Thoughts on Cultural Generalizations

Attended a small party the other week, and left feeling just mildly disturbed. Shall not go into details, but suffice to say I was slightly unsettled by the cultural stereotypes some people I met held about Asia in general. I should qualify that these are all lovely and pleasant people, some of whom are my friends. The "stereotypes" in question were also not ones which were particularly offensive or insulting. However, they do reflect some degree of misinformation or ignorance which I had not expected.

At the same time, couldn't help but be amused by some remarks raised during the little party. These included questions about whether Chinese men are really short ("I hear that whenever they find someone in China who's really tall, they force them to join the basketball team immediately!"), and if Chinese people eat their meals on the floor.

To the first, I assured her that they are not as short as she thinks they are. She was really surprised when I said that 1.70-ish meters is quite average for Singaporean men, and it is not considered exceptionally tall. I also suggested that there might be regional differences in height and build within China itself, and in overseas Chinese communities.

To the second, a post-grad American student in Japanese linguistics noted that it is Japanese people who eat sitting on the floor. However whilst I realize that it is a tradition in Japan to eat sitting down on tatami mats, I was a little uneasy that the party in question (mostly European) might go away with the idea that Japanese people always eat sitting down. I've been to Japan on several occasions and from memory, the restaurants/cafes I visited all had tables, chairs, and Western cutlery depending on the food served.

I feel sometimes there is a tendency to highlight exotic, Orientalized (and frankly, somewhat dated) cultural differences, whilst ignoring the similarities which bind people today. Similarities tend to be taken as the exception, rather than a very real and current product of the increasing interconnectivity between metropolitan communities.

At the same time, I don't think that similarities should simply be explained away using terms like "westernization" or "western hegemony" (as was also the case that night). Such labels can be helpful but only to a certain extent - to me it feels that after a while, they just become simplistic shorthands for complex cultural processes.

Nevertheless no matter how strange I find questions like "do you eat sitting on the floor" etc, it is still interesting to see what kind of images the world has of Asia and Singapore. Furthermore it's worth reminding myself that these questions show a willingness to know more about another culture. They can consequently be good openings for dialogue and greater understanding. I can only hope that I will be able to convey my opinions lucidly and fairly as a representative of that culture, and that the other party is willing to listen with an open mind - sadly not always the case as I realized that night. But that's another story for another time.