I’ve had this theory for a while, but I’ve never put it in writing, so here goes: I have always contended that Chinese people (as in living in China, this is a social theory, not an ethnic one) have more a sense of self-responsibility than the average American. I think it’s for a few reasons and manifests itself in a few way.
First, because of the sheer amount of people, you have to look out for yourself, because in general who else will? There isn’t the same amount of social security and government benefits we have in the West (say what you will about ours, objectively we still have more) and so people just save more. It’s somewhere in the ballpark of Americans spending 90%, saving 10%, and the Chinese spending 40%, saving 60%. They look out for themselves.
There’s also something to be said about Confucian values, which seems to be breaking down amongst the newer generation. Historically, there were large families, and when you got married, you moved back in with the family, so you’d take care of your parents and 4 grandparents and whoever else. The large families could take care of themselves.
Now it’s breaking down for a few reasons. First, because of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Confucian principles were overtly broken down, and openly repressed for a new future. Second, the One Child Policy (which has since been relaxed) has meant there’s been and less possible children to go back home to take care of the grandparents.
Now there’s one person taking care of the immediate family, as well as his parents and grandparents and whoever else. That’s a huge burden on just one or two people and so the system is breaking down. While in the past who families could look out for one another, it’s now mostly on just a few people.
Third, because of the new level of wealth and prosperity many Chinese are now beginning to experience, young kids want to go out and explore the world and do things. (Surprise!) As a result, again, fewer kids return home, magnifying the effect of self-responsibility.
Some of the older generations are finding new ways to take care of themselves, and the younger ones too. The older ones too are getting richer and less dependent on younger generations. The younger ones are moving to bigger cities and getting better jobs. Certainly they help out at home and send money home and such, but it’s not the idea of collectivism the West has come to use to define China.
Long gone are days of communism; this is an incredibly capitalist country. (Caveat: while I think this has magnified the effect of self-responsibility in China, it hasn’t come at an expense of negative individualism, as most of the people I’ve met have been incredibly welcoming.)
This manifests itself in one way that I find quite poignant – crossing the street. In the States, you can sue for just about anything. So when trucks are on the road, they watch out for cars. Cars watch out for bikes. And bikes watch out for people. Because if you hit the little guy, chances are you’ll lose, and so people must watch out for the little guy.
Responsibility is financially driven and so there’s less of sense of watching out for yourself. We tell our kids to look both ways when crossing the street, but I’m sure everyone tried to test the very exciting limits of jaywalking once we were outside prying eyes.
In China, if you’re a pedestrian, watch the hell out for the little motorbikes, and you sure as hell better be watching for cars. I’m not so sure they’d stop. There’s more a sense of self-responsibility when you have cars flying every watch way and you can’t sue for just anything.
I think transportation is an interesting proxy for how a given society works, and this example typifies the relationship everyday folk have with responsibility.
Last, as I do every time, I must caveat here. Generalizations only go so far, and it’s silly to typecast 1.4 billion people versus 330 million others. I see this happening on a daily basis, so I applied social theory to anecdote.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. Maybe you agree or disagree. Do share!
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