How is East Asian culture different?
Hong Kong and Seoul are remarkably serene. Traveling on trains and buses, everyone is quiet and considerate. Once, I heard a small group being loud - Americans. Indian cities are much noisier: cars and rickshaws are constantly honking. Cultural heterogeneity can be recorded in decibels.
Universities are equally quiet. My lecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong was well-attended but few spoke out. Self-censorship was motivated by worries about inadvertent embarrassment. At talks in India by contrast, the students were always vocal and animated, keen to share their perspectives.
This weekend was Lunar New Year. Supermarkets, street fairs and shopping malls in Hong Kong are decked in red and gold - the colours of luck and money. The most common greeting for New Year is “Kung Hei Fat Choy” (I hope you get rich, in Cantonese). When I visited an older woman, I noticed her glorious nails: red, gold and with a lucky cat (for money). China’s biggest cultural festival is all about wealth. By contrast, when my friends in Mumbai and Bangalore celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi, they worship the deity. In Morocco and Turkey, the most important holiday is Eid. When a family in Fes kindly invited me for iftar, there was no mention of money.
Crudely, let me try to encapsulate East Asian societies’ cultural distinctiveness:
Meritocracy and reverence for education
Materialism (trumping the afterlife)
Collectivism: concern for family, general harmony and embarrassment; discomfort with speaking out and being rebellious.
These cultural idiosyncrasies are generally overlooked, because social scientists tend with in-depth regional knowledge usually focus on that place. But without comparativism, we are blinkered to what is specific to each place.
One might presume that India’s female employment will rise with economic growth (just as it did in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore). But that would be to ignore Chinese distinctive ideals of meritocracy and materialism, as well as the absence of moralising supernatural punishment. This culture mediated responses to 20th century growth. Women seized economic opportunities, so their families could prosper.
Culture also shapes feminist activism. If students thrive by listening to their teachers and respecting authorities, they may become introverted. Seldom seeing others dissent, they may infer that everyone else internalises these ideals and will punish deviation. Eager for social approval, they may self-censor. Thus even if the country democratises, women may remain reluctant to challenge sexist discrimination.
This is a three-part series, examining the cultural evolution of meritocracy, materialism, and collectivism. The first two raised female labour force participation, while the third suppresses dissent. Together, they help explain East Asia’s distinctive gender relations.