Cultural Differences between the East and the West

Culture,according to the definition given by Hofstede, is the collective mentalprogramming of the people in an environment, conditioned by the same educationand life experience. Therefore, there are differences between various nationsor regions, because people are affected by education, society and workexperience. Take the cultural difference between the East and the West as theexample, China is a country that endures high power distance while America endureslower power distance. Therefore, status symbol is very important for Chineseand a superior having the privilege is a matter of course. But people in Americathink that they are all equal. Besides, the westerns are individualistic whilethe easterners are more collectivistic. In individualistic societies, peoplefocus on their own values and needs, relying on individual efforts to servetheir interests. In the collectivistic nations, people combine themselves intoone or several communities, finding their own place in the group and they mentallyrely on the community, so harmony seems important in those nations. There are threemain differences between the East and the West, namely uncertainty avoidanceindex, masculine versus femininity and long vs. short term orientation.

根據(jù)霍夫斯泰德對文化所下的定義，文化是在同一個環(huán)境中的人們所具有的“共同的心理程序”，是由相同的教育背景和生活經(jīng)歷所決定的。因此，各個不同的民族或地域之前會存在文化差異，因為其中的人會受到教育、社會和工作經(jīng)驗的影響。以東西方的文化差異為例，中國是一個崇尚大權(quán)力距離的國家，而美國是權(quán)力距離相對較小的國家。因此，地位象征對中國人來說尤為重要，認為上級所擁有的特權(quán)是理所當(dāng)然的；而美國人則認為人與人之間是平等的。此外，西方人相對比較個人主義而東方人則更看重集體主義。在個人主義的社會中，人們重視自身的價值和需要，依靠個人的努力來為自己謀取利益，而在集體主義國家，人們把自己融入到一個或幾個集體中，在這些集體中找到屬于自己的位置，人們在精神上依賴于集體，因此，和諧在這些國家中顯得尤為重要。在東西方文化中，還存在以下三個主要的文化差異，即不確定性規(guī)避、男性度與女性度以及長期取向與短期取向。