What are the major differences between chinese and western culture?

I'll list down a few differences:

West:

1. Western culture is based on individualism rather than on mass (collectivism). For instance, in the US, you always talk about individual rights, instead of placing the whole society above your own self. This is clearly different in China where a country, society or family are placed above your own self.

2. Western culture is adventurous and exploration based. Westerners like to discover new things, invention and expand outwards. For instance, bungee jumping is considered adventurous and common in western culture, but you will probably find no-one doing such a thing in China.

3. Western culture is based on science, which attempts to resolve people and nature's relationship.

4. West uses law to resolve people and people's relationship. You can never find 'law' well-established in China. For 2000 years, China is a land that's based on human relationship rather than law.

5. West uses 'god' and religion to resolve human and spiritualism relationship. In case of problems with your own self, you just pray to god.

6. A culture that expands and develop outwards.

Chinese Culture:

1. A culture based on masses (collectivism). People placed country and family above your own self.

2. A culture that is based on humanism and people

3. To resolve the relationship betwen man and nature, the chinese attempts to fuse the human and 'heaven' as one. (天人和一)

4. To resolve people and people's relationship, chinese uses ethics and tolerance (中恕之道)

5. To resolve human and spiritualism, chinese emphasizes internal cultivation (修身养性)

6. A focus on balance and mean. By 'mean', it means 'middle way'. You don't go into extremism. Peace is always honoured.

7. Pay homage to heaven and earth, as well as bearing a remembrance to the homeland. (敬仰天地,思乡怀土) This was accorded to the fact that chinese had been a farming civilization and therefore will be more prone to remember their land.

8. A culture that expands internally rather than outwards.

Some of the disadvantage of old chinese culture:

1. Debase women and chauvanistic

2. An over-emphasis on past history instead of present (lacks pragmatism)

Can you list some more differences? Any comments and contributions are appreciated.

（二）

The difference between west and east

I wonder how many things do you know about the difference between west and east? I can tell you some. East and west , they are different in many ways. Today, I want to talk about it in the following three parts. They are food, dressing and living styles.

First , food.

In China, we prefer noodles, rice , jiaozi as the main course. We like cooking a lot of delicious dishes, then we set up the tables, put the dishes on the tables, sit together, and taste the dishes together, we don’t eat with individual plates, when we eating ,we like chatting and laughing, we think it’s warm and happy to eat this way; But in England or other west countries, people like eating hamburgers, chips, pizza, pasta as their main course, they eat them with vegetable salad, they eat with drinking (water or juice),and they eat with separate plates. In China, we become full up when we finish all the food, then we don’t eat anything, but in west countries, people eat desserts after they finish their meals.

Second, dressing. www.hxw.red

In China, we prefer colorful clothes, we dress them in different places, some time many people don’t mind the places we will go, and dress more formal or less formal, and some people just wearing beautiful clothes, don’t make up; But in west countries, people dress according their visiting places, in daily times, they often wear casual clothes, but if they go to a formal places ,they often wear suits, ladies wearing beautiful dresses, pretty hats. No matter how old the ladies are, they always make up.

Third, living styles.

Chinese prefer getting up early and go to bed early too. We usually go home early and cook meals, then we eat and watch TV, then we go to bed. We often work during the holidays , children often go to different spare schools to study. We like save money and when we have enough money, we then go and buy what we want, in my opinion, Chinese are so tired and busy; But in most west countries, people live in a easy and happy lives. They get up late and go to work late too, they go to pubs, bars to have a rest after they finish their work, they enjoy their holidays, they seldom go to work during the weekend. if you go to west countries, you can take part in their joyful night life.

That’s the differences I found during the days I stayed in England. They are not all of them, but I think they can give my friends some information. Though west countries have more advantages in living, I still believe that “East or west , home is best”, I still think China will always be my deeply loved mother.

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