Understanding it…

 Given name & family name  Family name & given name
 Fork, knife & spoon  Chopsticks and spoon
 Individual meal  Everyone shares
 Adventurous  Preservatives
 Left to right top-down  Top-down right to left
 Based in science  Balance in nature based
 Rules & Laws  Friendship
 Use of “God” to resolve  Internal cultivation
 The west

1. Western culture is based on individualism rather than on mass (collectivism). For instance, in the US,
you always talk about individual rights, instead of placing the whole society above your own self. This is
clearly different in China where a country, society or family are placed above your own self.

2. Western culture is adventurous and exploration based. Westerners like to discover new things,
invention and expand outwards. For instance, bungee jumping is considered adventurous and common
in western culture, but you will probably find no-one doing such a thing in China.

3. Western culture is based on science, which attempts to resolve people and nature's relationship.

4. West uses law to resolve people and people's relationship. You can never find 'law' well-established in
China. For 2000 years, China is a land that's based on human relationship rather than law.

5. West uses 'god' and religion to resolve human and spiritualism relationship. In case of problems with
your own self, you just pray to god.

6. A culture that expands and develop outwards.

 The east
1. A culture based on masses (collectivism). People placed country and family above your own self.

2. A culture that is based on humanism and people

3. To resolve the relationship between man and nature, the Chinese attempts to fuse the human and
'heaven' as one. (天人和一)

4. To resolve people and people's relationship, Chinese uses ethics and tolerance (中恕之道)

5. To resolve human and spiritualism, Chinese emphasizes internal cultivation (修身养性)

6. A focus on balance and mean. By 'mean', it means 'middle way'. You don't go into extremism. Peace is
always honoured.

7. Pay homage to heaven and earth, as well as bearing a remembrance to the homeland. (敬仰天地,思乡
怀土) This was accorded to the fact that Chinese had been a farming civilization and therefore will be
more prone to remember their land.

8. A culture that expands internally rather than outwards.

Some of the disadvantage of old Chinese culture:
Contacts

Connections and contacts – This is probably the most true one of the bunch. An
Asian will know an Asian who knows an Asian who knows an Asian who knows
an Asian…etc.
East VS West

The perception of each other – how Westerns(Germans) see Chinese

Party

Chinese parties almost always include a dinner party and these take place over a round
table. The round table is kept intact at other places too – bars and clubs and KTVs.
It’s more of a “Let’s talk in our group” rather than “Let’s mingle and meet people.”
Punctuality

Punctuality – We run on “Asian time”.

Queuing

Queuing on a line
Restaurant

Noise level inside a restaurant

Telling the truth

Telling the truth – Most Chinese will avoid confrontation as much as possible.
Hence this illustration.
Travelling

Travelling and recording memories

To eat

What utensils each use

Size and population

The two on the right explain size and population

The exhibition
Thank you!