Chinese mentality

Yu.O. SERDUK
Military University lecturer
lieutenant colonel

Chinese writing has largely shaped the Chinese character. First, the language has isolated the Chinese from other people and over 5,000 years has created a huge difference between China and the rest of the world. Secondly, there is a relationship between written Chinese and mentality of the inhabitants of this country. Hieroglyphs in a sense protect China from the invasion of a foreign culture and the imposition of foreign traditions. Foreign words written with hieroglyphs acquire new content. So, the name of the American drink "Coca-Cola", written using 4 hieroglyphs "ke kou ke le", literally translates as "you can mouth, you can joy." The relationship between Chinese thinking and written language can be well illustrated by the Chinese characterization of the word "brotherhood". For Russian, this word means "family relations, community, friendship." The Chinese convey this word in writing with the help of two signs - “big brother” and “younger brother”. In their understanding, this is a subordinate relationship in which the younger brother depends on the older one. Therefore, during the period of Soviet-Chinese friendship, to be in the position of " younger brother for the Chinese was insulting. The Chinese did not like the fact that the USSR occupied a higher position compared to one of the ancient countries peace.
The Chinese mentality is a mirror image of the European mentality. The "software system" in the head of the Chinese works, as it were, in reverse. The white arrow in the compass of the Chinese points south, the word order in the Chinese sentence is directly opposite to the word order in most languages ​​of the world, the Chinese color of mourning is white. The behavior of the Chinese is also almost the exact opposite of the behavior of the European. Chinese politeness is, in our understanding, “anti-politeness”. What a European perceives as gallantry is a simple calculation for most Chinese. The Chinese, who invites you to enter the premises first, assumes that you will give him this right. Often, the Chinese perceive and interpret the actions of foreigners in their own way. A classic confirmation of this can be an interview given by Mao Zedong to an American journalist about how I.V. personally served him in 1950. Stalin: during a visit to Moscow, during which the Chinese leader begged the Soviet leadership for help (including in the creation of Chinese nuclear weapons), at the "near dacha" Stalin, acting as a hospitable host, personally served tea to Mao and made him bedtime bed. Mao Zedong then interpreted these actions as the desire of the Soviet leadership to serve China, and presented the leader of the greatest country that defeated fascism as his personal batman.
Of course, this parable can be attributed to the remnants of the cooling of relations between our countries, which lasted almost 30 years. Nevertheless, when studying peoples, it is necessary to investigate the most striking features of their national character. Of course, the Chinese are different (as well as representatives of any nation), but it is possible to build a certain general model of the qualities inherent in most people of a particular nationality.
Experts identify the following characteristic features of the people of China: patience, suggestibility (developing into fanaticism), discipline, collectivism, generosity to a friend, patriotism, high self-esteem, perseverance and solidarity. Most of these traits are positive (with the exception of fanaticism and inflated self-esteem). The main qualities of the Chinese nation have evolved over centuries and millennia. Basically, the formation of such traits as collectivism, perseverance, cohesion, discipline and patience was influenced by external factors determined by natural conditions, the nature of the life and work of the Chinese. Combating natural disasters (floods, typhoons, droughts) required the joint actions of many thousands and even millions of people. The method of production was based on the principle of collective cultivation of the land, requiring additional efforts to create irrigation facilities. Crowding of living and permanent
the environment of an individual with a multitude of his own kind contributed to the suppression of individualistic character traits and the development of collectivism.
One of the most noticeable manifestations of the Chinese national character is the outward peacefulness, goodwill and hospitality. When greeting each other on the street, the Chinese ask each other the question “Ni jingtian chifanle ma?”, which literally means: “Have you eaten today?” Of course, such a manifestation of concern for one's neighbor is rooted in a hungry past. Today's Chinese perceive it as Americans greeting each other with the traditional "How are you?" As for Americans, the interlocutor's answer means nothing to the modern Chinese.
Speaking of food. Europeans have a very misconception about Chinese cuisine. We tend to imagine the Chinese table as a very tasty and varied set of exquisitely prepared dishes. In practice, about 98% of modern Chinese eat poorly and monotonously. Most residents can afford to eat meat dishes and prepare dishes that we consider Chinese folk only on holidays. On the daily table of the overwhelming number of Chinese food of plant origin prevails. The opportunity to eat enough of the food that you can choose is associated by the majority of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire with well-being, and the view of an obese person, unhealthy from the point of view of a European, is associated with wealth.
The limited resources of food, minerals, and land have developed in the Chinese hypertrophied thrift, pragmatism, and prudence. The pragmatic Chinese calculates down to the smallest detail the most economical way to achieve his goal. In conditions of constant malnutrition, generations have grown up for whom it was important not to waste excess energy. The pragmatism and prudence of the Chinese manifest themselves in private life.
The way the Chinese consume alcoholic beverages is remarkable. Unlike the Russians, who are accustomed to drinking chilled vodka, the Chinese heat the alcohol and drink it in small glasses so that the alcohol is immediately absorbed into the bloodstream and the state of intoxication sets in faster. The pragmatism of the Chinese is also manifested in politics. When at the end of the 1980s the PRC leadership decided to build 100 launchers for nuclear intercontinental missiles (in the USSR and the USA their number was already several thousand at that time), it proceeded from the fact that this particular number of missiles should be enough for China to intimidate a potential enemy and deter his attack. Building more missiles was possible, but the Chinese wisely reasoned that this could be a burden on their economy.
Along with such a scrupulous attitude to everything material, life in China is valued low. This applies both to animal life (perceived only as potential food) and to human life. I would like to recall two stories from the life of the Chinese of the PRC era. The first is the fight against sparrows, which, according to the leadership of the PRC, ate too much grain, for which they themselves were eaten. The second is the war in Korea, when American soldiers went crazy, seeing how the first wave of attacking Chinese "volunteers", almost destroyed by heavy fire, was replaced by a second, third, and then new streams of human bodies.
Of course, in the latter case, we could talk about the heroism of the Chinese, if we did not know about the existence of their traditional idea that physical death is preferable to "loss of face." Death on the battlefield for the Chinese in that war was a lesser evil than the possibility of being shot for fleeing from the enemy. The most important quality of the Chinese is also patriotism, the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of the interests of the country. According to the Chinese of the second half
XX century, a person is just a cog in the billion-dollar mechanism of the state. The interests of the state require sacrifice. According to the foreign press, in 1989 alone, during the suppression of the speeches of Chinese students, about 30 thousand participants in street riots were shot. Their lives were sacrificed without hesitation for the stability of the state.
The patriotism of the Chinese is based on the centuries-old history of this country. The Chinese are very arrogant towards representatives of other peoples, considering the history of their state the most ancient, they believe that "Chinese culture is 7000 years old." Historians will deny this. But chinese history heavily mythologized. The main part of historical events in China became the plots of works of art. It is on them that Chinese schoolchildren study. For the Chinese, these books are not so much for learning historical events how much to emulate in modern times. In China, examples from medieval history are often mentioned to explain the events and policies of the PRC in the second half of the 20th century. Chinese children study the characters of the epic and learn from the fictional actions of their heroes. Collected together in a single handbook summarizing the basic morality of ancient Chinese works of art, "sanshilu ji" (36 stratagems) are a universal and obligatory element of literacy in China.
The mythologized commander Zhuge Liang, described in the Chinese analogue of "War and Peace", the book "Three Kingdoms", performs, according to the Chinese, deeds worthy of imitation. The peculiarity of the moral principles of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire can be emphasized by the episode describing the flight of the Zhuge detachment from the enemies pursuing it. At night, the hunted, tired and hungry warriors take refuge in the house of the owner of a roadside inn. The next day, the poor man and his family, who shared their last meal with Zhuge Liang, will be killed by his soldiers. Zhuge makes this decision out of fear that the persecutors, by interrogating his benefactor, will be able to find out the direction of the movement of the Zhuge detachment.
An ally is a temporarily advantageous partner, in the concept of Chinese strategists. Having received all the benefits from friendship with the USSR, the Chinese leadership hastened to announce its claims to our country. The current state of Russian-Chinese relations is based on a certain balance of mutual interests. Although fear is caused by manifestations of the arrogant attitude of the Chinese of various levels towards our country and the Russian people. More than 10 years of close contact between representatives of various social groups between two countries (and, above all, by far not the most cultured strata) creates an unimportant stereotype of ideas of our peoples about each other.
The largest country in the world in terms of population, and even neighboring us on a long stretch of the border, cannot but attract our attention. It is important to resolve the problems that have accumulated over centuries of relationships. Knowledge of the main active component of the country - its population - allows you to correctly assess the situation, draw practical conclusions and determine the prospects for cooperation.

INTRODUCTION

In the 20th century, theoretical sociology became more systematized, although less connected with the historical conceptualization of modernity; sociological theory reached its highest peak in the 60-80s. XX century. These decades testify to its flourishing in many forms, especially, as D. Alexander formulated in 1986, in the form of a "new theoretical movement", which includes neofunctionalism, P. Bourdieu, A. Giddens, J. Habermas, other authors and directions. Sociological theory seeks to blur its boundaries and to interact, especially with social theory. The latter is one of the main areas of "creativity", which includes reflexivity. During this period, the sociology of culture became one of the main areas of research. The subject of this essay is the study of the characteristics of China.

CHAPTER 1. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE FORMATION OF CHINA CULTURE

Territory

CHINA (Zhongguo, English China), Zhongguo, the largest state in East. Asia., whose area is approx. 9528 thousand km², the capital is Beijing. OK. 3/4 of the territory of the state is occupied by mountains (Tibetan Plateau with the highest peak Chomolungma on the border with Nepal, 8848 m; Yunnan - Guizhou Highlands, Karakoram, Tien Shan, etc.), plains occupy only 12%.

The climate in the East is monsoonal, tropical in the South to temperate in the North; in the West it is sharply continental, arid. An exceptional variety of landscapes: from the icy deserts of the highlands to the NW. to humid tropical forests in the south and southeast; there are also sandy massifs, semi-deserts (west, northwest, and central regions), steppes, taiga (northern and northeast), and mixed and broad-leaved forests (north, east, and mountainous regions). Forests cover approx. 12% of the territory. Diverse fauna.

The population as of 2001 is 1 billion 237.1 million people. (approx. 22% of all inhabitants of the Earth). Chinese (Han) make up 92%; 55 other nationalities also live: the Zhuang (about 14 million people), the Dungans (Hui), the Uigurs, the Miao, the Manchus, the Tibetans, the Mongols, and others. The main religions are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; on SZ. Islam is also widespread.

Story

Chinese civilization is one of the oldest in the world. According to Chinese scientists, its age may be five thousand years, while the available written sources cover a period of at least 3500 years.

The following periods are distinguished in the history of China: Xia (c. XXI-XVI centuries BC); Yin, or Shang (c. XVI-XI centuries BC); Zhou (c. 11th century - 221 BC); Qin (221-206 BC); Han (206 BC - 220 AD); Sango, or the Three Kingdoms (220 - 280); Jin (265-420); period south. and sowing dynasties (420-589); Sui (589-618); Tang (618-907); period of 5 dynasties and 10 kingdoms (907-960); Song (960-1279); Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115-1234); Mongolian Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368); Ming (1368-1644); Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In 1912, the Republic of China was proclaimed, October 1, 1949 - China People's Republic. The head of state is the President of the People's Republic of China, the parliament is the National People's Congress, and the government is the State Council.

CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINA CULTURE

Characteristics of Chinese culture, religion, language

China's culture is home to one of the world's oldest and most complex civilizations, China has a history rich in over 5,000 years of artistic, philosophical, and political progress. Although regional differences provide a sense of diversity, commonalities in language and religion bridge a culture that is distinguished by such universally significant contributions such as Confucianism and Taoism.

With the rise of Western economic and military power over China beginning in the mid-19th century, however, non-Chinese systems of social and political organization gained adherents in China: Sun Yat-sen, Maoism.

Features of the mentality of the Chinese

- Confucianism

Confucianism is one of the three major religions in China. The beginning of Confucianism is associated with Confucius (551 - 479 BC). AT historical sources Confucius is often referred to as Kung-tzu, which means teacher Kun, the number of Confucius' students is determined by Chinese scientists to 3000, including about 70 closest ones, but in reality, only 26 of his undoubted students known by name can be counted.

The teaching of the original Confucianism, having set as its main principle the desire to live and prosper inherent in every person, dealt only with questions of ethics and politics and did not at all touch upon metaphysical issues and in general everything that cannot be explained by the human mind, but only assimilated by faith. Belief in an afterlife and the existence of spirits was allowed, not because both were considered proven, but only because this belief to some extent contributes to the well-being of human life. In accordance with this, the requirements regarding filial piety and the cult of ancestors were also strengthened.

The main object of honoring should be the ancestors, up to the 4th generation inclusive. Each of them is dedicated to a separate tablet or table. These tables are kept in special cupboards and are honored daily in the morning by bowing and lighting candles, and on certain days by sacrifices of various drinks and foods. Obligatory reports on any more or less significant absence from home and on any outstanding event in the house. The main rites after death: small, then large dressing of the deceased, position in the coffin, feeding the deceased (actually - a linen doll, into which the soul of the deceased is supposed to move) and, finally, burial (no later than 100 days after death, and the soul of the deceased , according to the Chinese, moves to a table with his name). While the body is in the house (more precisely, in a bast tent near it, in the yard), it is recommended, to amuse the yearning soul of the deceased, to invite musicians (playing at the gates of the house), and the whole family gathers around the coffin every morning and evening and mourns the deceased; at the same time, the eldest person in the house lights smoking candles and makes a libation of wine. Mourning (always white color, and business cards are not written on red paper, as always, but on yellow) is divided into several degrees, according to the length of time and the quality of the clothes worn at that time.

Officials treat ceremonies in honor of persons enjoying nationwide honoring in a completely formal way. Understandable, therefore, is Chinese indifference in the matter of religion; the Chinese Buddhist or Mohammedan calmly puts up with the Confucian rites, which have become universally binding due to centuries of tradition and government sanction.

- Taoism

The founder of Taoism was Lao Tzu, his own name is Li Er (Li Boyang, Lao Dan). According to legend, he was born in 604 BC, but the historicity of his personality is in doubt. The main ideas of Taoism include the following: Tao is the invisible omnipresent law of nature. Tao is inactive, thereby giving rise to everything, it is eternal and nameless, empty and inexhaustible. In accordance with the Tao, two opposite principles interact - yin and yang, reaching their limit. they pass into each other. Based on the doctrine of Tao, Taoism proposed an original concept of the best state administration - non-action: if the ruler is inactive, then by virtue of Tao, things will improve themselves. And, like other philosophies, Taoism condemns war.

What can cause a person familiar with Chinese culture to mention Taoism. This is the desire for unity with nature, a return to original simplicity, naturalness, reflected in many poetic texts and pictorial scrolls. This is also the depth of philosophical reflections on the essence of being and the internal principles of its eternal movement. These are the mysteries of Taoist alchemy aimed at creating the elixir of immortality. And, finally, this is the person himself, who follows the Taoist teachings - a contemplative ascetic and a holy fool who discourages paradoxes, a thinker and a poet, a politician and a scientist. Just as complex and multifaceted as Taoism itself is its history, as if embodying the principle of unity of the many different.

- Buddhism (how they influenced the mentality)

When considering the specific process of spreading Chinese culture outside of China and turning it into a certain cultural universal of the region, it is easy to see that this process coincides with the spread of Buddhism in the countries of the Far East, which acted as an intermediary between Chinese and local traditions and a representative of the values ​​and norms of not Indian, but Chinese civilization. It is through Buddhism that peoples East Asia they got acquainted with Chinese culture, including its non-Buddhist layers, although in the future Buddhism could be (and often was) pushed aside by other forms of Chinese ideological doctrines (primarily Confucianism).

Why did Buddhism act as a conductor of Chinese cultural tradition? Always perceived in China as a rather alien teaching (if only because of its Indian origin), Buddhism was strongly influenced by Chinese culture in this country, which turned the specifically Chinese schools of Buddhism into a kind of product of intercultural interaction. It is extremely important that Buddhism is a world religion with a pronounced attitude to the preaching of its doctrine, which stemmed from the Mahayana doctrine of the great compassion of the bodhisattva, who vows to save all living beings. This made Buddhism much more active in its expansion outside of China than Confucianism and Taoism, which were Sino-centric and uninterested in preaching their teachings.

It was Buddhism of all the ideological currents of China that was the least connected with the Chinese official ideology and the ruling circles of the State of the Center (i.e., it could not be used as an instrument of political pressure), which also contributed to its popularity as a means of introducing Chinese culture among the peoples East Asia, especially those who, like the Vietnamese, regularly defended their independence in armed clashes with a powerful neighbor.

Buddhism played a decisive role in the formation of the Far Eastern (East Asian) historical and cultural community, continuing to be an important factor in the spiritual, cultural, and sometimes political (a typical example is the Japanese Clean Politics Party, Komeito, closely associated with the religious and public organization Soka Gakkai, oriented towards the teachings of the Nichiren-shu school) of the life of the countries of this region and at the present time.

Tibet created a unique civilization based on the Buddhist project. It was a culture of non-commercial spirituality, yogic practice for the benefit of all beings, and scholastic scholarship unconcerned with the utilitarian application of its achievements. Tibetan learned monks and yogis not only preserved the treasures of Indian culture, almost forgotten in India itself, but also multiplied them with their philosophical, logical, grammatical and mystical-contemplative treatises. Buddhism contributed to the softening of morals: after several centuries of accepting Buddhism, the Tibetans ceased to be a warlike and ferocious people who caused a lot of anxiety to their more peaceful neighbors and directed their energy to the field of spiritual practice, scholarly pursuits, philosophical disputes and medicine. Later, the same transformation was experienced by the Mongols, who became acquainted with Buddhism precisely in its Tibetan form.

Europe began its acquaintance with Buddhism in the very early XIX century and was immediately shocked by a religion unlike anything known to Europeans - neither monotheistic "Abrahamic" religions, nor polytheism ancient world. Europeans (at first Oriental scholars, and then the wider circles of the “educated public”) saw a religion without God or gods in the usual sense (the devas of Buddhism are just one of the types of living beings subject to birth and death), a religion that denies the existence of the soul and replacing the doctrine of divine providence and divine judgment with the doctrine of causation and the "law of karma").

Nowadays Buddhism is no longer a purely Eastern religion. In Germany and France, it has already become the third largest denomination; there is the European Buddhist Union (EBU - European Buddhist Union), which regularly holds its congresses in prestigious centers of European capitals. But what is the possible role of Buddhism in the context of world civilization in the coming century? However ungrateful such forecasts may be, let us venture an attempt to make some forecasts.

Business with a Chinese

Numerous ethnographic studies show that solidarity is one of the characteristic features of the Chinese. This circumstance can be illustrated by the following example: under the conditions of migration, some of them “dissolve” into the local population, without burdening themselves with responsibility for the fate of fellow countrymen, while others build a survival strategy based on mutual support and compact living.

classic illustration The last option is the well-known Chinatowns (Chinatowns), created at the beginning of the century by the Chinese, whose discrimination in the United States was undisguised and unlimited. Over the years, these areas have become hotbeds of rapidly growing self-employment and ethnic entrepreneurship based on group ethnic solidarity.

Another telling example. In addition to rejection by the host, the degree of cultural and linguistic distance between migrants and natives plays an important role. If migrants are able to “dissolve” into the local environment, then the chances of group solidarity emerging in their ranks are significantly reduced. However, let's not forget that linguistic and cultural variations are regarded by old-timers in terms of the "diversity" of reality, while differences with "newcomers" - in the spirit of "foreignness" and "otherness", which makes living together uncomfortable 8

The separating cultural distance (and in the absence of linguistic difficulties) is fixed with us more and more clearly. Even in relation to visiting Russians, the phrases “Russian Uzbeks”, “Germanized Russians”, “Kazakhstan Russians” sound like a refrain. In addition, the distinctive features of the work ethic of migrants leave a trace in everyday consciousness.

CONCLUSION

Thus, it seems possible to identify the following main characteristics of modern Chinese culture.

The desire to revive and rethink the national tradition by new means and under new conditions, making its values ​​viable in the conditions of the 20th century.

Setting for interpretation traditional culture in the categories of Western philosophy to understand the horizons of its viability and fruitfulness in the context of challenges modern world. Emphasizing both the national and universal nature of the values ​​of traditional Chinese culture.

Finding out the specifics national tradition through its comparison with the intellectual and cultural traditions of the West and the gradual transition at first to the synthesis of Chinese and Western thought with the dominant value of the first, and then the introduction of the national tradition of philosophizing into the Western one as an equal participant in the modern philosophical process.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Great Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary;

2. Sociological dictionary

3. Sociology, ed. Yadova

4. Yandex dictionaries;

5. http://oriental.ru/.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE

ODESSA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY them. I. I. MECHNIKOVA

Faculty of Philology

On the topic "Features of the Chinese mentality"

In the discipline "Fundamentals of intercultural communication"

3rd year students

Faculty of Philology

Russian branch

Stepanova Svetlana

Odessa 2016

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Chinese mentality, logic, habits are strikingly different from European ones. This list will help you avoid culture shock. First and most distinguishing feature- physiology and everything connected with it.

The Chinese do not have any taboo on this - everyone relieves the need wherever he pleases. Of course, public toilets set up at every turn, and it would never occur to anyone to take money for them, like some. But the sight of children pissing right in the middle of a busy street or next to a cafe does not bother anyone for sure. Children have a slit on the bottom of their pants, in theory, in order to change a diaper, but careless parents often leave their child to walk around just like that, bare-assed.

In everyday life, belching, blowing your nose, spitting, blowing gases and other joys. And it looks especially “cute” on the decorated girls-princesses. Everyone constantly makes loud and disgusting noises when eating, after eating and between meals. They say - "you can not restrain yourself, there evil spirits sitting!” Deafening sneezing - in my opinion, one of the national sports - who is louder.

It is an unwritten law that boys buy pads for their girls, and girls buy condoms. The sight of another fashionista with a hostohair on his head, all perfumed and dressed up, concentrically choosing maxi pads always makes me wildly happy. It's normal if you live in a family with your parents, and your mother buys you condoms (oh horror ....)
Cold.

This is something that infuriates wildly, both in Japan and in China, and defies logic. In the cold season in shops, cafes, hotels, etc. doors and windows wide open. Apparently, so that no one thought that they were suddenly closed. There is no central heating, more precisely, there is very rarely. Because of this, everything in public places is piercingly cold. Asians warm themselves, the body, not the room. doctors, students, service personnel, everyone, everyone, everyone is working, shaking from the cold, in street clothes with a uniform over. I stubbornly do not understand why it is impossible to close the window and the door - after all, it will become warmer in the room anyway? But they love too much Fresh air. With a cramp, I remember the ice toilet in our hostel in Tokyo, the window of which was constantly open, no matter how long you close it. I don't know who does it. Also spirits, I guess. We, spitting on the wildest dryness of the skin, never turn off the air conditioner, but the maid in our absence always opens the windows wide. It's hot for you, poor ones, - he says. My biggest breakdown happened in Shanghai, when we were given a huge room in which we could safely store frozen meat. In search of a source of wind and frost, it was discovered that wise people stupidly pushed the hose from the air conditioner into the half-open window sash. Accordingly, there is no way to close the window and the wind joyfully walks around the room. The hotel staff reacted to my indignation with undisguised surprise. “Not cold,” they say. "Sleep." Plugged the hole with towels, shrugging. But it was still the coldest night of my life. We made a wigwam out of blankets and slept there, clinging to each other like koalas. The next morning we changed the number to a small one, but without national features.
Food.

Yes, they eat everything. And scorpions and caterpillars. But it's more of a delicacy, for fun. Something else is more interesting here - they eat all the time and simply in incredible quantities. Any slender chick eats a bowl of ramen and a 10-course meal in one sitting, showing the wonders of the Asian metabolism.

Choudofu. If you have ever been in the Chinese market, the first thing that knocks you down in literally- the wild stench of fried choudofu - "stinky tofu" literally. It's old moldy tofu, a delicacy again. Like blue cheese. My girlfriends say they don't eat it, but they say it's wildly healthy.

During meals, all rubbish is thrown on the floor. “We are not pigs to put waste next to food!” - they say.

Interesting stereotypes about food: they say that potatoes contribute to a good figure, for example.

Drink hot water all the time! This is generally a panacea for everything - for digestion, and for the throat, and warms, and you lose weight. I know from my own experience that it is hot water that I advise Chinese doctors to drink from everything. Even if the leg fell off. Therefore, everyone goes with kawaii thermoses. You can drink water everywhere - dispensers and thermoses with water are available for general use anywhere. Clothes and style.

Everyone wears ugg boots of all modifications and does not take a steam bath. Ugg boots cost 25-30 yuan.

In the Chinese winter (zero, plus ten) they wear a bunch of clothes (see Cold). Very fashionable terry underwear, all sorts of undershirts with long sleeves and leggings with fur inside. I was given this at work, for a princess, I wear it and am happy.

What can not but rejoice - no matter how you dress, no one will point a finger. Grannies chasing hellokitties in shorts, businessmen in pink sneakers, fashionable coons with women's bags.

Asians have an amazing gift for combining things and colors. What would look ridiculous or go on a European will be nice on an Asian.
Relations.

Well, as usual, it's not customary to kiss in public.

If a couple started dating, it is in 90% of cases for life. To sort out partners is bad manners.

At the same time, the girl has the right to meet with several guys at the same time, if she has not decided yet. The guy has no such advantage.

It's normal if a girl in a bar came with a guy and flirts with another. Selects.

Guys love skinny girls. Girls complain to me that no one will date a chubby girl.

The guys, in turn, complain to me about the frivolity and the huge demands of the girls.

I saw a program where they asked guys under 25 - who would they choose as a girl? 95% want a foreigner, but only a blonde.

The stereotypical understanding of the Chinese is:

1. Gerontocracy - the elders enjoy the greatest respect in society. Young and middle-aged people are expected to adapt to their requirements and not to inconvenience them.
2. Hierarchy - a very strict vertical distribution of obligations in society. Equality, in the Chinese sense, has never been any significant value - it is always turmoil and confusion. In any variant of human interaction, the significance of a person is first checked, then relations of leadership and subordination are built.
3. Collectivism - the interests of society, the people of the leaders are higher than the interests of individuals. The communists.
4. Paternalism - the state as a "big family".
5. Materialism, naturalism - the Chinese have always been close to nature, but very early began to comprehend nature organically, and not spiritually. Therefore, the attitude towards nature is very technical, prosaic, which is very different from the Chinese from the Russian or Japanese - and brings them closer to the Jew.
6. Workaholism - hellish hard workers.
7. Schematism of thinking - manifests itself even in artistic creativity. Very "numerological" nation.
8. It is often said that the Chinese have no sense of humor. This is not entirely true, but imbued with reverence and respect for a huge number public values culture strongly blocks trolling, humor and similar "democratic" manifestations of public spirit. The humor is very physical, flattened, and often comes down to situation comedy. Political satire is not developed - insulting public figures and figures is absolutely unacceptable.
9. Directness and spontaneity - the Chinese are much more straightforward and rude in personal communication than the Russians, and this sharply differs from the Japanese. The Chinese, even to a Russian person, seem to be boors because of such "spontaneity".
10. Chinese youth love rap. The Chinese cattle are similar to the Russian cattle of the 80s-90s model.
11. Chinese society is similar to Russia in "domestic survivalism" - everyone is very cunning, intriguing, everything hangs "on connections" and there is a very high risk of stumbling into deceit and fraud, you need to know a lot and navigate everything. About the same as in Russia. Social cohesion is much higher than in our country and even than in the USSR, but social trust is low.
12. Chinese comics, in contrast to everything said above, are thinner, more poetic, more chaste than Japanese ones. They have more ethnic nationalism, stronger motives of state, trade union and estate duty, while the Japanese more often emphasize personal loyalty, law-abidingness or environmental values. It is difficult to describe in one word something that varies greatly from author to author.
More dragons, phoenixes, cranes and motifs characteristic of Chinese mythology. The motives are much more pronounced. female friendship- in Japanese it is rather an exception. The Japanese often reduce the topic of religion (non-Shinto) and ideology to psychological or family circumstances or to an element of fan service, while the Chinese are serious. The religion or teaching of a particular school or sect is the unifying element of a clan or even an entire community. The Chinese encourage early adulthood than infantilism continued in adult life. The type of a person "undecided" with guidelines in life, doubting, being on the border of different states is perceived by the Japanese in comics rather condescendingly, understandingly, playfully, instructively, by the Chinese - sharply negatively and suspiciously, like muddy scum. which attempts to take advantage of the "double privilege" state.
13. The Chinese are one of the most strict, authoritarian and demanding parents.
14. Appreciate sports, good spirits, a healthy lifestyle, like to gather in large groups and do Chinese exercises.
15. The Chinese are almost omnivorous. Turtle soup, saliva of swallows, fried dog ham, spiders, snakes, cats, scorpions, "thousand-year-old eggs", dumplings of all kinds - the Chinese have practically no food prejudices that are characteristic of other peoples, such as Arabs, Europeans or Indians. "You can eat , everything that has four legs - except for the table; everything that floats - except for the boat; everything that flies - except for the plane, everything that has hair - except for the parents. Except for the Chinese Buddhists, perhaps. The Chinese generally love to eat and drink, not fools.
16. Official tyranny is not an exception, but a cultural and historical norm of life. "I'm the boss - you're a fool"
17. Conservatism. A rare Chinese is interested in the cultures of other countries. Independence of thought is not particularly valued. There are extremely few exotophiles among the Chinese - and in Russia, on the contrary, there are a lot of such people. The Chinese are less inquisitive in a global sense, but inquisitive in small things and details.

Agree, the national character determines not only the behavior of the representatives of any nation, but also largely forms the basis of its foreign policy. Knowledge and understanding of the characteristic features of the mentality make it possible to correctly assess the situation, draw conclusions, as well as interpret and predict certain actions on the part of the state in question. In the previous article, the theme of the worldview of the Chinese was briefly touched upon. The question is very interesting, extensive and certainly deserving of a more detailed analysis.

Such a peculiar mentality of the Chinese has developed as a result of the influence of many factors: isolation from the outside world, specific writing, difficult conditions Agriculture, religious and philosophical teachings. What are the main features of the national character of the inhabitants of the "Celestial Empire" can be identified?

Closure. The tendency to introversion manifests itself among the Chinese at various levels: from personal to state. An open manifestation of emotions is considered bad form, moreover, they are replaced by a complex set of ethical rituals, which in the eyes of a European may look like hypocrisy. If one person meets another, both should show each other their deep respect. Everyone is obliged to let know that he considers the other a developed and educated person, even if they perfectly understand that this is not true. During a one-on-one conversation with little-known people, the Chinese behave in a specific way: he keeps his face and body motionless, sits straight, arching his back, does not move at all, only his lips move slightly, and his voice is close to a whisper. Very loud conversation is considered simply unacceptable. The face remains impassive or expresses unctuousness. The Chinese avoid looking directly at the interlocutor, because, according to their ideas, only enemies or people who hate each other do this. Obviously, this feature national mentality kept China closed to foreign relations for much of its history. Unpretentiousness. The Chinese are widely known as unpretentious people. From time immemorial, they were content with what they had, trying to get the minimum for food in the face of a difficult struggle for existence. The Confucian ideology also had its influence, orienting the consciousness of people not to the delights of the afterlife, but to contentment with a minimum in everyday life. She taught them to see the social ideal not in the satisfaction of widely emerging needs, but in achieving happiness with what was available. Ordinary Chinese are used to believing that happiness does not depend on external circumstances, but on themselves. As a result, unpretentiousness, moderation, adaptability have become a whole complex of interrelated features of their national character. "Rice and vegetables for food, water for drinking, and a head on my shoulders - that's what I need for happiness." Confucius.

A penchant for simple logical constructions. The way of thinking of the Chinese can be called practical, alien to unnecessary complexities. The Chinese, as a rule, prefer simple intellectual constructions as the most accessible and rational for memorization, life and activity. He is very rarely guided by abstract principles, his logic is highly objective, as evidenced by, for example, proverbs and sayings. "Don't forget the past, it is the teacher of the future." “Happiness has come - be vigilant; grief has come - be steadfast, ”says Chinese wisdom.

Enterprise.“At first they ate only fish, putting aside every yen that the profession of a hairdresser, cook or tailor brings,” describes the Japanese professor Hayase, the adaptation of the Chinese to living conditions in Japan. - When there was enough money for an old bicycle, they bought it, and someone from the family turned into a traveling merchant. The second step was a used motorcycle. At this stage, the Chinese becomes more self-confident and even becomes aggressive. He is already trying not only to sell something, but also to lend money, goods on credit at interest. He acquires regular customers and keeps a ledger for them. If he had a relative or close friend who had already passed this stage of development, he manages to borrow some money from them to buy a shop. Then he turns into a wholesaler, to whom moneyless people prefer to pay with the equivalents of their labor or agricultural products. Expanding your entrepreneurial activity, the Chinese acquires a plot of land and builds a factory on it, hires workers. For this reason, in most countries of Southeast Asia, wholesale and retail trade, as well as import-export operations, are concentrated in the hands of Chinese emigrants. The Chinese own 30% of the capital of Malaysia and Singapore, 30% of Malaysian employees are of Chinese origin.

Collectivism. The difficult climatic and natural conditions of the country, especially the need to build irrigation facilities to protect against natural disasters, as well as the associated need for hard, titanic labor, determined the exceptional role that communities and communities have always played in the country. collective labor. As a result, the Chinese have formed and always very clearly manifest such national psychological qualities as strict discipline, a high degree of dependence of the individual on the group, specific cohesion based on a clear distribution of roles, a high degree of trust in the opinion of the group, as well as special character empathy and feelings manifested in interpersonal relationships.

Pragmatism. The limited resources of food, minerals, and land have developed in the Chinese hypertrophied thrift, pragmatism, and prudence. The pragmatic Chinese calculates down to the smallest detail the most economical way to achieve his goal. In conditions of constant malnutrition, generations have grown up for whom it was important not to waste excess energy.

The mythologized commander Zhuge Liang, described in the Chinese analogue of "War and Peace", the book "Three Kingdoms", performs, according to the Chinese, deeds worthy of imitation. The peculiarity of the moral principles of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire can be emphasized by the episode describing the flight of the Zhuge detachment from the enemies pursuing it. At night, the hunted, tired and hungry warriors take refuge in the house of the owner of a roadside inn. The next day, the poor man and his family, who shared their last meal with Zhuge Liang, will be killed by his soldiers. Zhuge makes this decision out of fear that the persecutors, by interrogating his benefactor, will be able to find out the direction of the movement of the Zhuge detachment. An ally is a temporarily advantageous partner, in the concept of Chinese strategists. Having received all the benefits from friendship with the USSR, the Chinese leadership hastened to announce its claims to our country. The current state of Russian-Chinese relations is based on a certain balance of mutual interests.

Cruelty. According to many ethnopsychologists, due to the severe suppression individual start and strict norms of behavior among representatives of Asian peoples, and among the Chinese in particular, a large amount of internal aggression accumulates. This is how one of our compatriots, who lived in China for several years, describes her observations: “If you meet a smiling Chinese, do not think that he is sincerely smiling at you or that this person’s heart is overflowing with joy. It can be a smile of politeness, and it can be a smile of envy. And sometimes from a smile to aggression and incomprehensible cruelty - one step.What it is, I experienced firsthand when I lived with my family in China, where I observed more than once how sweetly smiling people can ruthlessly kill rare wild or their own domestic animals: for example, Chinese children, just playing, torture to death dragonflies, amazingly beautiful butterflies, frogs, little ducklings, turtles - and also with a smile on their faces.In China, you will not hear the birds singing in the mornings either in rare forests or in numerous city parks. There are no birds there! This immediately cuts the ear: it's impossible, it's so unusual to live without the voices of birds! Everything that can be eaten is eaten in China, so there are no birds in the forest ... like many animals. cruelty, which we treat as absolute, in relation to animals in China is considered the norm of Chinese life and does not contradict either the surrounding reality or the inner convictions of every Chinese - after all, everyone does this, especially: animals exist for human needs, in particular, for his stomach .

Why are the Chinese often cruel to strangers, especially to helpless people, and completely ruthless to criminals? Why are they compliant, polite, immensely respectful to their parents and close relatives? .. These are questions for psychologists. For several years of my life in China, I have not found answers to these and many other questions about the contradictions in the character and psychology of the Chinese people, about the roots of many incomprehensible habits and rituals hidden for us...

On January 2, 1998, my husband and I were returning from a bicycle shop where we had just bought a tandem, after new year's eve Two bicycles were stolen from us in the bicycle parking lot near the house. A huge crowd of Chinese crowded in the yard, it seemed that all the inhabitants of the house in which we lived went out into the street. Scolding, children's crying was heard. “What is it?” I ask my husband. “I don’t know…” he replies tensely. Come closer. Middle-aged man, bruised and bruised face, bloody white shirt, swollen eyelids, eyes difficult to open; his hands are behind his back and tightly wrapped with barbed wire and - all the same Chinese, unique, smile! .. But already - with a request for forgiveness and a plea for help. Seeing the foreigners, the man perked up, smiled in a completely American way, habitually mistaking us for Americans. (It seemed to me that at least some hope of salvation and the desired freedom began to glow in his heart.) It turned out that the bicycle thief was caught. The crowd is noticing us. a few of us perked up, but then switched back to the poor fellow. Moreover, women beat the caught thief more often and more passionately, swore noisily. The policeman stood aside, letting the people deal with the detainee in the way they wanted. My husband and I were the only ones present who sympathized with the unfortunate thief. However, with all our desire, we could not help him in any way, and we had no right to. I felt that the crowd, for sure, was waiting for something from us. Suddenly, I saw with horror in the eyes of Chinese women hatred, misunderstanding, contempt - and to myself too. Chinese women stood around me from three sides, waving their arms, sometimes in a fit of anger one of the women - accidentally or not accidentally - hurt me with her hands, and especially aggressive ones - until they were hoarse in their voices, interrupting each other, shouting: "This thief stole your bicycles ... Tell - to the officer! Tell! "

Writing. As mentioned above, not the last role in the formation psychological portrait Chinese played writing. First, the language has isolated them from other people and created huge differences between China and the rest of the world over 5,000 years. Secondly, there is a relationship between the written Chinese language and the thinking of the inhabitants of this country. Hieroglyphs in a sense protect China from the invasion of a foreign culture and the imposition of foreign traditions. Foreign words written with hieroglyphs acquire new content. So, the name of the American drink "Coca-Cola", written using 4 hieroglyphs "ke kou ke le", literally translates as "you can mouth, you can joy." The relationship between Chinese thinking and written language can be well illustrated by the Chinese characterization of the word "brotherhood". For Russian, this word means "family relations, community, friendship." The Chinese convey this word in writing with the help of two signs - "big brother" and "little brother". In their understanding, this is a subordinate relationship in which the younger brother depends on the older one. Therefore, during the period of Soviet-Chinese friendship, it was insulting for the Chinese to be in the position of "little brother". The Chinese did not like the fact that the USSR occupied a higher position than one of the oldest countries in the world.

Not like us. The Chinese mentality is a mirror image of the European mentality. The "software system" in the head of the Chinese works, as it were, in reverse. The white arrow in the compass of the Chinese points south, the word order in the Chinese sentence is directly opposite to the word order in most languages ​​of the world, the Chinese color of mourning is white. The behavior of the Chinese is also almost the exact opposite of the behavior of the European. Chinese politeness is, in our understanding, “anti-politeness”. What a European perceives as gallantry is a simple calculation for most Chinese. The Chinese, who invites you to enter the premises first, assumes that you will give him this right. Often, the Chinese perceive and interpret the actions of foreigners in their own way. A classic confirmation of this can be an interview given by Mao Zedong to an American journalist about how I.V. personally served him in 1950. Stalin: during a visit to Moscow, during which the Chinese leader begged the Soviet leadership for help (including in the creation of Chinese nuclear weapons), at the "near dacha" Stalin, acting as a hospitable host, personally served tea to Mao and made him bedtime bed. Mao Zedong then interpreted these actions as the desire of the Soviet leadership to serve China, and the leader the greatest country, who defeated fascism, presented as his personal batman.

China is an old neighbor of Russia on Far East. The history of relations between our countries has about 350 years, during which time there were both periods of peaceful coexistence and times of confrontation and conflicts. In order to correctly assess the situation and determine the priority directions of foreign policy towards Beijing, it is necessary to understand the psychology of its population, its values ​​and motives. This is of particular importance now that eastern neighbor influence of Russia and the entire world community is growing.

As a material for publication, the works of the teacher of the Military University, lieutenant colonel, Yu.O. Serdyuk and the doctors psychological sciences, Professor a colonel, V.G. Krysko, and