Feb 25, 2010

A Critique of "Pictures" Shota Takemura

In the class, I saw the pictures, which show the difference between behaviors of Eastern people and that of Western people. I agreed with most of those pictures. Typically, Eastern people prefer being with others and being in a group. But, I disagreed with some of them.
First, I didn't agree with the picture that shows Eastern people are happy even in the rainy day and Westerners are not. I strongly disagree with it, because of course, most of Eastern people don't like the rainy day and it depends on person, not nationality.
Second, I didn't agree with the picture, punctuality. It said that Western people tend to do something on time and Eastern people can be flexible about time. I can agree with the idea that Eastern people can be flexible. But, they like to do something on time. For example, in Japan, trains and buses come on time. But, in U.S., they always are late. In my opinion, Western people are lack of the conscience about time, compared to Easterners. Therefore, Eastern people can be flexible about time and also be punctual about time.
Then, I got an interest about the picture of "The child". It said that Western people respect a child in the same way to other adults, he is a member of family. On the other hand, Eastern people take care of a child like this pictures. I didn't know that situation in Western countries.
These pictures were so interesting. Our behaviors can be defined by categorizing. It can be said that our behavior come from our long history.

1 comment:

Leslie said...

I agree with you that nowadays it might not be as easy as old days to make such generalization to easterners and westerners, since all people have been communicating and exchanging ideas and information so frequently.

However, as you said, something coming from long history might not be so easy to eliminate or replace. The typical example is "the child". I reckon the attitude toward children wouldn't be changed at least for a few generations.


Leslie