Chapter　IV Appreciating Cultural Differences

“We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.”

Kofi Annan，Former Secretary General, United Nations “The war we have to wage today has only one goal and that is to make the world safe for diversity.”U Thant, Former Secretary General, United Nations

In this Chapter, the author would like to give readers an insight into some snippets of Cultural Differences that exist. We hope it will assist the people, corporations (state-owned or private) and anyone who is/or will be engaged in the international arena.

Understanding Cultural Differences

Clifford Geertz (1926-2006), the late anthropologist defined Culture as a“historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols...by means of which men can communicate, perpetuate and develop their own knowledge about and attitudes towards life.”

Emeritus Professor Geert Hofstede likened Culture as the “software of the mind” in his book Cultures and Organizations, and he said “Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.”in page 51 of National Cultures and Corporate Cultures Hofstede, G. (1984) .

With these definitions of Culture by the two eminent anthropologists, we can see the importance of learning and understanding of Cultural Differences and how to cope with it, as people from one Culture tend to take their Culture for granted, and consider other Cultures as unacceptable. This attitude has given rise to personal conflicts on a smaller scale, and riots, violence and wars on a much larger scale. One case in point which the author has experienced is the wearing of hats in a Church. There was an Australian lady who wore a hat and sat in a church in China, without knowing that wearing of hats in places of worship is considered disrespectful in the Chinese Culture. She was asked by the wardens to remove her headgear, but she refused by saying that“In my country, we show our respect in Church by wearing our hats.”It almost ended up in a heated argument. Fortunately, a warden in this Church was able and willing to　explain the cultural differences to both parties, and resolved the problem amicably. This was just a minor case from cultural differences, yet we have witnessed in recent decades more frequent occurrence of serious cases of violent confrontation and extreme terrorist acts as a result of political and religious intolerance.

Therefore, we should put more focus to the importance of appreciation of Cultural Differences.

1.Multinational Organizations

Organizations that are already international in their operations encounter cultural differences in their interactions with the government officials, business partners, clients, consumers, staff members. Failures and conflicts often arise out of Organizations and their leaders being unaware of or refusing to acknowledge the existence of Cultural Differences.

During business negotiations, most people from Eastern cultural background would not give or are naturally unable to give a direct negative response. They would nod their heads when the opposite party is deliberating. The other party will be grossly misled if they perceive that the nodding of the head means yes or agreement. In fact, the nodding of head only indicates understanding of what has been said and doesn’ t carry any meaning of endorsement.

Multinational companies like Microsoft, IBM, General Motors, General Electric, Sony, Panasonic, McDonalds, and Coca Cola are some of those multinational organizations well known for their success in operating smoothly in the multicultural societies of this world.

2.International Relations

There are many different political and governing systems, ideologies, economic and social structures in the world but there is no one that is perfect.To be able to sustain existence and succeed in this complex world, one must be able to understand, accept the differences and work within such systems. Perhaps the best example of co-existence of differences is the present one country two systems(一国两制)　propounded by the late Deng Xiaoping for the return of Hong Kong and Macau as Special Administrative Regions under one country, the People’ s Republic of China.

On the other hand, there are many politicians nowadays,who due to　their refusal to acknowledge and accept the differences between cultures, would try to impose their ideologies, systems and practices on countries with different cultural mindsets.

3.Interracial and Interreligious Relations

Nowadays there are very few countries which can still claim having only one race and one religion in their countries. Just take a look at USA and Europe, with migrants from all over the world; they have become more and more multiracial in their ethnic composition.

However, there are countries, with the dominance of one race which practise racist policies by granting special rights and privileges to the dominating race, denying other races of their cultural heritage in terms of their names, education and religious practices. As such racial and religious tension is high, and may result in emigration, riots and violence.

Singapore is a very good example of a multiracial and multireligious society. It has four official languages, and equally distributes public holiday among the various races and religions. It appreciates the importance of cultural differences by encouraging English as the first language (lingua franca) for local and international communication, and allowing school children of the four major races to learn their mother tongues. It also encourages its people to learn more languages. There is“The Presidential Council for Minority Rights”, with the　main function　to scrutinise Bills passed by the Parliament of Singapore to ensure that the proposed law is not discriminatory against any race, religion or community.

4.Neighbourhood

In most parts of the world, it is more and more common to have an environment with multi-cultures. It may be people of different dialect groups, races, tribes, nationalities, or religious practices staying close to each other as a community. It may be because of economical, educational, jobs and business reasons, or simply a natural development. It is therefore very important to understand and appreciate the cultural differences, especially in a cosmopolitan setting to ensure a harmonious environment.

If people does not accept or even refuse to accept this fact and is intolerant, it can create misunderstanding, unhappiness which may eventually lead to quarrels in the smaller scale, and war between nations.

A classic example is about a Chinese migrant family who migrated to Singapore recently. Their neighbours have a family of Indian origin. The Indians like spicy food and cook curry daily. The Chinese migrant family took issue with the Indian family, demanding that the Indians can only cook curry when they are not around. Even though the Indian family was accommodating, it created public resentment against the Chinese migrant family such that a Cook Curry Day Campaign was organised to register the point of tolerance to the Chinese migrant family.