An interaction that I had with someone in a place that is "foreign" to me
In 2002, I embarked on an interdisciplinary study trip to Beijing & Xi’an and encountered an intercultural situation.
In 2002, I embarked on an interdisciplinary study trip to Beijing & Xi’an and encountered an intercultural situation.
On Day 8, our first itinerary was a visit to Jinghua School in Beijing where we attended a Chinese language lesson. The atmosphere was tense as the place was foreign to us. When the teacher finished teaching her lesson, she began posing questions to the class.
“When I ask a question, I want all the local students to raise your hands immediately and answer me. We are from The People’s Republic of China and we want to show the foreigners that we can all do it. Is that clear?” said the teacher aggressively before she began.
Subsequently, all the China students responded enthusiastically as instructed by their teacher.
At that instant, I was speechless after hearing the teacher’s words. I could not understand why the teacher had to say that in front of us. This is definitely not practiced in Singapore. In light of my understanding of cultural values and beliefs, I would interpret that the people from China have a strong sense of belonging and loyalty to their country as well as take pride and strive towards excellence in whatever they do so as to do their country proud and fly their country’s flag high. Such characteristics are prevalent in the academic and sports areas. For example, China athletes trained hard and won 51 gold medals in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games which resulted in China clinching the world first position.
Hi Kent,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting cultural quirk that you have mentioned here.
It is one thing to rouse a class into displaying a sense of national solidarity to foreigners, but to request for it in the presence of the foreigners can indeed come as a culture shock to many.
The citizens of China are known to keenly display their patriotism when the situation calls for it.
Perhaps this sense of patriotism is so palpable and overflowing that the situation that you mentioned is deemed as perfectly acceptable or even encouraged.
Hi Kent,
ReplyDeleteI think your narration of their culture of showing pride and immense loyalty to the country in a classroom setting highlights the development of cultural values in a society.
If a child is exposed to such patriotism from a tender age, and especially in a classroom where the teacher is seen as an authoritative figure, cultural values can be taught and practiced as was what you had witnessed. These can then be further enforced through interactions with family members.
Psychoanalysts such as Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud likens children to blank slates, whereupon cultural identities are formed based on their experiences and interactions with other humans.(Erikson E. H., 1968)
Given the intimate relationship between cultural development and human interactions, any alterations to how these values are taught in class could lead to a whole different set of cultural beliefs and practices. Given China's rising prominence as an economic and military superpower, it would be interesting to see if this incident would be repeated in schools in Beijing.
Best Regards,
Ho Zong
References: Erikson E. H., 1968. Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton Publishing House.
@Halim: Thanks for your valuable comments. I do share the same sentiment. At that point of time, it was a culture shock to me as I observed none of such incident in Singapore even when a group of foreigner students joined our class for a week study exchange. Initially, I had the mentality that they were too arrogant and overdoing it. But after much thought, I perceive that this has been their culture, being united as one and patriotic. This is especially true when I observe the PRC students in NUS. The PRC students will share knowledge, solutions and notes among themselves even if they do not know one another, unlike Singaporeans.
ReplyDelete@Ho Zong: Thanks for the insightful comments. I do agree that every country has its own unique set of cultural values.
Hi Kent,
ReplyDeleteI find your situation rather amusing as the teacher sounded as if all foreigners looked down on them which is definitely not true.
It would indeed come as a cultural shock to Singaporeans as we would never display such a strong affection and patriotism for Singapore except on National Day. I agree with you that it is this sense of loyalty and patriotism among the Chinese that has propelled China forward to become one of the world powers today.
With regards,
Kar Liang
@Kar Liang: Thanks for your constructive comments. I was shocked when the teacher made some comments at that point of time. Indeed the teacher had intended to portray that they are superior than the foreigners. Perhaps this has always been their culture that has made them strong.
ReplyDeleteHi Kent,
ReplyDeleteAs a PRC myself, I am also shocked by the situation you described. To my memory, back in my school days in China, my teacher never requested us to “show off” in front of foreigners. Yes, I admitted we were taught to love our country, behave well (like being polite, helping each other), and always do our best, but I still find the teacher’s behavior you mentioned is strange to me. Maybe it is a personal behavior?
However, I still agree with you that people from different country have their own way of expression their patriotism. My personal feeling is that, for example, for PRC Chinese, especially we international students, we do not like others criticize our country when they do not really know what’s happening in China, especially the political stands. I think sometimes Singaporeans also have the same feeling but this is not the same in some other countries, for example US and Italy. In addition, from my observations to Singaporeans, I find Singaporeans, no matter how old they are, would like to express their loves to the country from describing how this small island becomes strong leading point in South East Asia, which would never happen in China, especially the new generation. Indeed, when I first come to Singapore, I was shocked by the proudness and patriotism expressed in the conversations.
In sum, culture difference will lead to different behaviors, even the way we express our patriotism. We just need to understand this difference and avoid conflict rising from these when we are interacting with people from different culture background.
Regards,
Cangming
@Cangming: Thanks for your valuable comments. Perhaps different schools in China have different cultures, that could be why you have not encountered it. Also, I do agree that this intercultural situation that I have encountered could be a personal experience. Actually, I was sharing with Jerina few days back that intercultural situation could be observed at individual level because I do try to research about the culture of a particular country to verify what I observed, but the research does not state explicitly, thus it could be personal encountered. The key lesson is to have good intercultural communication so as to avoid possible conflicts from happening regardless of the differences.
ReplyDeleteHi Kent,
ReplyDeleteYou described the notion of patriotism and explored the extent to which different countries would go to illustrate the patriotism for one’s country. I thought such a political view in depicting cultural differences is interesting.
Politically, we are shaped by national experiences and incidences, which differ from country to country. The intense patriotism described is the ‘superglue’ that has held China together. It is what has prevented people from losing faith in their government and in themselves during periods of political upheaval, and national turmoil, as historical events have told us. With the survival of their country hard to come by, it is no doubt that the teacher defended her country and seeks to impress that ideology upon the students. To the Chinese, this patriotism is important and they are compelled to showcase their respect for their country outwardly.
Clearly, they respect their country to an extent not many cultures would do, and which you thereby might find obtrusive. I do not imply that Singapore has it plain sailing and she has not suffered any adverse setbacks to re-evaluate the sense of belonging our people feel towards our country. I believe our people are sheltered by our government to an extent that we do not deem it important to echo this unity. There are good governance to ensure Singapore’s stability and sovereign; we do not feel threatened that this would be taken away from us. Hence we do not feel obliged to be involved in ways to uphold solidarity amongst our people (besides the nationalistic feel every August 9).
Regards,
Jer
Hi Kent,
ReplyDeleteI feel quite hesitated when I see that there are already 8 comments before mine. Anyway, this is quite related to my experience.
I also had the same experience as yours. When I was in primary 4, my class was going to represent our school and we would have a class in front of many VIPs, such officers from city bureau of education, principles from many schools and etc. In advance, the teacher told us to behave actively and no matter what she asked, we just all raised our hands. If we really knew the answer, we should raise and waive our hands very high , and if not, we just raised hands quietly and low. Eventually, all the VIPs spoke highly of our class. They appreciated our smartness and passion of learning. (Not sure sincerely or not) At that time, all the students were extremely excited when hearing the feedback.
But now, I will interpret it as self-identity or sense of group honor. One group is always eager to be praised, as it will contribute to their confidence. And one will be defensive when hear poor feedback. Therefore, we will always try to present our gorgeous aspects to others. I think Singaporean has a term "Kiasu" for such a case.
Anyway, now I do agree with you that things should be presented naturally without rehearsal and any redundant decorations. Because this will get more fair feedback and help to lead to success in a positive way.
Best regards,
Zhang Jiao
Hello Kent,
ReplyDeleteI admire the bold nature of the teacher and students in expressing their undying patriotism to their country. China has had centuries of nation-building and their strong sense of culture and shared history binds them together as one people. Singapore, on the other hand, is an infant in comparison to China. We lack both a long shared history and a definitive set of core cultural traits and values.
However, while it appears that the students are extremely patriotic to their nation, it appears that patriotism is the superficial layer of emotion in this behavior. Instead, I see the values of respect and obedience to elders as the takeaway point of this incident. The children were merely obeying their teachers' instructions, and rather, the teacher were utilising the students as a means of highlighting the superiority of their culture. While it is less common for students to be vocal of their loyalty and patriotism to Singapore, there is no denial that respect and obedience are values strongly inculcated in our youths from both home and school.
Intercultural differences are abound from nation to nation; it is up to us to decide what values and aspects of culture we wish to refine and define ourselves.
Regards,
Eric Li
@Jerina, Zhang Jiao & Eric: Thanks for your insightful sharing and comments. I agree with all that intercultural differences vary in all countries. But the most important lesson that we need to learn is to establish good intercultural communication skills so as to avoid possible conflict or misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteHi Kent,
ReplyDeleteThe overwhelming responses have proven that you have brought up a very interesting intercultural scenario.
Indeed, what the teacher did, in this case, was a common practice when an organization in China communicated with foreign guests. You analyzed the case from the “patriotism” perspective, which I have not thought about for similar cases and it broadened my view.
However, from a personal perspective, I doubt if the teacher’s act was out of patriotism. To my best knowledge, China has not been very successful in fostering “patriotism” throughout its long history. Some scholars argue that Chinese culture usually make its people to tag themselves as members of small entities, but not to the larger scale of a “nation”. Therefore, these scholars maintain that the Chinese culture has developed concepts like “inside” (groups they belong to) vs “outside” (groups they do not belong to) and etc. Because of this distinction, Chinese people have different standards for the “insiders” and “outsiders”. Usually to the “outsiders”, Chinese would portray more of the positive side of themselves as what the teacher did, to reinforce such distinction.
Regards,
Chaoyi
@Chaoyi: Thanks for your thoughtful sharing. After reading your comment, I have a better idea of "patriotism' in China as I have all along think the otherwise.
ReplyDeleteHi Kent,
ReplyDeleteYour post was interesting and the comments from your peers were even more enlightening.
Regards,
Happy
Hi Ms Happy Goh,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback. I am glad hearing from peers like Zhang Jiao and Chaoyi who have encountered similar situation in China so as to substantiate my point as well as all the other peers for their valuable sharing.
Cheers
Kent