TITLE:
Identifying Contrasting Chinese and Japanese Cultural Values: Implications for Intercultural Youth Education
AUTHORS:
Yuri Okunishi, Tomoko Tanaka, Hongru Tian, Yutian Bai
KEYWORDS:
Intercultural Education, Intercultural Conflict, Chinese Culture, Mianzi (Face), Guanxi (Relationship)
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.3 No.9,
September
18,
2015
ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the nature of
contrasting cultural values between China and Japan. Considering the values
traditionally recognized as being unique and distinctive to China as well as
those identified in previous research, four short stories addressing cultural
conflict between Chinese and Japanese values were devised. Eight Japanese
college students studying at universities in western Japan were interviewed in
the winter of 2014 and were asked to openly give their interpretation of
behaviors of those bound by conventional Chinese values. The qualitative
analyses of the verbal data resulted in the extraction of coded concepts, which
were then arranged to enable a comparison with our previous study that was
similarly conducted with 18 Chinese college students. Five sets of contrasting
cultural values between China and Japan were identified: 1) Respect for an
individual’s mianzi (face) and original opinions versus respect for group
consensus and opinions; 2) Prioritization of enthusiasm over planning in
maintaining friendships versus priority on appointment and efficiency; 3) Wider
human networking versus limited human relationships; 4) Openness and directness
among good friends versus reservation and maintenance of respectful distance; 5)
Social expected repayment from children to parents versus one-way devotion from
parents to children. It is considered that raising people’s awareness of the
historical background and social reasoning behind distinct cultural values—and
the rationale behind them—would help them understand seemingly similar but, in
fact, very contrasting cultural values of a neighboring country.