Quote:
Originally Posted by kireikoori
Saving face? Guilt vs. Shame? I believe so.
This person's post on another forum sums it up about perfectly.
Whoa, that was complicated. There's no need to get all philosophical about having/giving/losing face. It's really simple. It has nothing to do with guilt, and very little to do with shame.
I haven't read all of your post yet. It's pretty long and I'll get around to it in a bit. But you seem to be trying to explain Japan on your experience in China. They may be both Asian countries. But like Abrahamic religion is considered western religion. That doesn't mean Christian women are the same as Muslim women or Jewish women. I should think Chinese culture could only give about a fourth of the picture. Chinese culture and Japanese culture are quite different.
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I'm not trying to explain Japan at all. I'm explaining foreigner's experiences in Asia. Of course there are big differences between living in Japan and China. Jasonvbr spent some time in China, and in one post I asked him to compare the two countries. You can look it up.
Japanese and Chinese culture are different, but about as different as French and German culture. Something to keep in mind is that Japan, as well as most countries in Asia, was
heavily influenced by Chinese culture for hundreds of years. If you've lived in Asia, like China for example, and seen how incredibly different the culture is from our own (I see that you're American, so am I), then the differences between Japanese, Chinese, Korean culture seem small. They are in fact small. Even my Chinese fiancee told me how much easier it was for her to relate to my Korean and Japanese classmates, compared to the Americans or Europeans, because she could see the cultural similarities straight away.