Reverse Culture Shock (just for fun).
Basic Definition: Reverse Culture Shock is the culture shock you get when returning to your home culture after being in another culture (typically overseas). When visiting the new culture you adjust and adapt, therefore when returning home, the home is not so different (although it can be), but more so, you are different, and 'home' gives a kind of culture shock (extreme or mild).
Has anyone experienced the Reverse Culture Shock? Would you like to share your stories?
Can be:
Chinese returning from overseas
Foreigner visiting home after being in China (including Hong Kong)
etc.
Has anyone experienced the Reverse Culture Shock? Would you like to share your stories?
Can be:
Chinese returning from overseas
Foreigner visiting home after being in China (including Hong Kong)
etc.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Dean 信立 on -
I think that is one thing that is true of Hong Kong. When I went to visit my family in Australia again the first time after coming to Hong Kong, there were several things that really shocked me. The accent, the things people talk about, the things people do, the price of everything, the interests people have (which I had thankfully forgotten about while in Hong Kong). For me it was amplified by the fact I was never very Australian to start with.
But about Hong Kong, yes, I typically go into the Mainland if I want to feel people being warm towards me - the culture here is a little cold sometimes.
-
Permalink Reply by Leon on -
I think people in hong Kong look or behave cool because of the mercenary atmosphere; it is worsened by the Chinese culture: Confucius teaching: "unfamiliar guys are strangers; familiar guys are friends being part of family"
The word "family" is not one by blood but just means "familiar" to be a gang.
In western world, the culture has root in Christianity in which "strangers-ship" is not encouraged, when people are brought up to accept there is a God that creates everything. Chinese culture is usually godless.
-
Permalink Reply by Dean 信立 on
-
Did you have any reverse culture shock experience where you got to compare Western Culture with Chinese culture and feel disapointed?
As a foreigner, I feel people have a little more of an interest in Mainland then in Hong Kong. Although of course there are those in Mainland with no interest, and those in Hong Kong with interest - plus, I'm not really looking for people who are super interested in foreign culture, but - whatever you know, we make the friends that we make.
-
Permalink Reply by Leon on
-
I have lived in Beijing for over 3 years but I was brought up in Hong Kong. at the beginning there was cultural shock in Beijing with the local people, that I shared the same thing with incoming foreigners from the investment banks. (they got greater shock than I had!).
As time went by I found more merit in mainland culture than in Hong Kong; now I am back in Hong Kong I find the mercenary nature here more apparent than I observed before going to Beijing. I have had trouble to accept again the way people in HK live like gossip, value and habitual reactions. What I understand about Western culture come from the Americans and Europeans in i-bank; they occassionally joked about what they stumbled upon living in China; while they cracked them up, it illustrated what their lives had been like. Such sharing repeated very often to me.
-
Permalink Reply by Dean 信立 on
-
One thing I like about the Mainland is that there isn't as much that sense of 'oh crap, you're a foreigner, does that mean I need to bring out the few words of English I can remember'. They say 'haalo' for me to reply in Cantonese. That is a little frustrating for them and me. In the Mainland there is more the expectation that you should speak Chinese, I find this is more dificult more less culturally complicated. When I bring out my Cantonese it is very welcomed, the Chinese I am speaking to don't feel stupid for any expectation that they should actually be able to speak English.
But I really liked reading Steves posts, there are many things I've taken for granted (even if I don't eat Western food often, it is true, I haven't been taken away from it in a way that I feel I need it). Interesting to think about.
-
Permalink Reply by Salsero42 on
-
Along the same line as SumSum. I have been living in the mainland for 4 months and all my Mandarin books teach you how to say good morning and how are you doing, but never once have i heard it or used those phrases. :P
-
Permalink Reply by Kitsch on
-
i moved a lot in the mainland and hong kong, and spent 6 months in the states this year. so the concept of home to me is kinda vauge.
it's really the smallest things. at the first elevator ride back in hong kong, i stood the closest to the door and waited for it to shut naturally as people did in ohio, and a local girl gave me a look, leaned over and pressed 'close'.
and hong kongers, you walk way so fast you give me a heart attack.
and the way they generate news.. journalists here examine things in impossible details and angles with such creativity, it can be inspiring and ridiculous at the same time.
this one isn't much of a culture shock, i just learnt to love the little islands around hong kong, and the transportation system, after the long absense.
not much shock in the mainland for me, after all i grew up there. except for the fact that i'm denied access to half of the websites i frequently visit.
-
Permalink Reply by Dean 信立 on
-
Yeah, all these things are fairly true of Hong Kong. I find it quite entertaining when people talk poorly of the controlled media in the Mainland, I think - mmm - which is better? controlling the media? or letting people write crazy gutter trash in street press like in Hong Kong? (bus uncle and Edison Chen to name a few of the things the media went excessive on).
Actually after spending more time in Shenzhen I realise I can handle my home Country (Australia) more then before. Now I find it quite shocking that Hong Kong people call Mainlanders bad names for doing the same things that many Westerners also do (and so much so that they are part of the culture in Western Countries, and probably do more of then Mainlanders). I laughed about this as I went to the toilet under a tree in the suburbs in Australia. The thing which I find sick is that Hong Kongers would see the Australians actions as 'free and Western' because it is Australian and in Australia. In Mainland if they do the same things, this is 'ewww, dirty and uneducated'. I am finding the double standard a little entertaining, I feel fairly comfortable doing some of the same things that many Mainlanders do and are looked down on by Hong Kongers for doing.
Of course, if I lived in the Mainland (instead of just spending a lot of time there), I would find things to complain about. In Australia everyone complains, "ah, the government didn't give me my money, and I've got a hang over because I got to pissed (drunk) on the weekend" (this is not me, just typical complaining Australian culture). My conclusion about all people, we're all fairly bad people in need of help and with a lot to learn.
-
Permalink Reply by platypanda on -
When returning to America, I was completely blown away by English. I was used to being one of three fluent speakers in a community of about 40000 people... I could tune almost everything out around me. In America, I could hear/comprehend almost everything. It was way too much to take in.
-
Permalink Reply by Dean 信立 on
-
I remember thinking "Australians are so rude" because I could understand everything everyone was saying. Actually, it has more to do with that I can choose to listen to what people are saying in Hong Kong and the Mainland *haha*. But yes, quite a shock for me to.
-
Permalink Reply by Border Hopper No More on -
As a foreigner, I feel people have a little more of an interest in Mainland then in Hong Kong. Although of course there are those in Mainland with no interest, and those in Hong Kong with interest - plus, I'm not really looking for people who are super interested in foreign culture, but - whatever you know, we make the friends that we make
Once again, Dean, we do and shall always look at this issue from different angles, it seems. :-)
I can't say that people in the Mainland have more interest in a foreign culture at all! Most of my colleagues that I ever talk to about this usually come up with their standard "I just love China". Surely, as you say, not everyone is like this but generally, an average Chinese person is not interested in the outside world.
You said it right: we make friends that we make and if we are lucky we happen upon someone who we shall have affinity with. But I have realized that for me it's pretty hard to find friends anywhere I go...I mean those people who could be called true friends. That is why even though the number of my acquaintances is impressive, only a small proportion of those people become my friends.
Dean 信立 said:Did you have any reverse culture shock experience where you got to compare Western Culture with Chinese culture and feel disapointed?
As a foreigner, I feel people have a little more of an interest in Mainland then in Hong Kong. Although of course there are those in Mainland with no interest, and those in Hong Kong with interest - plus, I'm not really looking for people who are super interested in foreign culture, but - whatever you know, we make the friends that we make.
-
Permalink Reply by Border Hopper No More on
-
Generaly, I don't have much of a reverse culture shock when I go back home. Might it be because I visit there pretty regularly?
The biggest shock to me for the first few days is usually: "there are SO MANY white faces around! Wow! And the waitresses in restaurants and cleaners are also WHITE! " :-))
I have to say that as far as rude behaviour goes, Russia hasn't been doing that bad recenlty. Or so it was in my experience when I visited. People say 'sorry' if they push you, always allow people to get off the train first before boarding it; stand strictly on the right on escalators, almost never jump queues....These things are still pretty rough in Mainland China, and while someone might argue that these are all "minor details', I want to ask you: and what is NOT a minor detail then? When all these "minor details" get added together, it then becomes ONE BIG detail and a SIGNIFICANT difference!
I think I could go back to live in Russia if only it wasn't so cold for such a long time! :-(
Otherwise I'd be more than happy to move to HK :-)
© 2012 Created by Asia Stuff Media.
