Subcultures

SUBCULTURES IN CHINA

- Chinese Tribe:

HAN´S: The cultural group of the Han is an ethnic group of China. They constitute almost 92% of the People's Republic of China and approximately 20% of the world population. It is thus the most numerous ethnic group in the world. The expression of Han culture refers to the Han dynasty that created its own cultural identity based on standardizing custom and languages. The Han are usually dressed using Western-style clothes. Additionally, one of the factors that determines the unity of the Han ethnic group is written language.

- Pop Cultures:
1. FRIKIS: It is related to the frikis from all over the world, with computer science, philately, videogames, comics, movies, books and science fiction, fantasy, manga or anime series and with role-playing games. In China, friki is often associated with an introverted or difficult character to relate to people who are not interested in their hobby, interest, or unconventional clothing that they can use; although these characteristics are based on social prejudices that create a wrong friki stereotype.

2. OTAKUS: An otaku is someone who feels fascination or attraction for a certain subject. The term otaku is used to name an urban tribe that includes those who are true fans of anime, manga, cosplay, etc. In these cases, most otaku activities revolve around Asian culture, and they often disguise themselves as their favorite characters.

The Lewis Model for Chinese cultural understanding.

The Lewis Model

According to the Lewis model, Chinese culture is classified as a reactive culture. Why do we say this?

CHINESE CULTURE = REACTIVE

People from China rarely initiate action or discussion, preferring first to listen and establish the other´s position, then react to it and formulate their own.

They are the world's best listeners inasmuch as they concentrate on what the speaker is saying, do not let their minds wander (difficult for Latins= Multi-Active Culture) and rarely, if ever, interrupt to speaker while the discourse / speech / presentation is going on. When it is finished, they do not reply immediately. A decent period of silence after the speaker has stopped shows respect for the weight of the remarks, which must be considered unhurriedly and with due deference.

BARRANQUILLA CULTURE= MULTI-ACTIVE CULTURE

People from Multi-active culture are talkative, impulsive types who attach great importance to feelings, relationships and people-orientation. They like to do many things at the same time and are tend to feel confined by agendas. Conversation is roundabout and animated and they try to speak and listen at the same time. Interruptions are frequent, pauses in conversation are few. Multi-active cultures are uncomfortable with silence and seldom permit or experience it.

What problems a person from China Culture might come across if they were to do a study abroad here in Barranquilla?

First problem is related with communication. In reactive culture the preferred mode of communication is monologue-pause-reflection-monologue. In multi-active cultures, the communication mode is a dialogue. People belonging to reactive culture not only tolerate silences wll but regard them as a very meaningful, part of discourse. On the other hands, multive active people are uncomfortable with silence.

Other problem is related with relationships. As reactive cultures tend to use names less frequently than multi-active culture, vague nature of the discussion is further accentuated. Lack of eye contact, so typical of East Asia, does not help the situation. Small talk does not come easily to reactive culture. Whereas  multi active culture relationships are best when they are face-to-face; they cannot be maintained over a protracted period simply by correspondence or phone calls. They are extremely dialogue-oriented and wish to obtain their information directly from people.

                   

The Hofstede Model for Chinese cultural understanding.

The Hofstede Model for Chinese cultural understanding.