Paper Example on Cultural Differences Between China and the United States

Introduction

There is a myriad of cultural differences between one group and another or countries. The United States and China are an example of countries that have two different cultures. As known, China is a collectivist country while America is an individualistic country. That difference results in the dissimilarities in their culture. The extents of the differences in their cultures are explained below.

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Participation Intention in the Sharing Economy

Sharing economy is when countries allow other countries to have access to other's resource without owning them. China and America have their differences in their intention to participate in a sharing economy. Ye and Robert (p.2) affirm that trust is vital to interpersonal relationship of the sharing economy because of its complexities and high uncertainties. The authors indicate that in a cultural context, China always displays collectivistic values while those in America share individualistic values. Regarding a sharing economy, China has no problem with sharing their products and they focus on the needs and desires of other groups while the United States care about their individual need and desires. The authors indicate that culture affects the behavioral intention of cultures to participate in a sharing economy (p.2). Take the example of the way China risks of the overuse and abuse of their products and services while the United States is always keen on the release of their products.

Advertising Appeals

Cultural variations have an impact on the effectiveness of advertising. Emery and College (p.55) affirm that the first difference between the two cultures is in perception and color association. The authors explain that in China, red is associated with weddings and happiness. They indicate that expression and effectiveness in China is the complete opposite of what American advertisers perceive in the Chinese context.

The second difference is in the socialist-capitalist system. Emery and College (p.55) indicate that China is always curious about advertising ideologies and are willing to take risks as their society moves towards a market economy. The United States, on the other hand, is resistant to uncertainty in their market economy.

The third difference is in the way consumers view advertisement endorsements. Emery and College (p.55) assert that China is always skeptical about advertisements that are endorsed by celebrities because they believe that they have fake testimonials. America, on the other hand, has no problem in advertisements endorsed by celebrities because they believe in their brand image.

Cognitive Response to Advertisements

Feng and Frith (p.1) conducted a study to investigate the cognitive responses to visual advertisements between the Chinese and American cultures. Participants included in the study were 120 college students from China and 120 students from the USA. The dynamics of the study involved requiring participants to see different types of visual advertisements. Afterward, they were required to attempt to recall objects from the advertisement and express their thoughts about the meaning of the brands and images. According to the authors, findings revealed that contrasted with Chinese cultures, students from the United States had a better recollection of salient objects and created more products and brands considerations evoked by salient objects from the advertisements. More so, the Chinese students were more likely to allot to a social role to a person that they remembered from the advertisements compared to their American counterparts. According to the authors, these discoveries recommended that youthful Americans leaned on salient jobs in the advertisements. For that reason, Americans are more analytical compared to the Chinese.

Social Networking Site Use

China has a collectivist culture while the United States has an Individualistic culture. Jackson and Wang (p.1) conducted a study to investigate the social networking use in China using 400 students from Southwestern University in Chongqing, China and 490 students from a Midwestern University in the United States. The aspects of social media studied were time spent, importance, and motives for using social networking sites. After evaluating those aspects researchers allowed the students to rate themselves using the big 5 personality types, which include loneliness, shyness, and life satisfaction. Findings from their study revealed that Chinese students spent less time on social networking sites compared to their American counterparts. According to the authors, the collectivist nature of the Chinese culture is the aspect that makes them spend lesser time on the sites while regarding Americans, their individualistic nature makes them spend more time on networking sites. Notably, the individualistic and collectivist nature between the two different cultures makes them behave differently in the virtual world.

Learning Beliefs

Chidiebere (p.27) affirms that the Chinese culture is deeply rooted in a tradition of learning as their learning habits are always pushed forward by their parents. The author affirms that empirical evidence reveals that the American culture fails to put more emphasis on education for their children as compared to the Chinese culture. Researchers conducted a study to investigate the difference in learning beliefs between the two cultures while focusing on time and habit factors. On their findings concerning the use of time, researchers found that Chinese students spent more time studying and reading for leisure compared to American students (Chidiebere p.30). Besides, researchers indicate that Chinese focus less on sports compared to Americans (Chidiebere p.31). Moreover, on the factor of habits, the authors find that compared to Americans, the Chinese spend most of their time studying and reading during their early days in school as the trend continues in their college experiences. The authors infer that the priorities between American and Chinese cultures are different based on their educational attainment and their commitment educational goals. Notably, the cultural learning beliefs, especially on time and habit factor, are different between the two cultures.

Self Disclosure

Luo's study incorporated one of Hofstede's cultural dimensions called collectivism versus individualism and self-disclosure retrieved from the social penetration model to look at the cultural differences between U.S. and Chinese college students in self-disclosure on social media sites. Luo (p.9) describes self-disclosure as simply the way toward conveying individual data about oneself, clarifying one's inward encounters and private contemplations to other people, and purposefully sharing data comprising of realities, sentiments, or emotions, which isn't known by the others. The authors examined the aspect of self-disclosure by focusing on its depth and width. Results from their study revealed that there is a nationality distinction in self-disclosure width and depth, suggesting that Chinese students self-disclose more in width and depth than American college students. Notably, the Chinese and American cultures have different concepts when it comes to self-disclosure.

Family Education

Huo and Yuan's research is about family education in China and America. It analyzes the contrasts from the parts of techniques, contents, goals, and consequences of family training between China and America. Besides, the authors provide an explanation behind the distinctions in family education. Huo and Yuan (p.1325) affirm that Chinese focus on general character. They have a conception, which is the most essential. The authors add that in the Chinese family, guardians lose themselves in their kids, and incomprehensibly do not regard them. The manner in which Chinese guardians lose themselves is that they consider youngsters as their own, as a continuation of themselves and their children appear to be their entire lives and expectations. On the contrary, Americans are rational to the point that their family training is centered on treating the relatives and undertakings normally (Huo & Yuan p.1326). The authors affirm that in their perspectives, the commitments of encouraging and instructing children are equivalent to those of the general public, not beginning from the enthusiasm of the entire families and themselves. In Americans' suppositions, family training is thought about a commitment. The authors assert that the difference in family education between China and America is their values on individualism and collectivism.

Consumption

Yang's research examines the attitudes towards consumption in the Chinese and American cultures. Concerning saving money, Yang (p.661) affirms that the Chinese are spendthrifts in a way that they buy goods and services at a reasonable price. The author affirms that the Chinese value material expenses more than spiritual expenses. Second, the author articulates that the Chinese pay much attention to deposits in a case where they might need urgent money (p.661). Third, the Chinese spend too much money on superstitious beliefs and traditional ceremonies (p.662). On the contrary, Yuan (p.662) indicates that Contrasted and the Chinese, the Americans jump at the chance to look for a real existence of solace and the fulfillment of wants. Their living isn't to deny oneself or the notoriety which is not worth they are experiencing the delight from the base of their heart. According to the author, Americans are used to borrowing money to satisfy their needs and wants. The author explains that since Americans are the biggest debtors in the world, their life revolves around borrowing to ensure that their consumers are satisfied and the society develops by pushing the sale of goods and services. Evidently, the Chinese culture is more focused on saving money while American society focuses on borrowing money.

Friendships

Zhang and Tian (p.354) affirm that when it comes to friendships, the Chinese society is reciprocally obligatory as people in that culture are indebted to other people compared to their American counterparts. Chinese figures of speech demonstrate that friends attach much accentuation to enthusiastic and profound closeness and in addition physical closeness (p.354). The authors provide Huang, Y's contrastive examination of the diverse kinship see between the Chinese and the American and notes that companions in China are more comfortable with each other as far as family foundation, instructive foundation, interests, and even private life than the companions in America (p.354). This is valid between friendships in Chinese and English societies. Furthermore, Chinese individuals make companions dependent on basic interests and passionate reason while individuals in English culture make companions dependent on benefit or instrumental reason (p.354). Also, the authors affirm that Chinese individuals respect the upkeep of interactional closeness dependent on positive sentiment or expressive connection between individuals as an end, while the westerners view associations as methods or instrument to another objective.

Careers

Both Chinese and American cultures have different thoughts when it comes to decision-making in careers. Guan et al., (p.1) conduct a research on the decision-making profiles between Chinese and American University students. Their results reveal that when choosing careers, the Chinese have a lower aspiration for ideal jobs and made less effort to invest in their career decision-making compared to Americans. According to the authors, the reason for that difference comes down to the individualistic and collectivists norms between the different cultures.

Conclusion

Essentially China values collectivism while the US values the individual. If at any point an individual accomplishes something in t...