Common Cultural Traits in Asia (1 of 3)

East Asian cultures are heavily shaped by traditions and thinking of Buddhism and Confucianism (whereas Central Asia is strongly influenced by Islam, South Asia by Islam and Hinduism, and Southeast Asia by Buddhism and Islam). (Cauquelin, Mayer-König & Lim, 1998) In East Asia the ideas of yin-yang, duty-based society, obedience to power, and personal network have been recurring themes. The followings are several cultural characteristics that appear consistently in most studies of East Asian cultures and values:

Face The concept of face (mianzi in Chinese) is very important in East Asia. Face is loosely associated with respect, but at a more superficial level. In most occasions, it’s critical not to make a person lose face in front of the others, regardless of the respect borne by the same group. To make a person lose face is equivalent to insult. This code of conduct can lead to phony behavior or sometimes extreme pretense. Foreign speakers in China or Japan have the following common experience. Accompanied by an interpreter, the speaker told a joke which received loud laughter and applause from the audience. Afterwards in a dinner, he was told by his local colleague that the interpreter did not actually translate his joke. Instead the interpreter told the audience that “the speaker just told a joke which I don’t think you’d find funny but please laugh anyway.” And the audience dutifully laughed and applauded. This is an example of saving face even for a guest people barely know.

We vs. They Mentality The concept of ‘we’ group (ingroup) in contrast to ‘they’ group (outgroup) was defined by Hofstede (1990). This is related to his individualism-collectivism construct. In general ‘we’ group is associated with collectivistic cultures. The ‘we’ group members in a narrow sense include family members and close friends and, in a broad sense people with a common race, religion, or political orientations. East Asians engage more easily in conflict with ‘they’ group members than with ‘we’ group members. In the business world, the mentality of they applies to people outside of one’s company or one’s industry, or foreign companies.

To be continued...

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