As what I have learnt today, different cultures influence people’s concept of space. To illustrate, in U.S. culture, people highly value their privacy. In contrast, in Arab culture, people prefer to stay with family members rather than be alone with their “privacy” only. As I am from China, you may wonder how people’s concept of space in China is. Here are some of my reflections of Chinese concept of space.
First, Chinese think highly of family relationships. Most people will live with their parents and other family members until their twenties or even later. Consequently, there are usually more generations and also more people in big families than those in U.S. Thus, the place in their houses is more public, compared with that in small families. Many family members have to share the limited place, which makes them not care about their own space and privacy much.
Second, Chinese parents are used to controlling their children’s lives, though some of which have already been adults. Some of parents even give themselves the power to enter their children’s room to see what they are doing, whether they are study or not. As what we have seen, teenagers are not given much private place in China.
In conclusion, most Chinese do not value their own space much and some of them are not given this right to have much private space.
Ha~~Hi，Pan. Now we are in Singapore and can manage our life by ourselves；I hope that we can all find the best ways,which suit us SM3 students, to live in Singapore soon. Best wishes~
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with you to some extent. Many Chinese don't consider privacy as important as American people do. But as people become more knowledgeable nowadays, people pay more attention to privacy gradually. And luckily, my family is a very "democratic" family. My parents respect my privacy; for example, they alway knock the door before they enter my room.
ReplyDeleteHa~I also have a good democratic family~I agree with you.
DeleteHehe~me too!
DeleteI think Chinese concept of space is influenced by its culture in some aspects. In old days, people lived in big family, so they knew each other very well, which caused that they had little privacy. Nowadays in China, people can get more knowledge, and they start to value their own privacy.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, you could share you concept of space and how this is practised in your own home. Do you have your own space or do you have to share?
ReplyDelete