damien lu ： ...
damien lu ：
i think you are confusing two things. cultural environment is not monolithic by country. in other words, not everyone in china think the same way (as in collectivism). each individual can create the preferred environment surrounding the self, regardless of which country you are in.
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thanks, damien, however, i am still confused, because individualism encourages self-volition, in contrast, collectivism supports or even regulates everyone following a particular social norm(e.g. marriage/raise child), so i do think "create the preferred environment surrounding the self" would be very difficult in collectivism culture (e.g. stay single for life), isn't it?
what you are wrong is to think everyone in a so-called collectivist culture thinks collectively; and everyone in an individualistic culture thinks individualistically. this is not true. people are all individuals, and no culture or country has everyone thinking exactly the same. in other words, ever in a very collectivist culture, there are people who are very individualistic. also, a country as big as china, it is not really a collectivist society, hasn't been that for a long time now.