other one
@992,519 (Freewrite™ !0QvmXU0iNY)
Don't worry, nobody is going to steal your Rainbow Bright fanfic.
@992,548 (Freewrite™ !0QvmXU0iNY)
It should be called The Miller Guide to Sideways Minge
@992,519 (Freewrite™ !0QvmXU0iNY)
Come on man, just post it. We want to have our fun.
@previous (G)
Another aspect of China that Westerns will have to acclimate to, is its communal nature. Note that I am not referring to Communism, the political ideology and system, but rather to the fact that China – like many Asian and African cultures – is communal in its essence. This means that the focus of society is the good of the group, over and above the good of the individual.
Western culture has a grand tradition of a focus on the rights of the individual. Freedom, mobility, essential worth, equality – these are all hallmarks of Western cultures, and they have certainly proven their worth over the millennia.
When Confucius taught his disciples, he sat on an elevated chair above them, clearly demarcating the line between teacher and student. When Aristotle taught, however, he sat or lay among his disciples, demonstrating the egalitarian nature of his ideals. This is not to say that Western societies do not have hierarchy, because they clearly do. It is to say, rather, that the ideology of Western society is to elevate the individual.
“For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve,” taught Aristotle. Much later, the English Magna Carta asserted the rights of the people and limited the rights of the king. The French Revolution held up the individual as the key to liberty, equality, and brotherhood. The originators of the United States also asserted that all men are created equal. This grand tradition of equality and individual rights, while not always having been consistent with the lifestyles of those asserting them, has been a silver thread through Western civilization, perhaps culminating in modern Western Europe and in part the US, where almost any sort of deviation from the norm is celebrated as the glorification of the individual above that of the group or of society.
China began on a different foot. Confucius is representative of the natural communal evolution of Chinese society. He emphasized the duties that each person has to his or her superior: servant to master, wife to husband, student to teacher, children to parents, and others. Moreover, his goal was political stability in unstable times, and he hoped to achieve this by teaching that the harmony of society was the most important thing, and the good of the group always trumps the good of the individual. This clearly manifests itself in modern Chinese culture.
This communalism shows in several aspects of modern China, and it is something that the Westerner will simply have to accept and not fight against. One clear area where this plays out is in Chinese laws and contracts. Whereas the US prides itself of being a nation of laws and not of men, China is the very opposite. There is written law in China, of course, and there is a judicial system. However, in all cases, the good of the community or the group, and the harmony of society, is more important than the written law. This will be supremely frustrating to the Westerner.
Did your employer agree to something in a written contract, and later contradict it? Expect that to be perfectly normal behavior. Do the traffic police ignore blatant violations of traffic laws, but then respond quickly and harshly to accidents that damage property? Accept it. If your business secures a contract or an agreement with a Chinese company, you should be prepared for things to change, and for that contract to serve mostly as a general guide. The Chinese businesspeople will want what is most beneficial to both groups, and what can be done in harmony. This is vastly preferred over squabbles over the wording of contracts. This is the very opposite of the way in which American businesses interact. In the US, the written contract is the very agreement itself, and the wording will be analyzed and scrutinized to the jot and tittle.
If you want your business deal or job in China to fail spectacularly, then approach it with the Western perspective. You will not last long, and you will like offend and turn off anyone you were trying to do business with. Instead, forget the specifics of the original discussion or contract, and focus rather on becoming a part of the group, and of achieving harmony and balance, and you will succeed where others have failed.
@previous (Skip Farnsworth !PfF0cp./hQ)
you just explained what you meant by china having a communal nature by saying that china is communal in its essence
@previous (Ananthanarayanan M R)
"This means that the focus of society is the good of the group, over and above the good of the individual."
@previous (Skip Farnsworth !PfF0cp./hQ)
idk why you had to say chinese is (allegedly) communal in essence twice before you could be bothered to explain why you thought so tho
@992,613 (Skip Farnsworth !PfF0cp./hQ)
also thats what every society is
@previous (Ananthanarayanan M R)
No it is not. US society is very individualistic.
@992,567 (Skip Farnsworth !PfF0cp./hQ)
also
> China began on a different foot.
"oh he is going to explain on what foot china began"
> Confucius is representative of the natural communal evolution of Chinese society. He emphasized the duties that each person has to his or her superior: servant to master, wife to husband, student to teacher, children to parents, and others. Moreover, his goal was political stability in unstable times, and he hoped to achieve this by teaching that the harmony of society was the most important thing, and the good of the group always trumps the good of the individual. This clearly manifests itself in modern Chinese culture.
why are you explaining chinese society via the thoughts of confucius
@previous (Ananthanarayanan M R)
If you can explain the english language via mark twain, you can explain chinese society via confucius thanks.
@992,618 (Ananthanarayanan M R)
With his online degree in languages, what do expect.
@992,618 (Ananthanarayanan M R)
Because China is a very Confucian society.
I can't stop thinking about Lionel Barry Goldstone.
(Edited 2 minutes later by a moderator.)