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(duì)文化所下的定義，文化是在同一個(gè)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(gè)不同的民族或地域之前會(huì)存在文化差異，因?yàn)槠渲械娜藭?huì)受到教育、社會(huì)和工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)的影響。以東西方的文化差異為例，中國(guó)是一個(gè)崇尚大權(quán)力距離的國(guó)家，而美國(guó)是權(quán)力距離相對(duì)較小的國(guó)家。因此，地位象征對(duì)中國(guó)人來說尤為重要，認(rèn)為上級(jí)所擁有的特權(quán)是理所當(dāng)然的；而美國(guó)人則認(rèn)為人與人之間是平等的。此外，西方人相對(duì)比較個(gè)人主義而東方人則更看重集體主義。在個(gè)人主義的社會(huì)中，人們重視自身的價(jià)值和需要，依靠個(gè)人的努力來為自己謀取利益，而在集體主義國(guó)家，人們把自己融入到一個(gè)或幾個(gè)集體中，在這些集體中找到屬于自己的位置，人們?cè)诰�神上依賴于集體，因此，和諧在這些國(guó)家中顯得尤為重要。在東西方文化中，還存在以下三個(gè)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(zhǎng)期取向與短期取向。