West vs East : Relationship and family values.

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even more on-topic:


https://youtu.be/tzQuuoKXVq0

and it's all true. ask any italian, they'll confirm it. what i said about "generous exceptions" can also be reworded as "not taking things seriously"

in my experience, italy has more in common with south america than with northern europe

^ a teacher once showed us the video you posted and said "just imagine it's lebanese flag instead of Italian and it'll still be all true."

I believe there's a Mediterranean culture.

i think, somewhere along the line, honor became pride, and then pride became vanity. and vanity is gradually becoming the norm worldwide ("the third iteration"). cycles of civilization, from communal living at first, to more and more competitiveness throughout history, maybe tied to the speed and depth at how communication needs to happen (getting faster and more shallow over time)

it is weird though how countries like japan can still be so conservative. i guess it's because of how they're so aggressive at being early adopters in other areas. they're "vain" in different ways to stay competitive while maintaining their traditions. but they're probably reaching their breaking point. i think the hikikomori phenomenon is an example of that. sooner or later there's a limit. you can't study 40 hours a day

Not sure what you mean exactly of the pride thing, but Eastern cultures are stronly honor cultures.
I think pride is more related to "not losing face"?

hm, no, i wouldn't use the expression "losing face". i've seen it used as a very characteristic chinese thing actually

it is hard to define what i mean. maybe i'll need some time. but it's clear to me that it's real and important as a social value. it's passed through generations. i can imagine someone's body posture when i talk about it. mussolini was a caricature of what i'm talking about. i think it's more about showing strength (while honor is more about actually having some kind of unity, and vanity is more about drawing attention)

"Not losing face" is certainly a strong characteristic of most of the East, including China.

i'm thinking of the two people from lebanon i've met in person (there's a significant so-called "syrian-lebanese" community here, but it's mostly third-generation and forward by now. mostly christian lebanese i think. you see them often in positions of social influence, like medicine or politics)

one was a man (store owner, probably christian), the other one was a woman (technical researcher, westernized muslim). both had a friendly "at your service" kind of attitude. that's something rare in italy. the italian way to be welcoming is to show off what they have to offer ("pride"), instead of asking you what you need

the only cultural ethnicity here that hasn't really integrated even after a few generations is japanese (the only significant "asian" ethnicity here). they still have a "japanese neighborhood" in the city, and they often go to live in japan when they're young (but then they're seen as total foreigners there despite being 100% ethnically japanese, and they're not treated well. kinda like "how dare you pretend you're japanese". while, in italy, if you look italian and you speak italian, you're italian)

oddly enough, by my last year in college, most of my pseudo-friends were japanese (yes, they are overrepresented in college). there was also a japanese girl in high school who seemed to be interested in me. but then she got really discouraged when people started to suggest she actually was interested in me. they were probably just pulling her leg, but she really didn't like it

it's too bad i didn't realize what was (probably) going on. to me she was just a friend, but, in retrospect, she was probably the one person i might actually have had something meaningful with back then. i don't even remember how i met her. she wasn't connected to my group of friends. she wasn't ugly, but she wasn't particularly attractive to me either, so i didn't really notice her that way. i was too busy being obsessed with someone else

^Yes for sure, it all plays a part.
I agreed with the linked article about women being safer drivers too. My point is that some women choose to value traditional gender roles and that should be OK!
I've always been the driver, but I've known women that genuinely struggle with driving, whether that's conditioned or innate or both I don't know, but it's real.