Understanding of Asian culture vs. Western…
Interesting research. It also applies to all Asians, including the Indians, Japanese, Thais, Koreans, Indonesian, Malays, Dayaks, etc…
These icons were designed by Liu Young who was born in China and educated in Germany.
Blue –> Westerner
Red –> Asian
Opinion
Punctuality
Contacts
Anger
Queue when Waiting
Sundays on the Road
Party
In the restaurant
Travelling
Handling of Problems
Three meals a day
Transportation
Elderly in day to day life
Moods and Weather
Way of Life
The Boss
What’s Trendy
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Hey Simon,
Your opinions on this site, in my observation, are widely misunderstood in your estimation. That leads me to believe that you are either a) an extremely poor communicator of your ideas, or b) delusional in believing that you are effectively communicating your ideas and that no one, and I mean NO ONE understands what you are saying. Which do YOU think? I’m leaning toward delusional. Your ideas, in my opinion, are being communicated VERY effectively.
Eh? What the fridge! You people are dumbing down this whole thing.
“When someone has an array of presumed generalizations regarding a race/culture that they don’t know anything about, it is certainly regarded as racist.” This is far too simple a statement to hold true and I would question the relevance of this towards the actual art piece, which this discourse should revolve around. Take any intercultural course and you have to deal with many generalizations that are necessary to navigate within the context of another culture. This is not to say there aren’t exceptions, but such is the world. Maintain an open mind whilst being aware of cultural generalizations.
This series of graphical images is interesting in that it reveals more about us than it does the artist herself. If anything, she is dealing with age old generalizations that actually hold plenty of relevance.
As far as the artist’s background is concerned, Yang Liu has a fine basis for creating this work. She spent plenty of time in China and has only lived in Germany since 1990. Not only this, she has also returned to China to lecture. Where are all the hard feelings?
Simon, for your sake many of the comments following what you originally wrote were over the top, but what did you expect? This is the interwebs after all.
to pillophite> Its neither a or b.
I have expressed my point very clearly, logically and precisely and not to mention repeatedly. If someone cannot understand me, the problems lies within their abilty to understand, not my ability to communicate. I have tried to simplfy the idea over and over and still people are acting as if they are oblivious to what i am saying.
To imply i am delusional would be slightly insulting if i actually cared about who you were. When i write what i write, i make sure to explain myself literally and correctly. If i am not understood, the problem is that of the readers abilites, not mine. I understand each and every point that the people are making here, but evidentaly from their responses, they are totally misunderstanding [or just dont get it at all] what i am saying. Thats not a guess, its a fact. If you are talking about something its VERY easy to know if the person you are talking to actually understands what you are saying or not. If a person understands they will have a relevant logical response. Some of the responses i have got have been from people clearly reading what i’m saying and taking some incorrect meaning from it.
Anyhow whether it is down to my communication or other people understanding skills, thats totally down to opinion, and i don’t see need or relevance in raising such a pointless question. The only motive behind it [like the rest of the people here] is to take a shot at me.
If you have something to say, please make it about the picture, opposed to sharing some spiteful ideas you have regarding my thoughts.
You may as well be accusing an author for not writing a book properly because the reader didn’t get it. Your logic is flawed.
To KL>
I am only responding to others at this point, to which its clearly gone off subject, i was very much rooted to the picture initially. And yes i realise this is the internet, i just stupidly presumed there may be a higher intelligence level here than that displayed on youtube. The fault is clearly at my presumption. And also, much respect to you, and i honestlty mean that. You are one of the first few people who have managed to opose what i’m saying without stooping to the level of an angry petualnt child.
“You may as well be accusing an author for not writing a book properly because the reader didn’t get it. Your logic is flawed.”
Simon, thank you for the entertaining response. That last comment was simply priceless. Let me just say that when I write my first novel, if NO ONE gets it (let alone agree with what I say,) then I will be the first to admit that my writing is flawed. I won’t rant at the critics for misunderstanding me, I’ll go back and try to figure out how to better express myself.
Your “readers” appear to all pretty much agree that you said one thing, and you pretty much keep arguing that you did not say that. Why not take a step back, re-read what you wrote, then try a different approach at saying what you are hoping everyone else will understand you to have said? Maybe you actually do have an opinion that is more in line with the interpretations of the rest of the general population of the universe. Maybe not. But at least be sure that you are being interpreted correctly before you start accusing the rest of us of being idiots.
And before you correct me for putting the word “idiots” in your mouth, I would like to point out that my INTERPRETATION of your comment, “i just stupidly presumed there may be a higher intelligence level here than that displayed on youtube,” was that you were insulting our intelligence. Ergo, I chose the term “idiots.” Please correct me if I have misunderstood you yet again.
Finally, when insulting someone, e.g., calling them an “angry petualnt child,” I find it more compelling if you get the spelling correct.
pillophyte> you are so wise. thanks
p.s this has become much to repetitive for me to have even a morsel of interest in responding to all the useless points you have made. they are blatantly stupid, i’ll make a quick reference when i finish. anyhow to be honest i don’t have the patience for this forum anymore and this is undoubtedly my last comment. feel free to consider this as my ‘defeat’. glad to see you are taking the time out to tame the mindframes of complete strangers online, regardless of how irrelevant to the subject you are being.
you just displayed a great example of your stupidity and misperceptions, and the foundation of your hypocrisy. first of all, you seem to take pride in correcting a typo…
But more importantly, and this is the point i am finishing on. You said this, which is proof that its not me that is expressing myself incorrectly, but its without a doubt the readers here. You just made another ridiculous presumption, and took what i said out of context>>>>
I said ”i just stupidly presumed there may be a higher intelligence level here than that displayed on youtube.”
To which you responded
”and before you correct me for putting the word “idiots” in your mouth, I would like to point out that my INTERPRETATION of your comment, “i just stupidly presumed there may be a higher intelligence level here than that displayed on youtube,” was that you were insulting our intelligence.”
Thanks to you saying this you did not only fortify the point i have been making but you just disproved the very point you are trying to prove. You are basically saying i called the people here stupid. Wrong.
i said i thought there may be a higher level of intelligence here. You are the one that made the presumption that im saying the people on youtube are stupid. I never said that, i just simply said i thought the intelligence level would be higher here. I never expressed any exact level of intelligence. you did. youtube could be a bunch of fascinating intellects for all i could of implied.
this is classic example of people reading what they want to read. I say ‘A’ and someone reads ‘B’. People are too opinionated to actually let their guard down for a minute to try and understand what i’m saying. Instead they convince themselves that I am the one with the problem, which is a very natural defense mechanism. I am being told i’m being misunderstood, yet we are online with the most epic range of factual resources, and i’m the one with the problem hahaha….please.
But in conclusion feel free to think its my communication skills, not your understanding skills. You are clearly highly perceptive.
all the best in policing the rest of the forums pillophyte.
Good job Pillophyte, good job.
You did the impossible..
You finally got Simon to shut up.
Very cool! I’m a big fan of Lin Yu Tang and every scetch reminded me of something he has written.
Good job.
There are a lot of stupid people replying to this, it is about China and Germany, dumb asses.
I’ve been living in China with my Chinese wife for quite a while now, its great here, but most of these pictures are true especially the lining up one, and its not good or bad it depends on how you look at it
The whole discussion is waste of time/meaningless. Since most of those pictures are true, which means, these are FACTS. Btw I’m a chinese myself, I don’t REALLY see anything offensive about this whole research.
photoshopped
Simon – tl;dr.
From what I did manage to get through though, it seems as though you’re saying that if you think of another culture as being different, you’re racist. Don’t think about it! :O
Also, you seem like you’re a wannabe English teacher who didn’t grow up with English as their native language. Perhaps you learnt it in school or something?
Where you grew up on the planet has a lot to do with how you eat and your behaviour. The whole world isn’t just grey, Simon. It’s not all the same, no matter how much you want it to be.
I think the pictures are kinda silly. Nothing amazing, nothing offensive. When people say that cause I’m Irish I must drink all the time I’m like “Yeah! When I can!” cause it’s true. Stereotypes are based on something true.
this is to Nadia whom ignorantly spoke about islam and its perception about left handers.
First of all, you do not have to be wise to examine that if you eat with your left hand it will operate the right side of the brain which will lead the person in a emotional state. For this reason islam recommends to eat and mostly use the right hand in order to avoid such positions.
As to “woman sleeping on the left side of the bed” just out of curiosity, where have you got this statement from. Because as a muslimI can asure you this dos not exist. In addition I suggest for you to do some reasearch before you speak. Because it is morally wrong to mock others if you yourself are un certain of what you are stating.
Belive me if only peoplelike yourself, stopped making judgments about others,the world would be a safe place!
came across this site through stumble, noticed all the posts “simon” wrote, didn’t read them all but came to the obvious conclusion that i feel bad for him. suggestion – stop spending so much time worried about what anonymous people think of your opinions and RELAX. go grab a beer and meet a nice girl who will hopefully put up with your endless rants. smile.
actually most of these are very funny and accurate, but some of them are stupid and make no sense
Good Reseach, except a couple of things you were quite close to that. How did you collected the data
[...] East vs West Culture – East vs West… | Funny Buburuza [...]
American, lived in Asia, pictures were funny as hell! Yea, it’s a generalization, not true for everyone, stated as a joke. Good job, I laughed, it brought back memories for me.
nice
I went to a Subway in Beijing and asked for a party sub for my friend’s birthday. I couldn’t take it back home uncut. It took them half an hour and a call to the employees at a restaurant next door to figure out that they needed to cut it up and put it in different boxes.
The ticket booth in Subways are exactly like the picture shows. Rather than a line, you have people crowding around the ticket window. Not a single file line.
If you go to any non-western oriented restaurant, you will not see a fork. I can’t recall a time I did see one at a table, unless I went to Hard Rock or something.
Per capita compared to the West? People definitely drive more than bike in Asia now.
The only thing I have to disagree with in this hilarious post is that the Asians I’ve come across are all pretty punctual. In and out of Asia.
Really funny stuff.
[...] set of comical visual distinctions between “Westerners” and “Asians,” found here, by an artist named Yang Liu. [...]
As a westerner who has spend 20 years in the East, I must say this is good.
Come on guys, non one has to take this seriously. Okay..the part about this applying to ALL Asians and going so far as to call it research may be stupid but take it for what it is – a joke…maybe a joke few will appreciate but hell, you’ll even find some of these in Europe and even the US. So it’s not as big a prob as u’d think
Take the Maldives for example (it’s in Asia and though some of these may apply to parts of the country..you wont find any of this in the capital city where everything/everyone is so modern.) I’ve been to India..and EVERYTHING here applies to India. OMFG the one about the queue is absolutely correct. Universities, banks anywhere..u’ll see it.
man, these designs were created by a female, originally german based, chinese native (!!) design artist to shed some funny (!!) light on cultural diversities. and she did a pretty good job! many of the graphs are accurate! they are not meant, to harm anyone’s nor anyelses feelings. just fun, relax!
How nice to read through so many neurotic ramblings above and come to ‘One World Wonder’s sane comment. The generalizations may be fairly accurate of average behaviour, I suspect they are, but many could apply to the average Greek in my experience. There are differences between the way people of different cultures behave in general, and humorous graphics are a clever way to show them up. Sadly many people cannot deal with either generalizations or humor – this is their loss, not Simon’s and not Liu Young’s. I am English, retired, semi-educated, a ponderous thinker, etc. and deserve unflattering comparisons with others. I live with it. The clever people responsible for this post (and one or two of the comments) have my admiration.
This is definitely a generalization and doesn’t fit every case, but that’s to be expected when data is simplified to exhibit a percieved trend. I’m glad people have pointed out the artist’s point of view. The touchy aspect of this is that it’s drawn from a specific point of view and therefore biased, but that’s also to be expected. I’m curious at how differently these things would be portrayed if it was created by someone from a specifically “Eastern” point of view.