Asian cultures differ greatly from Western cultures, so you’re bound to experience culture shock upon arrival. If you travel through Asia, this will be less than if you live there. You can alleviate some of the culture shock by reading books or websites about the local culture before you travel, but it can only reduce the shock. Aspects such as family, queues, criticism, beauty and sexual freedom are different. Loss of face in particular is an important concept for Asians.
- Family
- Queues
- Criticize
- Beauty ideal
- Sexual freedom
- Loss of face
Family
Asians place great value on family ties. People have no problem calling someone outside the family brother, sister, uncle or aunt to emphasize the special bond with that person. Within the family, the father leads the family and the mother takes care of the emotional side. Obedience and respect are expected of the children. The latter does not sound much different from our culture, but the interpretation in Asia is stronger. Children should never go against their parents and are expected to take care of their parents when they are old. Those who are eldest in the family have a higher status. This continues throughout life, meaning that the eldest brother remains special even when he is the eldest uncle.
Queues
Asian queues are very special, because you rarely see them. Unless people are forced by divisions, they will push forward. First come, first served is an unknown saying. In the beginning you may try to call people to order, but that only causes more frustration for yourself. Go with the flow.
Criticize
Asian cultures appear very free at first glance, but if you look further, you soon discover the limitations. Criticism of the leadership (of the school, of the country, etc.) is not tolerated. Criticism means loss of face for the recipient (see also ,loss of face,). Furthermore, organizations are very hierarchical: decisions are made at the top and directed downwards from there. Feedback from the bottom up is not part of the culture. This has everything to do with the respect you should have for older people or people in higher positions than yourself. Respect = obedience = docility.
Beauty ideal
The Asian beauty ideal both corresponds to and deviates from the Western one.
The ,similarity, lies in the pursuit of an appearance that is as Western as possible. Asian stars undergo surgery to change the typical eyelids so that the eyes become larger. Also popular is nose bridge surgery. Westerners have a piece of bone connecting their nose to their forehead, Asians do not. Their nose ends between the eyes, followed by a curve to the forehead. This is westernized through operations. Finally, there is also the focus on length; they all want to be taller. It is somewhat unclear why, because the countries are not at all designed for people of 1.75 m or more. All chairs, tables and desks are too small and buying clothes also becomes difficult. Some people even go as far as having leg lengthening surgery. The legs are broken and pierced above and below with steel pins. Over several weeks, the pins are slowly pulled apart so that the bone must grow to heal again. This is a very painful and expensive operation.
However, most people will not go so far as to surgically lengthen themselves, but there is an emphasis on skin color. Everyone wants to be as white as possible. The pursuit here goes beyond the Westerner, because the skin is only truly beautiful when it is as white as paper. Beauty products are sold with whitening elements. In the West, the white population wants to have tanned skin and we buy tanning creams. We all want what we don’t have.
Sexual freedom
The sexual restrictions are greater. Walking hand in hand is slowly becoming fashionable, but further intimacy is not accepted in public spaces. In Thailand, nudity scenes are blocked out in films, even if it is relatively innocent. This extends to the choice of clothing. The older generation in particular is very conservative and will never walk around with bare shoulders and knees. Young people attach less importance to this and are comfortable wearing tight or more concealing clothing, but they will not wear belly tops either. Remember that in some countries (Laos, for example) it is illegal to have sexual relations with a resident of that country, under penalty of a hefty fine. In China, ladies often show a lot of their legs, but cleavage is taboo.
Sex education is minimal because it is a taboo subject. So you may encounter twenty-year-olds who don’t know what the pill or a condom is. If they do know, they often got their information from hearsay, through TV, friends or the internet. Homosexuality is also becoming more and more known here and is therefore less of a mystery. That doesn’t mean that gays are 100% accepted or that people don’t get uncomfortable talking about this subject.
Loss of face
Asians are afraid of losing face or honor. They will even lie for this. If someone gives a blatant excuse as to why he/she was not present, it is an attempt not to lose face. If you then point out the lie to the person, you will only make things worse. Honesty is not the highest good in Asia. Think of it this way: if they go to the trouble of lying for you, it means a lot to them. Losing face can be caused by talking in a loud voice, criticizing or pointing out mistakes to people. my view on