New Reply

Post a Reply

Thread: Individualist and Collectivist Cultures

Title: (100 characters at most)

Content: ( 3,000 characters at most, please )

You can add emoticons below to your post by clicking them.

[quote=GUEST80145,432955]I have a Chinese friend (a Ph.D. from Tsinghua) who explained once that he did not think China was a collectivist culture, but a Confucianist culture because of the ways in which decisions are made.
When I think of a collectivist culture making decisions, I think of a tribe, where all of the members gather to discuss what is best for the whole tribe.
At my university, we have no staff meetings to discuss and make decisions.  We have only ones where the teachers are told the decisions that have already been made and what is expected of us.  Again, my fellow teacher and friend says that this is a Confucianist culture for decision making, not collectivist.
I would never have come to such a conclusion as a foreigner, but as a native, I was intrigued by his analysis.
My wife, of course, disagrees with me; she says that I have misunderstood what "collectivist" means.
So I guess I am joining this discussion to ask what does "collectivist" mean in the decision-making process?[/quote]

characters left

Name:

Get a new code