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Q: Do Chinese still place community before individual?
We're often told about this whole cultural difference between Asia and the West...how we're selfish bastards thinking only of our own pains and gains, while the 'Asian mindset' is to think of the community first...
But I mean...if you look at China now, does that still hold any weight at all?
They like to say so... I think to a certain extent they even believe it... But they are very much a "me, me, me, my needs, me, me, me" society from what I've observed...
I think the most accurate description of the fact is: when it comes to gains, it's "me first". And when it comes to pains, or any risk or benefit for community, it's "waiting for others to do it". or "if others do it, I'll follow at the end. "
What I have seen is that when they think of the community, they think of their family, friends and close people, but for them an stranger is not part of the community.
So instead of individuals, they act as individual communities, which might be as selfish (or not) towards the outsiders of the community as any western individual
