My OperaDifferences between East & West--Being or Doing
Sunday, April 29, 2007 9:16:35 AM
When introducing someone, the Chinese tend to introduce his title or profession first, his being a professor, a manager, or a official. The westerners tend to explain what they are doing when meeting people, focusing on the specific matters.
This explains the difference between "being" and "doing".
Chinese people care much about qualitative things, who people are--their quality,temperament, their social class, speak louder than what they are doing. When it goes to specific matters, Chinese like to focus on what they are rather than what they can do. This comes from the traditional Chinese “正名” thinking--Rectifying names or telling what things really are.
This also influence the way people write articles: the Chinese articles are always found in a general, nonobjective way, which focus on the general correctness rather than specific matters. So it's kinda like: Chinese articles are always talking big, streching long statements without a specific example.
That's why my TOEFL writting teacher always shouts--"SPECIFC, SPECIFC, SPECIFIC!!!!".
This explains the difference between "being" and "doing".
Chinese people care much about qualitative things, who people are--their quality,temperament, their social class, speak louder than what they are doing. When it goes to specific matters, Chinese like to focus on what they are rather than what they can do. This comes from the traditional Chinese “正名” thinking--Rectifying names or telling what things really are.
This also influence the way people write articles: the Chinese articles are always found in a general, nonobjective way, which focus on the general correctness rather than specific matters. So it's kinda like: Chinese articles are always talking big, streching long statements without a specific example.
That's why my TOEFL writting teacher always shouts--"SPECIFC, SPECIFC, SPECIFIC!!!!".
Andy WilsonDudley # Tuesday, May 1, 2007 12:57:16 PM
Tongkeng KHORkhorniche # Wednesday, May 2, 2007 2:52:41 PM
Embedded in Chinese psyche is the high value we place on the man whom I am as a person. Many in China today, I know, bemoan the loss of moral and ethical values among its peoples.
Among Westerners, Germans tend for example to be impressed by the title a person holds than by his person. A Professer for example is addressed as such by the butcher as well as the academic circle in which he moves.
Your mention of TOEFL is the clue to your generalisation. This is an American way of testing one's competence in the English language. Americans do tend to show the kind of psyche you assume to be Western.
But Americans are not Western, they are quite a separate group of people in terms of psyche, morality, ethos, socio-cultural manifestations... Americans form opinions of a person by their financial strengths rather than the man within the person.
I do agree with you on this point: Chinese literary stance does differ significantly from American literary stance. Chinese writers take the long view, and hence paints in broad strokes, leaving the details to the reader's imagination to fill in. American writers painstakingly build up their plots layer by layer, character by character, leaving the reader stricken by the details; they have no part or lot with the author in the story.
Pfeleleppfelelep # Wednesday, May 30, 2007 1:59:08 PM
great blog