I think that China is in a transitional period, between collectivism and individualism. It's very interesting to be here at this time and phase for this country.
At times I really see the way this society reflects a collectivist culture, that is the family being the most important and the way that people identify with family.
When I used to think of collectivism, I thought of a culture that cared for everyone, that operated together as a group. After actually being in one, I realize that my perception was wrong. Collectivism might even be more individualist than individualism. If that makes any sense whatsoever, I will try to explain my reasoning for this statement.
In America, I experience individualism. People identify with themselves, meaning that when you ask them who they are, they usually start to explain their characteristics or hobbies. But in collectivism one would explain their family members and heritage. People in America usually operate as individuals, doing what pleases them, being independent of others. People in China, from my observations, like to go as groups, with friends or family members.
But I find that a stranger in America, can be extremely friendly. I talk to lots of strangers every day in America, and people are always ready to offer a helping hand.
But I don't experience that kind of friendliness here. I have a few times, but nothing like I do when I am in California.
Now this could be merely because I am a foreigner and people are afraid I won't understand Chinese, or don't know how to speak English and figure that I can't speak Chinese.
But I find that people are more likely to be very cliquey, more involved in their group of family than with the mass public.
Through my beliefs, I think that all human beings should be treated equally. I want to treat a stranger with just as much compassion as I treat someone who is a friend or family member. I don't think the same philosophy and mentality is valued here.
I have realized that China is not purely collectivist, as America is not purely individualist. Neither one can be purely one or the other. It is just like yin and yang, there is collectivism within individualism and vice versa.
Another factor of the culture here is that it is still hierarchical. People are not treated equally. A migrant worker or maid would not be invited over to have dinner with the persons house that they are tending. Usually they look down when I try to be friendly to them. It makes me sad.
The apathy towards the general public scares me here. I wrote a paper on one instance that happened in 2011, that I hadn't hear about until I came to China.
It is a very upsetting event. There are videos online if anyone is curious, but it is very disturbing to watch:
Apathy Caused by Modernization or Sheer Psychological Phenomenon
Does modernization overlook moral obligation or is it sheer psychological phenomenon? The question and debate of ethics, what is right and wrong, arises in every society. Current events that are shown through the media often reflect the society's debates and questions on the values and ethical obligations of a society.
In China, an event happened in 2011 that made many civilians question what the general population's ethics are. The event was that a girl toddler, two years of age, was hit by a car on a calm street in Guangzhou Province, Foshan City and run over. In the process of her injury she was left on the street for a long time before anyone came to her rescue. A nearby surveillance camera on the street captured the video of the horrible crime. The video shows many people passing by the young girl with out even a closer look. Some of the people would give a quick glance that showed no worry or care for the bloody body lying in the middle of the street. Finally a garbage collector helped her by pulling her off the street and quickly after the mother appeared to her rescue. The girl died a week after being hit by two cars. After the news of this incident in China, people were provoked to start a "Stop Apathy Campaign". It is peculiar that her mother let her daughter wander around without even worrying about where she was, and even more peculiar how quickly the mother showed up right after her daughter was finally pulled off the street. The father of the child exclaimed after talking to one of the victims who hit his child, “All he asked was my bank account and how much compensation I want.”[1]
The moral and ethical obligations of this incident were discussed around the whole world. A lot of hypotheses were made to explain the cause of such a tragedy, including the bystander effect, legal problems, the fact that the child was a girl, the effect of modernization, and just plain apathy.
The bystander effect is a very common circumstance known in psychology. It is when someone is the victim of a crime and is in need of help, such as what happened with the toddler, is ignored by the public. The reason that it is ignored is usually because there is a group of people at the scene of the "crime" and every one thinks that someone else will come to the rescue, but in the end no one ends up helping because every one thought that someone else would help. However, in this case, it was probably not the bystander effect because based on the footage, the toddler was hit in what looks like a side street and there was not a big group of people around, only one person at a time passed the girl.
In the aspect of legal problems, according to the websites that I have read a student at Beijing University, Zhang Xuehe, people don't have very good legal coverage in China, meaning that they don't have laws that protect people in legal situations where someone is held accountable for another persons life. According to Zhang Xuehe, there was another incident where an old man fell down in a public place, and was helped by a younger man who took him to the hospital. After the older man was better, he accused the younger man of pushing him down instead of helping him up. Therefore, people are afraid to help others because of the fear of being sewed instead of extolled for being a good civilian.
Another reason for this tragic incident could have been because the child was a young girl. Although China has gone through a lot of reform lately, and therefore women are treated better in today's society, sexism is still prevalent. In My Country and My People by Lin Yutang, Lin mentions that Confucianism secluded women by, "encourag[ing] the womanly woman, and naturally taught such feminine virtues as quietness, obedience, good manners, perosnal neatness, industry, ability in cooking and spinning, respect for the husband's parents, kindness to the husband's brothers, courtesy to the husband's friends, and all those virtues desirable from the male point of view" (Lin, 144). All of these aspects of what the woman "should" act like are sexist because they are ideal values based upon what man wanted for women. In China with the enforcement of the one child policy, people do not desire to have a daughter because of the discrimination that they will have to face in the world, and because they want a strong son who will get a better job and make a lot of money. Therefore, people may have ignored this girl based on the fact that she was a girl.
The effect of modernization[2] in China has resulted in industrialization[3] such as manufacturing and producing more technology like cars, computers, cell phones, etc. Modernization has therefore resulted in a faster pace of living because we have machines that can do things for us while we double task such as doing the laundry while cooking dinner. Before laundry machines, people had to wash their clothes by hand, and this resulted in a very laborious process that required full attention. Nowadays people are in a rush to get to work or an important meeting on time because time is money. The people who passed by the little girl were not just pedestrians but a lot of people on motor vehicles that seemed to be in such a rush that they couldn't even turn their head or give a helping hand. In some ways modernization has resulted in apathy for others lives, people are so involved in their own lives that they don't have the time to help others when in dire need.
My reaction to this fatal and quite disturbing incident was one of shock and disgust. I don't think that this is a result of just the Chinese people, but instead a result of all the factors mentioned including the bystander effect, apathy, the legislative system in China, and modernization. It is unclear as to whether or not the man who initially ran over the young girl had even seen the girl before hitting her or knew that he had run over a human being. Based on the video content it seemed as though he ran over a piece of trash and just continued on his way. The next car didn't even bother to look at what was on the road, or notice that it was a bleeding young toddler in the middle of the street, and continued to run over her. As people walked by they didn't give any sign of panic or distress to the sight of a suffering little girl. I want to think that all of the factors mentioned above together contributed to what happened, but I can't say for sure. I also want to think that if this happened somewhere around where I lived that someone would give a helping hand immediately upon the gruesome sight of the girl. It almost seemed as though the sight of the girl was too disturbing, and no one wanted to deal with a girl that was bleeding all over the place. However, just a call to the police probably would have been enough.
[1] Quote gathered from foxcrawl.com
[2] To modernize in this context means to adopt modern habits such as driving cars and using technology
[3] To create factories and technology as a main source of manufacturing goods in society
What I wrote above is about apathy towards the general public, something that I have experienced while being here in China, and it makes me wonder, what really is collectivism?
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