(no subject)
This essay intends to build off the
discussion of 闲话 from my
last post. 闲话, which may be translated
literally as “leisurely conversation,” or more accurately as gossip, is, as I
have previously said, a fundamental and indispensable part of Chinese society. This essay also should include discussion of
judgment, and the ways in which Chinese people judge each other. I intend for these topics to lead into a
discussion of group orientation as a societal factor.
In China, especially in smaller towns (for example the one in which I am currently residing), untrue or partially true rumors spread with an astounding frequency and rapidity. Everyone will recognize this, recognize that these rumors are most often falsified, or at least heavily twisted versions of the truth, and claim to despise it. However, through conversations with endless numbers of people about this, I’ve realized that no one thinks they do it.
The best example I can provide (as it is the one I’ve most thoroughly discussed and investigated) is Scott’s girlfriend (who incidentally is his girlfriend again, by the way), Luo Wen. Luo Wen is a student on the B campus of Yibin College. B campus students rarely interact with A campus students, and there is a great deal of prejudice among both parties. Luo Wen dislikes instantaneously any student from A campus. Why? According to her it is because they judge her and look down on her. We ask her, isn’t that judging them, looking down on them? She insists it is different. That she has a good reason to dislike all of them, and they just dislike her because of the campus on which she studies. Further, when she partakes in gossip discussing these people, she sees it as reasonable and believes all that she and her friends are saying is true, yet it is unreasonable and mud-raking for them to do the same thing.
Try as we may, we can not make her see that these two actions are exactly the same. They are convinced they have a perfectly legitimate reason for gossiping about her, for looking down on her. It is precisely this mindset that propagates the problem of gossip.
This is to a certain extent the inevitable product of their group-oriented society - the mindset that those ones my group are good, those outside that group are bad. How could one of them possibly look down on me? I am good, and they are not as good as me, and the fact that they would spread lies about me only reinforces my previous judgment of them as bad.
My experience in China has forced me to reexamine my ideas of what group-orientation on a societal level meant. I knew very little about Japanese society, upon which my extrapolations as to the meanings and implications of “group-orientation” were based, and nothing about Chinese society. Western society, being mostly individual-oriented, places (at least in theory) the focus on each person, giving each person a chance to make it on their own - the endlessly referenced pulling up of oneself by his own bootstraps. My assumption was if they are not individual oriented, group orientation meant focus on society as a whole which is to the best of my knowledge true in Japan - should you happen to find a coin in the return slot of a vending machine you must not take it, because how will that person feel if they come back looking for their money only to find it is not there? Japan has a much more societally-focused concept of behavior, and my, apparently erroneous, assumption was that this would translate to Chinese society as well.
In fact, it does not. I was shocked at how rude the Chinese can be to someone they don’t know - shoving people, cutting in line, yelling in ears, gossip, etc. People from one province hate people from other provinces, people from one town hate people from another town, people from campus A hate people from Campus B. How could a country like this be called group-oriented? How could a country like this possibly accept socialism, a system designed to make sure everyone in society got what they needed? They hate each other!
I quickly had to rethink what group-orientation meant. What it means in China is that there are too many people for you to possibly care about all of them, so you must do everything you can for those inside your monkey-sphere, though you are not required in any way to care for anyone outside that circle. This makes each person able to work as hard as they can for their group and not feel bad if it’s not good for someone else. Most countries that change to a socialist system have the same reasoning - “it makes sure I get what I need, and I don’t care if you do or not, I’m taken care of.”
Considering the Chinese disregard for society as a whole, for that man on the bus, for the pedestrian crossing the street, we may be led to ask: is the Chinese group much smaller than that of the West? The answer is no, but how can this be explained? Firstly, the West has had metropolises much longer than China, and as such we have had time to develop a concept of proper behavior in a crowded city. There will always be more people around than can fit in your group, so how do we deal with this? In the West we’ve decided that the answer lies in just treating others as you would like them to treat you. The Chinese have either not thought about this problem, or, after considering it have decided that the best thing to do is just live your own life and worry about your own business. In fact, the Chinese group is much larger than that of the West. The concept of family is larger (for example most Chinese people don’t understand how Scott and I can leave our families for a year, many don’t even understand why we would go to another city to study, even though many of their classmates have done the same), people closer to you are referred to as “elder brother,” “Younger sister,” etc. In fact, people within their larger sphere are held much more closely than those inside our smaller sphere. The difference lies in how we treat those outside our group. The West we maintain a polite distance, the Chinese don’t seem to mind in the least disregarding your humanity.
And yet, the contradiction arises: why is it that the Chinese will refuse to be concerned for the well being of others, yet let gossip be so important? Why does it matter to Ding Li if the lady who sells rice makes a derogatory comment about him to the man who shines shoes? Moreover, why is Lao Wang willing to dehumanize Xiao Bai one second on the bus, then spend the next hour discussing how he saw her with a foreigner? More academically stated, what explains the variation in concern for other people? The answer offered by Chinese people when asked this question (“They’re bored”) is unsatisfactory.
The other question which remains in this discussion is: is the variation in severity of gossip, importance of the opinion of others, and willingness to make snap judgments explained satisfactorily by the differences in orientation of society? In my thinking about this problem, I’ve decided that for the most part these phenomena can be pinned on the focus of society: individual or group. However, in China the repercussions of gossip are much more severe than in other group-oriented societies, though it is certainly more present and severe in those societies than in our Western society. The variation in severity is still something I am struggling to explain.
In China, especially in smaller towns (for example the one in which I am currently residing), untrue or partially true rumors spread with an astounding frequency and rapidity. Everyone will recognize this, recognize that these rumors are most often falsified, or at least heavily twisted versions of the truth, and claim to despise it. However, through conversations with endless numbers of people about this, I’ve realized that no one thinks they do it.
The best example I can provide (as it is the one I’ve most thoroughly discussed and investigated) is Scott’s girlfriend (who incidentally is his girlfriend again, by the way), Luo Wen. Luo Wen is a student on the B campus of Yibin College. B campus students rarely interact with A campus students, and there is a great deal of prejudice among both parties. Luo Wen dislikes instantaneously any student from A campus. Why? According to her it is because they judge her and look down on her. We ask her, isn’t that judging them, looking down on them? She insists it is different. That she has a good reason to dislike all of them, and they just dislike her because of the campus on which she studies. Further, when she partakes in gossip discussing these people, she sees it as reasonable and believes all that she and her friends are saying is true, yet it is unreasonable and mud-raking for them to do the same thing.
Try as we may, we can not make her see that these two actions are exactly the same. They are convinced they have a perfectly legitimate reason for gossiping about her, for looking down on her. It is precisely this mindset that propagates the problem of gossip.
This is to a certain extent the inevitable product of their group-oriented society - the mindset that those ones my group are good, those outside that group are bad. How could one of them possibly look down on me? I am good, and they are not as good as me, and the fact that they would spread lies about me only reinforces my previous judgment of them as bad.
My experience in China has forced me to reexamine my ideas of what group-orientation on a societal level meant. I knew very little about Japanese society, upon which my extrapolations as to the meanings and implications of “group-orientation” were based, and nothing about Chinese society. Western society, being mostly individual-oriented, places (at least in theory) the focus on each person, giving each person a chance to make it on their own - the endlessly referenced pulling up of oneself by his own bootstraps. My assumption was if they are not individual oriented, group orientation meant focus on society as a whole which is to the best of my knowledge true in Japan - should you happen to find a coin in the return slot of a vending machine you must not take it, because how will that person feel if they come back looking for their money only to find it is not there? Japan has a much more societally-focused concept of behavior, and my, apparently erroneous, assumption was that this would translate to Chinese society as well.
In fact, it does not. I was shocked at how rude the Chinese can be to someone they don’t know - shoving people, cutting in line, yelling in ears, gossip, etc. People from one province hate people from other provinces, people from one town hate people from another town, people from campus A hate people from Campus B. How could a country like this be called group-oriented? How could a country like this possibly accept socialism, a system designed to make sure everyone in society got what they needed? They hate each other!
I quickly had to rethink what group-orientation meant. What it means in China is that there are too many people for you to possibly care about all of them, so you must do everything you can for those inside your monkey-sphere, though you are not required in any way to care for anyone outside that circle. This makes each person able to work as hard as they can for their group and not feel bad if it’s not good for someone else. Most countries that change to a socialist system have the same reasoning - “it makes sure I get what I need, and I don’t care if you do or not, I’m taken care of.”
Considering the Chinese disregard for society as a whole, for that man on the bus, for the pedestrian crossing the street, we may be led to ask: is the Chinese group much smaller than that of the West? The answer is no, but how can this be explained? Firstly, the West has had metropolises much longer than China, and as such we have had time to develop a concept of proper behavior in a crowded city. There will always be more people around than can fit in your group, so how do we deal with this? In the West we’ve decided that the answer lies in just treating others as you would like them to treat you. The Chinese have either not thought about this problem, or, after considering it have decided that the best thing to do is just live your own life and worry about your own business. In fact, the Chinese group is much larger than that of the West. The concept of family is larger (for example most Chinese people don’t understand how Scott and I can leave our families for a year, many don’t even understand why we would go to another city to study, even though many of their classmates have done the same), people closer to you are referred to as “elder brother,” “Younger sister,” etc. In fact, people within their larger sphere are held much more closely than those inside our smaller sphere. The difference lies in how we treat those outside our group. The West we maintain a polite distance, the Chinese don’t seem to mind in the least disregarding your humanity.
And yet, the contradiction arises: why is it that the Chinese will refuse to be concerned for the well being of others, yet let gossip be so important? Why does it matter to Ding Li if the lady who sells rice makes a derogatory comment about him to the man who shines shoes? Moreover, why is Lao Wang willing to dehumanize Xiao Bai one second on the bus, then spend the next hour discussing how he saw her with a foreigner? More academically stated, what explains the variation in concern for other people? The answer offered by Chinese people when asked this question (“They’re bored”) is unsatisfactory.
The other question which remains in this discussion is: is the variation in severity of gossip, importance of the opinion of others, and willingness to make snap judgments explained satisfactorily by the differences in orientation of society? In my thinking about this problem, I’ve decided that for the most part these phenomena can be pinned on the focus of society: individual or group. However, in China the repercussions of gossip are much more severe than in other group-oriented societies, though it is certainly more present and severe in those societies than in our Western society. The variation in severity is still something I am struggling to explain.