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CCAA | Chinese Contemporary Art Award
Hans Zuberbühler
18 Apr 2016, 05:07 PM
Chapters 1 › Create a journal entry: Global culture:
Create a journal entry: Global culture
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Create a journal entry: Global culture
Describe yourself, your cultural background and how you experience culture on a daily basis.
Do you observe examples of global culture in your everyday life?
Share your experiences and have a look at the journals of other participants.
Feel free to comment.
global culture in my everyday life
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I am a retired Swiss family doctor, I have been living in Switzerland all my life. During my working life there was an increasing number of foreign people among my patients, so I had to deal with and I could learn from a constantly growing number of different cultures. Now I don't work any more in my profession, but occupying myself with literature, music and art brings global culture into my life. I have been studying Mandarin for some years now and my young Chinese teachers are giving me a good insight into Chinese culture.
Hi Hans
this sounds very interesting. Would you mind to share more of your experinces with others? I mean, what do you learn about ethics and aesthetics in your meeting wiht your chinese friends?
Have a good time
Elisabeth
Hi Elisabeth
I will try to write what I have learnt about Chinese people. All I know is based on my experiences during a journey to China and on discussions with my Chinese language teachers (a young woman and a young man of less than half my age).
When I was watching young people in Chinese cities, I could hardly see any difference to western young people in the way they behaved and how they dressed. Later, when I started studying Mandarin, I learnt that for many of them it is very important to wear clothes by well known western brands. Shopping seems to be a very important leisure activity for Chinese middle-class youngsters. Young Chinese people give me the impression to be very self-confident but also vulnerable and I think they often feel a latent fear of losing face.
I ask myself, if this is a result of the competitive daily life which already begins in the Kindergarten, continues during the school days, the academic studies and the professional life. Parents are constantly involved to their children's school performance and most of them send them to attend extra-lessons in the evening after class. The daily competition of the family's only child might be responsible for providing a strong family cohesion.
I think young Chinese middle-class people are determined, hard-working and in their studies or job successfully competing young men and women; one of their favorite leisure activities seems to be shopping.
Hans