A friend on Facebook shared the trailer for a new movie, The Farewell. The premise of the story immediately grabbed me. The matriarch of a Chinese family has been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Her family decide not to tell her the bad news, so they engineer her grandson's wedding as a way to get everyone together one last time. A goodbye without saying goodbye. This idea is very foreign from a Western perspective, and the main character, a Chinese American woman, wrestles with family, love, and loss when cultures conflict. I can't wait to see the movie even it means bawling in the movie theater.
But this movie also brings out the differences between East and West. "You think one's life belongs to oneself. But that's the difference between the East and the West. In the East, a person's life is part of a whole. Family."
There are plenty of stereotypes, but research has shown that the West is independent. The East is interdependent. The West sees the world through an atomistic lens of distinct and discrete entities. The East's view is one that is more fluid where the parties and forces involved are interconnected. And these roots go back as far as Aristotle and Confucius, the two fathers of two very different ways of seeing the world.
I've been reading The Geography of Thought by Richard Nesbitt which explores why East Asians and Western Europeans think differently. As a psychologist, he formerly believed that there was a basic perception of the world that was more or less universal for all people regardless of their cultural background. Thus he was surprised when his premise was challenged by a Chinese grad student that the West sees the world as a line and the East, a circle. Nesbitt then decided to do the research and see if there were differences, and indeed there were.
This is intriguing for me as I come to terms with my Chinese heritage and American upbringing. I veered toward thinking of myself as more American probably due to cultural isolation as well as wanting to assimilate to avoid racist remarks. Now I don't know where I fit.* Probably a combination of East and West that I am trying to sort out as I learn more about my roots.
Given that God is infinite, the diversity of his creation and the diversity in how he made his image bearers makes sense. It would require such variety in finite creatures to begin to reflect even a small amount of who he is. This recognition of where we differ opens the door to learn and grow because one group doesn't have all the answers or the entire capacity to understand what it means to be fully human.
*Yes I know what the theological answer is, but I'm not a gnostic. Being in Christ doesn't deny aspects of my embodied humanity. Christianity is not the Borg.
But this movie also brings out the differences between East and West. "You think one's life belongs to oneself. But that's the difference between the East and the West. In the East, a person's life is part of a whole. Family."
There are plenty of stereotypes, but research has shown that the West is independent. The East is interdependent. The West sees the world through an atomistic lens of distinct and discrete entities. The East's view is one that is more fluid where the parties and forces involved are interconnected. And these roots go back as far as Aristotle and Confucius, the two fathers of two very different ways of seeing the world.
I've been reading The Geography of Thought by Richard Nesbitt which explores why East Asians and Western Europeans think differently. As a psychologist, he formerly believed that there was a basic perception of the world that was more or less universal for all people regardless of their cultural background. Thus he was surprised when his premise was challenged by a Chinese grad student that the West sees the world as a line and the East, a circle. Nesbitt then decided to do the research and see if there were differences, and indeed there were.
This is intriguing for me as I come to terms with my Chinese heritage and American upbringing. I veered toward thinking of myself as more American probably due to cultural isolation as well as wanting to assimilate to avoid racist remarks. Now I don't know where I fit.* Probably a combination of East and West that I am trying to sort out as I learn more about my roots.
Given that God is infinite, the diversity of his creation and the diversity in how he made his image bearers makes sense. It would require such variety in finite creatures to begin to reflect even a small amount of who he is. This recognition of where we differ opens the door to learn and grow because one group doesn't have all the answers or the entire capacity to understand what it means to be fully human.
*Yes I know what the theological answer is, but I'm not a gnostic. Being in Christ doesn't deny aspects of my embodied humanity. Christianity is not the Borg.
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