So much more to say about the trip, but for now back to the book. In the last “book” post, I introduced “cultural models” in the context of a discussion about whether a hypothetical “Tom” should join a rock band or go to college. Here we’ll look at some actual linguistic data. An excerpt from [...]

Four years ago, while still living in Beijing, I began writing a book about my family’s experiences driving the Mazda around Beijing with California license plates for two and a half years without being pulled over. I have recently taken the project back up. In this blog over the coming months I’ll be posting pieces [...]

Last week I introduced Francis Hsu’s framework and the notion of “Layer 3.” Readers’ comments on that post reminded me of something I read years ago by Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiaotong. Fei, whom we heard from once before, spent academic year 1943-44 in the United States, during the closing phase of World War II. He observed that America [...]

The Chinese flipside of the radical American individualism I addressed yesterday is sometimes called “collectivism.” It’s a broad cover term that’s used in many different ways. Today we’ll take a look at one anthropologist’s view of Chinese and Western notions of group membership. In 1971, anthropologist Francis Hsu published the intimidatingly titled “Psychosocial Homeostasis and [...]

On an email list I subscribe to, we’ve been discussing stereotypes, and how Americans often conflate “generalization” with “stereotype,” leading to a reluctance to talk about groups at all, for fear of dishonoring individuality. Back when I was designing a research project several years ago, I wanted to look into differing ways Chinese and Americans [...]

When doing business in China, sometimes the most “obvious” things can trip us up the worst. In his classic book Beijing Jeep, Jim Mann tells the long tale of American Motors Corporation’s Jeep-building joint venture in Beijing, including many an anecdote with cultural lessons. One such lesson involved Ed Schulze, head of production and maintenance [...]

If you’ve ever visited China, you probably noticed how little space gets wasted. Families make do in spaces that seem absurdly small to many Americans. Vegetables are grown in often-surprising places: next to roads and railroad tracks, for instance. Money doesn’t get wasted either. Many have talked about how the Chinese consumer is the great [...]

To Americans, our life dreams are no less than a spiritual matter. Because they represent the highest aspirations of a sacred human life, dreams themselves are sacred.

A few more research findings, to shed light on some other aspects of Chinese and American culture. One question asked of participants: Tom is about to graduate from high school.  He decides he doesn’t want to go to college, despite his parents’ wishes.  Instead, he wants to join a rock band.  What will the family [...]

First things first: please read this piece by David Dayton. It’s a great read and extremely informative, plus it brings to life a number of themes addressed in this blog. Today, a bit more building on last week’s discussion of “individualism.” This time not my thoughts, but those of Lin Yutang, one of the most [...]