Westerners Vs. Asians

Call it an “Instant Guide to Thai Culture”. Or “Thai Culture in 60 Seconds”.

Following icons were designed by Yang Liu (sometimes spelled Liu Young), born in China and educated in Germany.

She calls the series: “East meets West” – “Differences of German & Chinese”.

A multi-appliable, pan-Asian approach.

Blue stands for German, red for Chinese.

Or blue can stand for any Caucasian. And red for Thai:

 

Opinion

 

Way of Life

 

Punctuality

 

Contacts

 

Anger

 

Queueing

 

Me

 

Sundays on the Road

 

Party

 

In the Restaurant

 

Stomach Ache

 

Travelling

 

Handling of Problems

 

Three Meals a Day

 

Transportation

 

Elderly

 

Shower

 

Moods & Weather

 

The Boss

 

What’s Trendy

 

The Child

 

New Things

 

Perception of Others

 

Are cultural difference that simplistic after all?

We think we’re unique.

To me at least the icons look not too unconvincing.

Be it Blacks or Hispanics or Asians or Caucasians: People are the same. Or so they say. At least their genes.

Westerners and Asians couldn’t be more different though.

Remember Lee Kuan Yew’s famous Asian values? They may be a cause for concern, but -

Being at being different: Read Joe Studwell’s book “Asian Godfathers”. Fascinating.

Asians are different. Period.

As they’re conditioned by another environment. Period.

By other people, other values, other heritages, traditions.

What makes us pretty much predictable. Even though we insist on such pusillanimously illusionary concepts as free will or self-determination.

After all the attempts of trying to be oneself, there’s mainly predictability, or so it seems.