“Cultural Differences Between Chinese and Spanish People”

1170 Words5 Pages
“Cultural differences between Chinese and Spanish people” “Culture only exists by comparison” (Hofstede, THE HOFSTEDE CENTRE). There is a theory of Hofstede, who is a Dutch researcher, about cultural dimensions. There are six dimensions to understand better other cultures. We are going to review four of them in the Chinese culture compared to the Spanish culture. Chinese people differs from Spanish people in power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculine society vs. feminine society, and short term goals vs. long term goals. Chinese people as Spanish people believe that differences between people are acceptable. This means there is high power distance in their culture. They strongly believe in hierarchies, and the individuals are often organized by a rank. However, the inequality between Chinese people is stronger than inequality between Spanish people. In China social and cultural differences are very important; for instance, if a Chinese man goes to a business gathering, they have to first make a salutation to the person with the highest rank, and also wait for this person to start the meal first, they have to wait even if their dinner is ready, only after this important person starts to eat the others can. “In china the employees need to serve the Chinese boss” (Wang, 2011). The boss always has the last word. In Spain the status and the honor are very essential. The system works with the inequality. There are a lot of social groups and relationships that build the hierarchies. It is very common to see bureaucracy and autocracy in Spain. In a business the workers are generally organized by ranks and the power is only held by a few, who are the ones that take the final decisions. The Boss point of view outweighs the workers point of view. Chinese people are collectivist; However, Spanish people are in the middle of collectivism and
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