How others look into China

Talking about Chinese culture, Chinese will take it as a pride while foreigners may view it as a mystery. We picture in mind the Great Wall, Socialism, the Olympics, the ancient Chinese dressing style and behavior, and a lot of handicrafts that act nothing more than a cultural icon—both Chinese and foreigners. Let me introduce Chinese culture in a 22-year-old girl’s view. It must have not included every aspect of the whole culture, but what I interpret to you will be very Chinese with comments of my friends from beyond my motherland.

The Great Wall

How my friends view it:
It’s grand and amazing. It’s hard to imagine how it had built in a time without machinery. But it was also a sign of fear to invasion.
How I will interpret:
It has been the biggest defensive engineering project ever in Chinese history. It took about 2000 years to be completed, surely during which time wars and national policies had stopped the process from now and then. Men in ancient time were afraid of the Great Wall because one seldom came back home alive from it. Civilians complained about it a lot, but held a national notion that every man has a share of responsibility for the fate of his country. Tit for tat is fair play. That’s how the Great Wall wants to tell the world.

Socialism

Chairman Mao and Nickson

The Tiananmen Square
How my friends view it:
Socialism is a belief. Chinese people pursue absolute equality and highly collectiveness.
How I will interpret:
It’s not a belief just as the States’ capitalist is not equivalent to the American dream. That’s how our nation forms. It’s correct that highly collectiveness exists in about all social activities in China, that’s on basis of the actual situation that we have too many people and it’s better to have a comparatively unite idea to educate the majority to catch up the pace of modernism. Remember that it was no sooner China had been recovering from the pain of wars and humiliation than we started the process of modernization and it really takes time. Not everybody understand or even like Socialism, but that’s what has been chosen by people as one.

Traditional Chinese dress

How my friends view it:
It suggests the Chinese ladies are mysterious. It’s not sexy like but a kind of mature and it’s charming.
How I will interpret:
Cheongsam is the fashion of 1900’s China in big cities. It’s tight and body-fit, cover all parts related to sex while make them stand out. It’s a “Final Fantasy” about ladies. It suggests meditation and appreciation to internal beauty than reservation.

All in all, all I’ve listed above are the threads of Chinese culture. My friends said it was hard to understand China, maybe because our culture encourages indirection, for it is the way we feel most comfortable and it’ll be bad if somebody points the indication out.