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Culture Shock! China vs USA
Not long after touching down in my U.S. hometown of Portland, Oregon, for the summer, I ended up in a conversation with a doctor from New York City who had recently moved to my beautiful Northwest city. I asked her how she was getting on in our unique little metropolis. She said, “Everyone is too nice here.” I thought, is it possible to be too nice?!?
She continued to explain, “Sometimes I want to walk my dog down the street, with my morning coffee, without having to say ‘hello’ to every person I pass. I mean, even the homeless guy that lives on my block says ‘have a good day’ every morning!” I thought, “Wow, our friendly American doctor has culture shock.”
One of the crazy things about coming from a country that is as spread out as the U.S. or China is how culturally diverse it is from one coast to another. That doesn’t stop the rest of the world from generalizing about the culture of the these two geographically large countries.
But the truth is if you spend time in a few different regions you realize that both of these countries have a multitude of different cultures, and that not all Americans are fat, and not all Chinese are rude.
This got me to wondering about the millions of Chinese living in the United Sates because I know from my four years living in China that expats definitely have strong feelings about their experience in China, so Chinese must have a similar experience living in the U.S., right? If only I could get access to a bunch of Chinese expats…
“Bing!” I just had a WeChat epiphany.
So, I got on WeChat’s “People Nearby” and started “friending” people. I ran into some Chinese Americans, a nice Vietnamese woman, but almost everyone else was Chinese. This was the first time in four years I was actually excited that WeChat hadn’t caught on in the United States.
I’m sure some of these people wondered if I was working a scam, or a stalker, but many people actually responded. I had some great “chats” and even made a some new friends.
The Good…
The number one thing the Chinese expats liked about the U.S. was the air quality and general cleanliness of U.S. cities. Which, of course, is one of the biggest complaints from expats living in China.
In my adopted city of Shenzhen the air quality is actually pretty good compared to other first-tier Chinese cities. And even though I am happy that the Shenzhen city government is dedicated to a “greener” city, it pales in comparison to Portland and almost any U.S. city.
Speaking of green, let’s talk trash. No, not about Angelababy’s new Adidas Jade shoes, I mean the stuff that can’t seem to find its way into a trash bin in Chinese cities. Expats in China are constantly baffled by, one, the poor planning in waste management for huge cities, and two, the lack of respect Chinese people have for their own neighborhoods when they throw trash on the ground instead of a nearby trash can.
Source: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/culture-shock-china-vs-usa-en/
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