The culture of collectivism – living in Beijing

There is nothing like a bit of cultural emmersion to drive home exactly how diverse cultures can be. Recently I have been living with a Chinese family in Beijing. I want to share a few experiences that have reiterated just how important it is to understand cultural difference, or as commonly phrased, cultural intelligence.

As part of my lodging arrangement with my Chinese family I help their 14yr old daughter with her English. Yersterday I was testing her for her final yearly examination and we came across the word ‘organisation’. She was having trouble with its meaning and so I explained it as a ‘company’. She was still confused, so we got the trusty electronic dictionary to check. Once she understood the translation she ran into her bedroom “I’ll show you what an organistion is”. I was expecting her to bring back an org chart or something. Instead she brought out her red necktie (as in the picture above) worn by primary school students – the official name has escaped me. “This” she said, “Is an organisation, it represents a piece of the Chinese flag, we all wear it proudly because we make up an important organisation”. For my host sister, her school and her class mates are an organisation, a small part of the largest and most important organisation of all, the People’s Republic of China.

Most aspects of my host sister’s life, involves being part of a group or ‘organisation’. Her family is obviously the other important organisation in her life. Every Friday night, we go to her paternal grandparents house for the weekend. Apart from studying, almost everything is done together. My host sister hardly ever sees her school friends out of school, maybe once or twice a year she told me. Coming from an individualist culture, I can see a pressure of responsibility on my host sister to take care of her family in the future. This is a point of cultural difference, for her, this may just be part of life and not something she thinks about often. But with the one-child policy she is the only one her grandparents and parents have. When I ask her about what she wants to do at University, she has little to say. She mentions her interest in the arts and making things, but quickly explains that pursing a career in the arts is not really an option, because you don’t make much money.

Having worked for a cross-cultural consulting company for the past four years I have become very familar with the terms ’collective’ and ‘individual’ cultures. A collectivist culture, such as China, is one where the importance of the individual is second to that of the group or family. Individualist cutlures, such as Australia and most other Western cutlures, are the opposite. The individual takes presidence over the group.

So what can this difference in culture tell us about how sustainability and social awareness are developed in China. Of course there are many, but most of all, any approach to sustainability in China needs to be relevant and practical. If being green, can’t be integrated into the pulsing organisation of the People’s Republic of China then it will inevitably fail.

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  • http://pitythecool.com Andy

    Great post.

    In our research at Enovate, one trend we've noticed is that a growing number of young Chinese are more willing to take on some of the traits traditionally associate with individualist cultures.

    How do you balance this trend with the wider, still very collectivist community, when implementing future CSR projects?

  • Ji Hai

    With the drive for or as Emily puts it responsibility to create wealth for the individual (immedaite family), it will be interesting to see what happens. As it takes alot of ‘drive’ to achieve the baubles of success that are the fashion of the time.

    As a side I noticed the Chinese tennis player in the Aussie Open has a Tattoe on her chest. A big thing for a national Icon me thinks.

  • http://twitter.com/EmilyDAth Emily D’Ath

    Thanks for your comments Ji Hai and Andy.

    One thing that most (good) cross-cultural specialists will agree on is that culture is not static, it changes and evolves constantly. The culture of collectivism in China has been morphing its way through multiple changes for centuries. It was once unacceptable for a young woman to move away from the family home to go out or chu qu (出去). Now thousands of young migrant women head to the factories scattered around the country to work. Often they live independently and some refuse to obey the age-old tradition of sending remittances home. (Leslie Chang writes about this brilliantly in her book “Factory Girls – voices from the heart of modern China”)

    Ji Hai, the ‘drive’ to provide for the immediate family is an aspect of the Chinese culture I hold in high regard. A cultural trait many Australians including myself could learn from. The disregard for the elderly in my culture has left many old people alone and lonely. A heart-breaking state of affairs.

    Andy. A great example of how to balance this trend when working in CSR can be seen in the increasing desire amongst graduates in China to work in the green industry. Many young people in China have the same concerns as the people throughout the West. Although, for many graduates working as a volunteer for a few years for WWF only to end up in a job that can barely pay the rent it is not really acceptable. There needs to be an incentive for studying sustainability and building relevant skills and knowledge. Being green needs to become a competitive advantage. In a flooded job market having a skill that no one else has can be a great benefit. So instead of doing law, do environmental law etc. Integrate your individual desire to work in sustainability with a stable career path.

    Maybe I should have taken this advice myself ;)