10 years ago, I decided to move to China. Why? And what keeps me here? Theres a lot of misconceptions about China around the world. Some of these might surprise you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTXiZu2J4bE&ab_channel=RichinChina
Before I came to China I had a lot of misconceptions about China. To be quite frank, I thought that Chinese people were quite different to me. I actually had no idea about what it would be like in China.
When I came to China, my mindset totally changed. As I learnt the language, I began to discover a new culture and a new way of thinking about things. I came to realise that Chinese people are actually very similar to us in many ways. I realised that there are so many different types of interesting personalities in China, some funny, strange, hard working, party animals, just like people I knew back home.
I also learnt a lot from China and had a new perspective of seeing things. I know it’s a cliche, “I became so aware from my gap year”. I think that learning the language was really important to understand the culture and how people think. It gives some empathy about the concepts and ideas. When you learn a new language you change the way you think. It gives you a new way of thinking. Some people say that their personalities are different in a different language, because they adopt some cultural parts of the language.
What do I think about China?
Here are the main things I learnt:
Differences are Good
– There are different ways of doing things, some of them I think are better, some of them are just different, some of them are not as good (in my opinion), every culture has good and bad things, but it is good that there are different ways of doing things, different perspectives, instead of every culture being the same.
Individuality Vs Group
– The biggest difference between UK and China is the individuality vs group mindset. In UK we think much more individually. In China people think much more as a group, and how they related with their family, work and country. I don’t think either is better or worse, they’re just different. Maybe its because we are an Island, we have less people, it’s what made British people and Britain such a successful country. Maybe in China its because they are a huge land mass, and massive population, they need to work together, and there is less of a need for individualism. When competing groups fought in history, the ones that worked better as a group, with more harmony were more successful and that became the predominant culture. “Guns germs and steel”, “Rice paddy fields”. It’s also interesting how both see family relations, such as how independent are kids when they turn 18? and then elderly people, should they live with you in the same house? I think the views generally differ on those issues.
We Can Learn from China
Anyway I think we can learn from both of them. The world is changing and we need to constantly evolve.
So here are the main things that I love about China:
What I love about Living in China
– The Chinese food is so good
– Its so fast – ability to buy things, speed of change.
– There are huge opportunities
– People are open minded and inquisitive
– People know their history
– They highly value education
– The Chinese language is fascinating and I love speaking it
– They are pragmatic and get s*** done
– They think as a group.
– It’s amazing fun to travel in China
