There’s a lot of commentary on Chinese society, culture and even behaviour on the Web. Just the term “Chinese behaviour” ought to raise more than a few eyebrows, but unfortunately it seems like that’s not the case most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely a lot of quality China analysis out there, but there’s even more that can be fairly described as complete nonsense.
What I want to talk about here is this issue in relation to the good old outgroup homogeneity effect. If you’re not already aware of this, it can be summed up as the human tendency to think in the following way:
If someone outside of my group does something, it’s because everyone in their group is like that. If someone inside my group does something, it’s because that individual person is like that.
It’s a pretty obvious point these days, but as with all cognitive biases, knowing about it doesn’t stop you doing it (there’s no shortage of studies that have found the majority of people consider themselves less susceptible to cognitive bias than average). I think pretty much every China expat has done it at least once: something crap or ridiculous happens in China, and we decide it’s because of China. There’s even a dedicated website for it.
It’s the bad China days, frustrations, manners, safety, hygiene and whatever else that’s the topic of endless blog posts and forum threads. I do them too.
But you only need to consider it for a moment and in the end you know that most of that stuff happens everywhere. There are arseholes, idiots, jobsworths and racists back home, and they’ve got plenty of infuriating bureaucracy, incompetence and general ignorance between them.
No-one denies that, but at the same time we don’t write articles about it, because it’s not interesting. Everywhere that has people has those issues, and we all make that discovery sooner or later. For some reason, though, as soon as we come out to a different country, they become cultural issues. So then it becomes meaningful to analyse it on that level, rant about it and back-slap each other for living in such an unliveable country.
I’m by no means the first to say it, but: what a load of crap. Yes, every once in a while something happens in China that isn’t really conceivable back home. But far more often, weird and/or bad stuff happens in China because the individual in question is weird and/or bad. If we’re being honest, it’s extremely rare to encounter an issue that’s unheard of back home.
I’m sure this post will prompt a lot of people to think “get off your high horse”, but whatever. I’ve found that having an opinion on other people’s opinions often provokes that response. I still think this is something that most people know about, but don’t pay enough attention to to resist the temptation to whinge about China every now and then.
The whingeing is fine, the ‘about China’ bit is not.
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” But far more often, weird and/or bad stuff happens in China because the individual in question is weird and/or bad”
Good point… so the public spitting, jaywalking, and defecation is my fault. You’re mostly right with this post except the part where you pretend China isn’t VERY MUCH a developing country. Much of what frustrates foreigners here (inefficiency,etc) comes down to education. As much as you or I love China, you can’t just gloss over the massive educational deficiency here (nevermind the huge income gap in places like Beijing and Shanghai).
“There are arseholes, idiots, jobsworths and racists back home, and they’ve got plenty of infuriating bureaucracy, incompetence and general ignorance between them.”
Again, in your preparation to settle down in China, I can imagine your interest in pulling off this false equivalency here, but no. Just, no. Not all countries in the world are the same, and they’re not all 3rd world China. You’re more than welcome to compare China to other 3rd world countries, though.
I didn’t mean it was the fault of the observer, I meant it was the fault of the individual doing whatever objectionable thing it was. My point was that it’s clearly not the fault of the entire Chinese nation, or even any kind of majority. It’s the fault of that person. A lot of foreigners here seem to believe otherwise, even if they won’t say it outright.
Neither am I saying that all countries are the same. Far from it. But for every fault or advantage you can find in one you can find an advantage or fault in another. That’s the only equivalence they have, but it’s an important one.
Overall my point was that it’s far better to look at the behaviour around you as that of individuals and not of a culture, and stop trying to “understand China” as one entity.