Western and Eastern Cultures

[Lycan999]

I have be toying with the idea of creating a world where Eastern and Western cultures are together in the same place, and I was wondering if anyone else has ever tried anything like this. It also seems that fantasy for the most part is dominated by Western cultures, and would like to hear from anyone who has wrote about an Eastern culture. Also by East I mean Chinese and Japanese, and am not including India and the "barbarian" tribes of Mongolia and Russia at this time.

 

[Addison]

I've outlined a samurai-fantasy story. I've been digging deep into their culture, mythology and customs.

So a place where castles and knights share a culture and place with....oni, ninjas and empires? It sounds fantastic, and definitely possible. It's a fantasy after all.

I've tried doing this for my mermaid culture, and avian culture (people with wings). Its fun and amazing, go for it!

 

[Mindfire]

Some of my cultures have Middle Eastern influences. Does that count? I do have some Japanese-inspired ethnicities too.

 

[Lycan999]

I do not really count the Middle East as East since they kind of have their own culture, but the it is very interesting. If I had to choose where they fit in, I would probably say the West because the two mixed during the Crusades and are geographically closer. I might try adding them into the mix as well and see what happens, but I am definitely going to try combining the West and East.

 

[Mindfire]

What about Pacific Islanders?

 

[Addison]

Help us out Lycan. Everyone has their own ideas of international borders. Some say the East stops on the west side of Turkey, others say it stops on the west of China. Some say Western Europe includes Russia, others that Russia is its own place.

Where do you see the borders? This can help us help you. Or it can help you on its own.

 

[Lycan999]

In my opinion it depends on if you are only dividing the Old World into West and East or if you can allow for other factions. The way I see the East is China, Japan, India, and mainland Southeastern Asia. The Pacific Islands or what some people call Oceania is another region, which separate because of its different culture. Then there is the Middle East which contains Turkey, and then the rest of Asia including the Eurasian Steppe which is where the "barbarian" tribes lived.

 

[Feo Takahari]

Don't forget Korea!

It seems like you'll need a large ocean or other separation to pull this off--if you have crossable land between the two, there should be some analogue to the Middle East, a place where the two different cultures met and blended. (Even if there's only a small ocean, it's likely that the two societies will have encountered each other once or twice in the past.)

 

[Lycan999]

Yes, I did forget about Korea. Hard to believe nowadays. But yes, I was thinking of sort of using the land shape of Eastern and Southern Europe with the inland seas as a model. I'm still not entirely sure how much contact I want them to have and what kind of relationship the different regions have to each other, but they are going to be relatively close together. I have started on the model and should have it completed soon.

 

[Kit]

Mine is set in ancient China/Nepal or some alternate reality thereof. I didn't consciously plan that- it just happened.

 

[Penpilot]

Well I haven't really written anything using a Eastern culture, yet, but I do have a bit of a perspective on this. I'm Chinese and I was born in Canada. I live in Vancouver where there's a huge Chinese population, so for me Eastern and Western cultures occupy the same geographic area and are at a odds externally and internally in my life.

If I were to point you toward a point of conflict, I'd point you towards the concept of low and high context cultures. This point can be a huge area for misunderstanding between Eastern and Western cultures. Here's a wiki link High and low context cultures - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm not a expert, but if you needs some clarification on this, just let me know.

 

[Lycan999]

So you are saying that one of the main conflicts between the two regions is that their forms of communication are different in the very way they value words? That is one cultural difference I have never really considered. Since I am very Western in this aspect apparently, could you show me some examples of high and low context communication and point out the differences? That should help clarify it for everyone.

 

[Penpilot]

Actually, in some ways the words are irrelevant when compared to the context in which they're said. Context is key here. Context brings expectations and baggage in High Context cultures.

To make things simpler, here's a kind of high context situation that happens in Western cultures. First date for the daughter. The guy arrives at the door and the dad invites the guy in to meet him. Having given you just that context, we all know what meeting is about. Regardless of what the father says, the context of that meeting is to convey the message "treat my daughter right or I will kill you." Sometimes things may be more overt like the meeting takes place while the father is in the kitchen chopping carrots or he's polishing his gun, but it's all conveying the same message without really the need for words.

Now, lets move this into the business realm. (This example maybe dated, so just take it for what it's worth.) Let's take the context of two sides coming together for the first time to do business. In Western cultures, the expected intent of this first meeting is to make a singular deal with each side is trying to come out on top, regardless of whether they plan on doing business together again. In Eastern cultures, traditionally, the expected intent is to try to establish a long term business relationship. It's not about coming out ahead in that one deal. It's about establishing a long term relationship where sometimes one side comes out ahead and sometimes it's the other side, but in the long run they both do well.

So when East and West come together to do business, the East may give the West favorable terms expecting that in the next deal favorable terms will be given to them. So when the next deal comes along and the West still wants to come out on top, it can cause lots of friction because the East thinks the West are being a-holes and backing out on their non-verbal understanding that was supposedly established at their first meeting.

The Eastern culture comes in with preconceived notions about what the meeting is about, base on it's context, and the Western culture doesn't give much thought beyond the obvious.

From personal experience context misunderstandings extends to familial things too. This was a big point of personal conflict in my family, and I'm still fuzzy on things. Being brought up in a Western culture when I talked with my parents I expected to be told what the context of a conversation was about. Eg. "I want to talk to you about your grades. You need to study more if you want to get better grades." In an Eastern culture when and where that conversation takes place matters and the words used maybe odd and misunderstood. Eg the parent may wait until you're studying in your room and they'll come in and say something like "Uncle Alex's son studies really hard and is getting straight A's in school."

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Obviously this almost sounds like a put down, but the person this is spoken too is expected to understand the context of why this was said. It's supposed to be taken like the western culture comment.

Hopefully I explained it well enough.

 

[Jeff Xilon]

I'm also not an expert on this, but like Penpilot do have some personal experience in what they're talking about. I'm a Canadian (of Western European descent) and have been living in Korea for years. One book I read when I first came here that I've never forgotten the lessons of was "The Geography of Thought" by Richard Nisbett. I recommend it as a good place to start if you want get an understanding of how "Western" and "Eastern" cultures can differ in the way they look at the world. Again, I'm not an expert or student of the field so I can't promise you that what Nisbett says is the last word on such subjects, but a lot of it has certainly jived with the experiences of my life.

 

[Lycan999]

Thanks, you both have been very helpful. This could help me put depth in to more of the cultures I created, not just the ones I am planning now.