Chapter two Response__ Yoyo

Honestly, I don’t really enjoy reading chapter two. I found that chapter two mainly talks about what kinds of surveys they have done regarding to the culture differences but doesn’t really show the result of those surveys and I am really curios about what kind of culture differences exist among different countries. Although I found this chapter is quiet boring, I did get interested in the four dimensions of culture differences, namely power distance, collectivism versus individualism, femininity versus masculinity and uncertainty avoidance (pg.31). I’ve learned those concepts before in class and I would like to share some thoughts about them in terms of culture differences between China and America from my own perspectives and simple examples in daily life.

 

In terms of power distance, I would say Chinese society has higher power distance than America society. We could simply notice it from our school life. For instance, American professors would like their students call their name without adding the title of “professor”, however, that seems to be impolite for Chinese professors, especially the older generation. What I notice is that American professors would like to act as a friend with students and there’s no such higher power exists when interacting with students. In terms of individualism and collectivism, I could definitely say that American students are more individualistic than the Chinese students. I noticed it since the first day of class. I usually take a political science class in a big lecture room on Monday. I notice that students like to sit alone and keep distance from people even though they have friends sit nearby. I think if it’s the classroom in china, I would probably see there are different groups of students sit together with friends and it’s a bit weird to sit alone. In terms of masculinity and femininity, I think the gender inequality is less severe in the U.S than China. It’s interesting to point out that there’s no female professor in political science major teaching in my home university and I am so glad that I met some female professors in my major here. And as we know, there were several female politicians held important positions in the federal government like Hilary, Rice. However, female politicians are rare in china. In term of uncertainty, I think America has higher level of uncertainty acceptance for new ideas, innovations and changes than China. Obama’s change campaign is a good example.