Why China is so difficult to understand - Alan Macfarlane

Filmed for a Chinese blog ion September 2022

[@simonyu4077]

Professor, your understanding of the traditional Chinese way of thinking is insightful to me as a Hong Kong born Chinese.

[@sylvainracine1678]

I am a Westerner, lived many years in China, did business, was married with a Chinese woman, so I feel like Alan Macfarlane understands me!

[@johnmorgan5495]

I am glad I have found your talks on China, I came to them today through your wonderful conversation with Ronald Blythe, many thanks.

[@consistent1]

Thank you for your insights! BTW, the audio is better than usual. The levels are significantly higher, which made it much easier to listen to. Again, yours are crucial insights! Thank you for sharing with us some of the basics. :)

[@chrissy4957]

Growing up in Germany, a western country, but having chinese parents, I had the privilege of growing up with both world systems. At many points esp in my childhood it was difficult to navigate bc they’re so opposite to each other at times. And bc I am in Germany, one day it shifted mostly to Western thinking. In that time phase I also learnt how westerners misunderstand Chinese mentality. Even I did sometimes bc I had made the decision to distance myself from this mindset as I as an Individual here in the West got heavily misunderstood as well and it pained me. So I distanced myself from anything Chinese to survive here. After all the geopolitical tensions though I still noticed when watching News that there was a bias and also lots of misunderstandings or even misinformation. For a few years I ignored it bc it was so uncomfortable. But then I saw how the West did the same thing to the Palestine issue, they twist and misunderstand purposefully, just like they do with China, to push their own agenda and narrative. And that’s when I started going back to this topic that’s been bothering me since growing up. I read Neurology studies and there’s even different connections in the brains for people socialized in the West and in China. And I also analyzed the language. And most importantly the Philosophy, which has given me a headache in school, as German schools have taught me this binary thinking, or they tried to but all this time I thought that this is so underdeveloped thinking. The world isn’t just black-and-white, yet so many westerners wholeheartedly or subconsciously believe that. I never liked Philosophy class, only for me to later on realize that I liked Philosophy, just not Western binary Philosophy. And even for this hypothesis I found neurological studies. I came to the conclusion and I felt like I will be the only one, as there isn’t so many Western born Chinese, and even if there are, most of them don’t take the time to do all of this research and observation as I do, many of them are “fine” with fully integrating into binary individualistic western society. They’ve lost their ability to think collectivist, structural and relational. Now I encounter this video and I always get so excited when my Hypotheses or Analyses get validated by other respectable Academics. Thank you Prof Alan Macfarlane.

[@jiumiluanxiang]

I am Chinese and saw your《The Origins of English Individualism》a while back. It's great to find your channel!

[@waichui2988]

To really understand someone else, or another culture, you need to understand them on their own terms, as they are. You have to set aside a lot of your own culture and go into the other culture naked. Then you really know them. If you can set aside your own culture for a while and thoroughly understand another culture, maybe even feel it, you will find beauty beyond the imagination at the beginning of your journey. You will also end up understanding your own culture much better, and much deeper. The novel Shogun has a great contrast. The Jesuit, Father Alvito, went to Japan as a boy and lived most of his life there. He knew Japan better than most Japanese. But he was forever a foreigner, an outsider. His knowledge was a scholar's knowledge. The pilot, John Blackthorne, had no choice. He was thrown into Japanese society alone. All other Europeans in Japan were his enemies. He had to learn and adapt and become Japanese to survive. His knowledge was the knowledge of a member of that society; he could feel Japan at the emotional level.

[@dashong8912]

I READ SOMEWHERE that the first Christians in Rome were invited to worship their God along with the other Gods the Romans had. The Christian God wasn't rejected. But the Christians were adamant there was only one God. Then they will fed to the lions.

[@marcwhite6267]

Professor, could you please upload your thought on China as one video? Thank you.

[@azharidris7092]

why is this even a topic for conversation.. weird.. not very clever.. bloody obvious different civilisation has different history and development with different out come.. just accept it.. end of story..