People have often asked why I chose to come to Taiwan, considering that the culture between Taiwan and Singapore are quite similar... and I am always confused by this question...
I'm confused because I don't understand how people know that the cultures are similar when they have not lived in both Singapore AND Taiwan...
After all, isn't culture more than what we see on the news? in the newspapers? in books? Isn't culture more than just food? and fashion? and isn't culture also more than that group of friends you have from that country?
Definitions tell me that culture is a set of behaviors, values, beliefs and attitudes within a group/community of people... I don't dispute that, I think it does make sense... but on the other hand, some part of me insists that culture is nothing more a pair of "perspective lens" that Man puts on due to our very innate need to group, to classify and to distinguish...
Isn't it conflicting? We seek to belong yet we seek to differentiate ourselves... We learn the accents that the locals speak, we shake hands and exchange name cards the way locals do, we hang out at local spots to experience life like the locals and sometimes we fear being found out because it means we will get charged tourist prices.. yet we also seek to be special; we look for differences, we ask questions about the way things work, we point out how things are like in our own countries, we ponder why some things suck back at home when they work so well here locally...
and it is in this process of classifying, grouping and distinguishing that we slowly get the sense of what, in general, this "culture" thing really is... so if you think about it, cultures exists, or more accurately, we recognise culture BECAUSE there are differences... it's like how you can't see air which is all around you, but you can recognise it when you experience
1. a lack of it or
2. the differences in the environment when air moves or changes its state (e.g. when the wind blows)
If this is the case, saying that cultures are similar is also acknowledging that there are differences.. and if differences exists, that means that there is something to experience by going or living there... and if there is something to experience, why does it seem strange for people to uproot themselves sometimes and live in another country?
Am I making sense or am I going round in circles? Just a thought...
2 comments:
Oh, I really want to go around the world, too. No matter what country it is. I've been to Japan. And I like to feel the atmosphere in different cultures.
You're not going around in circles - those are all profound thoughts. People often like to group countries together when they're generalizing cultures (like Korea and Japan, or India and Pakistan), but it is just amazing how the differences egress as you experience truly submersing in the local environment. No tourist experience can beat that.
Post a Comment