Cultural Diversity West and EastDiversity is a big topic, here I would love to say something about culture diversity on how people think so differently. I am Chinese and I have worked in an international company for X years (or international companies).Below are some of my perspectives in culture difference between West and East. Why I think culture diversity is interesting and worthy of mentioning is that we could know why people think and talk in different aspects by thinking of his/her background and culture; to help the diversity team from all nations to work better between each other, to mix the teams with different culture in order to maximize the innovation and creativeness at work, to amplify those strength of the culture and to weaken those negative parts; to help management level leverage the team and get tasks fulfilled in the best way. 7 items of culture diversity that I see:1 Westerners care more on the rational and logic stuff while Easterners care more about emotion and sensibility rather than reason. E.g. how would you categorize “panda, monkey and banana” by picking two of the three? The answer shows that Westerners prefers to put panda and monkey together into one group while the Easterners put “monkey and banana” together. The reason is that Westerners think that panda and monkey are all animals. Easterners more concerns about the connection and emotional links between things. Monkey and banana is to eat and to be eatable.2 Westerners see more to future while Easterners sees more to the history. Lets see the films that US produces. A lot of them are about the future, ET, other planets, aliens, etc. As a contrast, Easterners loves to chase back to history and produces those linking more to the past virtues passing by from generation to generation. Easterners wants to see those all good virtues and concepts of traditions to be carried on. 3 Westerners are more “egoism” than Easterners while Easterners are more “group” type. Westerners are seen as far more independent. Kids are taught to be independent. But Easterners still get a lot of care by family members and gets continuous attentions even they grow up. Its also common that parents decide what major their child should study at University. A lot of parents even will decide what kind of life partner their children should choose in Eastern culture.4 Westerners is to think from small to big, while Easterners thinks from big to small. Just simply to see the way we describe a day between West and East: Westerners would say in this consequence: day, month, year while Easterners say in the way of: year, month and day. Also another simple direct example is the way how we write address. The Western way is to start from the small to big, but the Eastern way is to go from the country (big first) to detailed number of the streets. 5 Westerners care more about the theories and Easterners cares more on the experiences. Lets for example to see into the kitchen. Western cares a lot on the theory of how to cook. Their kitchen is somehow like a lab. But in Eastern kitchen, a lot of chefs cook by experience and those useful tips passed on by their mentors or masters. If they put salt into one meal, they do not have the detailed amount written on recipe or by using the measurable spoons, but instead they feel and put the right quantity by experiences.6 Westerners love more adventure while Easterners wants more stability, playing safe. I see a lot of Westerners love to go to those undiscovered adventurous places. The Westerners loves to explore. Easterners prefer to go to those famous well known or even sometimes over crowded places. The same thing applies to jobs. A lot of Easterners choose to work for government and civil servant jobs after graduation, because they see these kinds of job with very good high stability and also offering very stable nice salaries in life long time.7 Westerners love to speak out their own words while Easterners tends to follow majority. Lets take the clothes / dress up culture for example. On the streets, we can see all kinds of fashion in West. Innovation and novelty are seen much more in Western culture than in Eastern. Westerners love to address their feelings, speak out, to follow their own styles, even if it is sometimes odd or special. On the contrast, Easterners love to “keep a low profile”. They feel safe in following the choices and tastes of majority.