Cultural Gap I

What makes an American lady and what makes a Chinese lady?

It is said a person’s values and world views would be edited by the particular society and cultural background in which he was born and brought up. In this way, what his society believes in is his beliefs, and what his culture accepts as normal is his standard ideas and practices.

People born and bred in totally different social contexts can hardly understand and communicate with each other. And meanwhile, people subject to one culture tend to downplay the noteworthy values seen in another culture.

This explains why it is desirable to narrow down the cultural gap before the people-to-people communication sets in. The following capsule descriptions are just listed to help highlight something at variance between American women and Chinese women, but not intended to set up stereotypes.

1, I¡¯ll marry him, because I feel better living with him. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

2, I¡¯ll marry him, because I can¡¯t live without him. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

3, I sometimes enjoy staying in solitude, so I choose to travel alone for a week. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

4, I’m afraid of being left alone, so I begin to count days immediately after he sets off on a business trip. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

5, Since I married, my life circle has been dramatically shrunk and finally reduced to merely my nuclear family and my husband. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

6, My circle of relations has generally kept intact even after marriage. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

7, I want to conceive a baby, because I love my husband and I want to strengthen the relations with him by the blood tie. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

8, I will give birth to a baby, if I feel pleased with my life and my relations with my husband. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

9, I seldom consider adopting a baby, even if I fail to conceive one, as I think baby is to carry on the family line and extend my genes. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

10, If I want a baby, I can accept an adopted one, as raising a baby in itself is a pleasant thing and also provides me with a wonderful experience of being a mother. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

11, I hope my baby will have a happy life of his own. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

12, I hope my baby can enjoy an easy life which I have been dreaming of, and a successful life which I tried but failed myself. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

13, I hope my husband will never say “divorce” to me, even if he often says he has no feeling for me, as divorce means failure, or at least being abandoned, to a married woman. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

14, If love perishes, living together will be a nightmare. In this case, divorce may mean turning a new leaf in life. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

15, If I have problems, I would like to share them with my friends or even go to seek medical help, say, going to psychiatrist. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both

16, If problems do occur in my marriage life, I’d rather keep them to myself, as it is a stigma to let others know “a skeleton in the cupboard”, or I’ll go to my parents’ home pouring out all the troubles of my heart. 1) Chinese lady 2) American lady 3) Both