In an interesting piece in today’s Post, the chief China correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Francesco Sisci, discusses China’s fascination with and reverence for America.The Answer, according to Sisci, lies mostly with globilzation. Obviously, that’s true, but there’s more to it than that, and I’ll write more on it later.
Anyway, I’m posting now because Sisci used a very peculiar example to evince cultural differences between Chinese and Americans.
There are, however, real differences between China and the United States, not so much in ideals as in culture.
Wang Lin, a Chinese-born engineer who lives in Denver, tells a story. “One day, my neighbor asked me whether he could borrow my car, because his had broken down,” he said. “Of course, as a Chinese, I thought that I had to keep good neighborly relations, so I gave him my car. I did this a few more times.”
Then one day, Wang asked his neighbor to return the favor. “He didn’t even think about it,” Wang told me. “He said no. I got angry. I gave him my car several times and he couldn’t lend me his once? He was very calm. He said, ‘You wanted to give me your car. You didn’t really have to, so I don’t owe you anything.’ I felt totally frustrated.”
I don’t know, but Wang Lin’s neighbor sounds like a real putz. Maybe it depends on where you’re from — I’ve spent most of my life in quaint Chevy Chase — but I’d like to think that most of my neighbors would be more than willing to lend their cars. There are lots of cultural differences between the Chinese and Americans, but this one totally misses the mark.
