Descriptive Approach To Chinese Culture And Possible Stereotypes (Coursework Sample)

Chinese Culture
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Abstract
Culture is the conformity to beliefs and behavior patterns by a group of people that form the base of similar characteristics and knowledge, which are learned from socializing. The appreciation of what the group believes in and the interactions amongst themselves brings a sense of identity of being a member of the culture brought about by cognitive constructs and understanding, which is fostered by varying unique cultural groups (Kroeber & Kluckhohn 1952). The sense of sharing similar cultural heritage creates multiple groups that practice different norms which only them understands. In the world, there are thousands of cultural groups defined by beliefs, religion, food, lifestyle, clothing, arts, social habits, and music.
Chinese culture is one of the many existing cultural groups and has millions of members. The culture is more than 5000 years old and currently has evolved to co-exist with the western culture. In China, the co-existence of sky crappers with the old traditional heritage buildings is evidence of the Chinese culture evolution. With 59 ethnic groups, the Chinese culture is still evolving, and Buddhism is the most practiced religion. The Chinese culture has some values they hold dear including courtesy, harmony, filial piety righteousness, wisdom, loyalty, benevolence, and honesty. The values form the core of the culture, and the results of the values are seen in how they make foreign policies and how they resolve conflicts amongst themselves and outside world.
Ethnocentrism refers to the sense of cultural superiority and underestimating other cultures. Individuals of a particular group overestimate their culture eight times while they are underestimating the other group. The sense of superiority encroaches by failing to appreciate the cultural beliefs and heritage of other cultural groups and tending to assume them as powerless and treat them poorly. The individuals believe that their culture is best and the values and virtues fit best in tackling world problems and provide ultimate solutions compared to other cultural groups. They use economic and social status as metrics of superiority. Communication and interactions have proved to leverage the problem as the individuals get to learn the cultural values and virtues and get to appreciate them. This way, the individual understands that each culture has values and some are better than theirs.
Stereotyping is the negative attitude towards a particular cultural group developed from ethnocentrism. A continuous sense of superiority leads to the false belief of psychological characteristics of the culture group. Stereotyping results in discrimination, which negatively affects relationships between various cultural groups. The stereotyping happens in various means including media, which is most used in spreading misconceptions about various cultural groups. However, interactions and communication with individuals from different cultural groups can help in reducing stereotyping of cultural groups. Stereotyping of Chinese culture is most evident in western culture, which depicts them as inferior, and not industrialized and competent than them.
The following examples indicate high stereotyping levels of Chinese culture by media in the USA. To many, who have come to learn and understand the culture they can see how the stereotype comes out in the video. The first example is a film “Sick Man of Asia.” In the film, poverty and diseases are used to depict the way of life of Chinese. Although Chinese had many valuable resources, the film portrayed them as people who could not use their brains and come up with ideas they could utilize the resources. On the other hand, the Chinese government in place would collaborate with the westerns governors who would in turn mine the resources and ship them to the USA. This depicts that the USA is a superpower and their knowledge is far above that of the Chinese. Also, there is a scene where a western boxer faces a Chinese, and he beats him ten- nil. This shows that the western boxing is not a match to the filthy Kung-Fu skills. The entire, movie depicts the superiority of the western culture and this is indeed a misconception as the Chinese has taken over the economic developments and have utilized the natural resources to be a superpower.
Also in the Big Bang Theory the main character Jim Parsons after being asked where he was, he produced a photo of a train full of Chinese. This is a stereotype indicating that communication means in the china are not yet developed. However, it is a fact that China has 11,808 miles of high-speed rail which is the longest in the world. Also, China has the modern rail network with modern trains. This, however, stays to be an underlooked fact and western culture still perceive Chinese culture as a backward culture slow to develop and timid in their progress. This fact is vivid in the current acquisition of Volvo Company by Geely, the Ford Company owner and a Chinese. Though the acquisition came after Volvo couldn’t put up with the competitive Ford, most Americans still see it Geely was sponsored by the China Government. This has been doing rounds on the media stations in the USA.
Individualism and collectivism
According to the above examples, western media depict Chinese culture to have a collectivist view, but many types of research have described them to have individualism view. There are two standard means of understanding the relationship between individuals in a cultural group. They include individualism, which states that each makes their own choices and also the degree they connect with the rest of the group is personal. Collectivism is the 2nd method, and sees the group as the primary entity, with the group members blindly following a collective decision blindly.
The western media view of Chinese culture to have a collectivist view makes them stereotype them in having the make poor judgments and be lenient in learning to think for themselves. It paints them as slaves to their own rules and the problems they face as created by lack of freedom to have their individual voice heard. The continued stereotyping has completely blinded the American to appreciate the significant developments being made by Chinese innovators and take their great moves for granted. Their perception sees the group as the essential aspect, and individuals are just members of the group. Instead of evaluating the team as a lot of people interacting, it judges the group as a whole and views the individuals as mere members of the team.
The collectivist view brings the notion of mob mentality that sometimes if affected by peers ending up making wavering and baseless decisions. In this regard, media observes Chinese decisions as being influenced by the peer thinking that takes away the personal ability to think and to reason in a decisive way. This forms the base for racism where individuals judge a certain member of a cultural group by the group deeds rather than by the individual deeds.
However, research by Fan (2000) on the Chinese culture has a different perception from that given by western media. According to Fan, the Chinese culture uniqueness is implied by the recognition that an individual is different from everybody else and composes his very own mind about things. Chinese culture respects that a person is a separate entity with the ability to make his own choices believing his ideas, and also being responsible for his very own deeds. The Chinese culture gives the group members the freedom to think and do whatever they wish but then make them understand that they also stand the charge of their own deeds whether good or bad. In some instances, however, if the individual choice may affect the well-being being of the entire cultural group various measures are taken to curb the situation. In this regard, it is clear that the collectivist view of the western culture is a misconception represented as facts, but they are wrong.
Long-term vs. Short-term
There has been a conception in the media about chine products being short-term and the western products being long-term. The western countries have continuously been in quality crisis with China to the extent of locking them out in trade (Fan, 2000). The media depict Chinese culture as short-term decision makers and like to get the short-term profit that affects Long-term viability. There are so many locked out projects such as solar panel project which was immaturely put on hold saying that the supply was of poor quality. Since then, there has been a misconception that everything from China is of poor quality. There are very many videos showing how fragile China products are. This misconception has seen China shift its market to Europe and Africa where they have dominated and are becoming a superpower. They have established many long-term projects, and when we are busy ridiculing them, they are making massive steps in world economic domination.
According to (Lin, Wang, Zhou, & Wei) China has embraced technology which makes them produce long-lasting goods. Also, they indicate that China has signed long-time deals with various counties and have provided infrastructure to different developing countries which have not encountered a problem to date. While America is busy stereotyping China of short-term products, other countries have understood the misconception and have given them a chance to build their infrastructures. In return, China is reaping significant profits, which is turning it into a superpower, which American can’t see from being blinded by the fact that Chinese culture makes short-term decisions. While USA government is terming China as adamant in taking responsibility, many countries have formed a healthy relationship with China, and they always respond to issues based on the projects they ...