Cultural Questions

[Song You Shen]

As I continue to study differnt cultures, it becomes more and more apparent that there is something called a "Cultural Iceberg." The key fact about an iceberg is that only 10% of their size is shown above the water line. The rest of the 90% is hidden under the water. This is what different cultures are like... there are certain aspects of cultures that make themselves known to other cultures, but a majority of the aspects of that cultures (the underlying important aspects for proper interaction) are not always made aware.

So I would like to ask a few questions in hopes that I can understand the Chinese culture a little better.

1) What are Chinese notions of Modesty?

2) What are Chinse concepts of Beauty?

3) What are Chinese rules of Descency?

I'll limit the amount of questions to this many, and maybe I'll ask some more later. Any constructive input would be greatly appriciated.

Youshen

[Outofin]

I could only contribute a little bit on modesty, Youshen. One thing you should know is that, even if one is really an expert, before (s)he presents his/her opinions, (s)he could start with some words like "I don't really know about this", or in Chinese, 才疏学浅. But nowadays Chinese are becoming not THAT modest.

Regarding concept of beauty, that deserves generations' efforts to figure out. If we could talk about it briefly, I'd rather let you start what western concepts are, and then we'll see what the differences among cultures.

[yorkie_bear]

Hi

just to throw a few other questions into the mix and confuse matters further....

I think these notions may differ widely depending on which Chinese you are talking about. I don't mean individuals. I mean for example, mainland China's notions may be quite different from somebody in HK or born overseas, or in Malaysia etc.etc. And I don't mean that it's the influence of living overseas that creates the differences - but the Chinese diaspora are generally more traditional, more superstitious etc. than mainlanders and this could certainly affect notions of modesty, decency

Maybe the notion of beauty would be common.

I don't know what other people think?

[gougou]

For a country as big and diverse as China, the notion of beauty is going to vary even when just looking at the mainland. Just think of the huge gap between the developed cities in the east and backward regions in the west. Such differences naturally reflect in the people's mindsets.

Youshen, are you interested in the Chinese culture only or in cultural theories as well? If so, check out Geert Hoofstede and Fons Trompenaars. They talk about icebergs and the like...

[Song You Shen]

I am definitly interested in Asian cultures (as well as others), but for this purpose, I'd only really care to know about Chinese Culture. When I say "Chinese Culture" I am talking more about mainland China. It seems as though major cities like HK, Beijing, Shanghai, etc are not very good examples because they are such melting pots of commerce and cutlures. I understand that China is very large, and that many areas have different values, but I was just wondering if there were any generalizations you could make.

Outofin, thanks for you comments on modesty, that is a good phrase to learn. As far as beauty, you are correct, it does seem to change with different generations. But there are still generalizations that can be made. For example: in certain African tribes, the darker your teeth are, the more beautiful you are. In the middle-ages, in France, the bigger a ladies forehead was, the more attractive they were. In America today, nicely done make-up and form-fitting clothing on women is a sign of beauty... I was wondering if there might be any culturally-centric ideals that China has for signs of beauty.

Youshen

[gougou]

This thread might give you something to work with.

[Song You Shen]

yes gougou, I actually did read that topic. It is very interesting, and I actually knew about the beauty of having white skin for a while. I have to admit, asian girls with white skin with the silky black hair is very beautiful. Thanks for the link though .

Youshen