Our Culture, Our Roots.

Today's blog post will be based ENTIRELY on MY OWN OPINION. You may or may not agree with me, its okay. Everyone deserve his or her own share of opinions. It's wordy.

I will be just talking about my own culture - ASIAN and also of Western Culture I know of today (currently, my point of view).

Firstly, ASIANS are conservative in thoughts and action. It's true. That is why asian parents want to take charge of their kids lives in fear that their kids will do wrong or not be on the right path. WE, asians are definitely not as open as the westerners, be it thoughts or actions such as respect or maybe even public display of affection. That's what i feel. Westerners to me are not that shy to show affection to his or her other half. But take a look in SINGAPORE, people shun about public display of affection, WHY?. Cause to us ASIANS, it is just disturbing or not very morally good since kids would learn the bad examples.

On the other hand, the westerners to me are like: HAVE IT FLAUNT IT. They are not afraid to show what they can do. In some western countries they even have NUDE BEACH, like everyone there is naked, but we don't have such areas in asian countries cause of our roots, our culture, it taught us it is not morally right.

Secondly, ASIAN culture to me is built upon being humble. The teachings we receive are always telling us to be humble.  Such as : 一山还有一山高 or 小巫见大巫 . It is usually revolving around telling us we are not the best in anything, there is definitely somewhere out there better than us. This culture has its own advantages and disadvantages.

For non-chinese,  一山还有一山高 (Yi Shan Hai You Yi Shan Gao) simply means there's someone better than you just like another mountain can be of a greater height than the other.

& 小巫见大巫 (Xiao Wu Jian Da Wu) meaning a small person (can be inferior) meeting a bigger person (more superior or successful), its like meeting someone who has better skills, knowledge etc than you.

The main teaching I guess is for US, ASIAN Kids is to always remember not be too proud as being proud can bring about a lot of problems, you know them don't you ? & I feel this teaching is essential for everyone because it is true there is no definite king or queen in an area of expertise. You may be the best today, but you may not be the best again tomorrow.

That is why WE ASIANS, are not able to praise others and also to receive praise from others as easily as the westerners. You might say because we aren't praised often, but how can we change it when THIS CULTURE has been around for million of years. Do you have the ability to go back to the dynasty days and change the culture back then ? WE CAN'T. But what we can do now is to introduce a little bit of western teachings into our own to make it a more balanced culture (of the east and west) - 中西合拼 . You can't expect a change overnight, just imagine you waking up and your mum, dad, siblings praise you. It is just not US right ? that's the asian culture.

But for westerners, I believe most of them or their parents are open-minded and are supportive of their kids usually (except some, that I watched documentaries etc). They encourage or praise the child quite a lot - which can be good and bad at the same time. They help build inner confidence of the child which is good, the bad is when in a long run, it might make the child an egoistic, over-confident person. Some westerners do come off as very egoistic, arrogant etc. Cause I believe since young their culture has taught them about the freedom they are given, they are good - like in academic, the parents don't bother about grades as much as asian parents do. So thats why I think some of the westerners think that they are at the top (when obviously they are not) and start to be arrogant.

Next, ASIANs are mostly soft-spoken and Westerners are more out-spoken. This you may not agree. But just look at the country I'm living in, SINGAPORE. Singaporeans are mostly outspoken only when they complain. We hardly reason out with substantial information even when we don't really agree with a policy or a similar situation. Most outspoken ones are those leaders we have seen, they are the minorities who dare to speak up back many years when Singapore wants to be independent. Singapore only has the speakers corner, but it is not even heavily utilised. Asians fear they say the wrong stuffs.

But, in western countries, they have the freedom of speech. I feel many of the western people are more independent of their thoughts unlike asians. Asians are more of wanting safety, they will do what the majority people perceived as right and then do it. They rarely do the unorthodox.

There's no one culture better than the other. For asians, we are asians, and I think we should accept our own culture and if needed like I said, there is no harm in trying to introduce some western teachings since we need to be more open-minded. Its our culture that made us who we are today, it guided us. It made us more conscious academically which I think is okay/good. Cause sometimes it IS necessary to show results. For example, the medical field. RESULTS are a MUST cause in the end we will be dealing with LIVE HUMANS and their LIVES. We need knowledge first before we can put it into practise.

Feel free to share with me your views by leaving down your comments, I would want to read them.