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Why are Chinese disinclined to show wealth?

www.chinanews.cn 2005-01-27 13:53:17

Chinanews, Jan. 26 - Not only are most Chinese inclined to hide their
wealth, they even insist they do not have money.
The disinclination to show wealth has been ingrained in the Chinese
culture since ancient times. People today are becoming even more private
about their income. Psychologists believe this attitude derives from
China's thousands of years of cultural tradition, evidenced in proverbs
like "a prominent bird gets shot" and "a blossoming tree will be
eventually destroyed". They summarize the essence of Chinese social
experience, and reflect certain characteristics of Chinese society to
some degree.
Exerting a profound influence on Chinese culture for thousands of years,
Confucius' doctrine of the Golden Mean promotes a humble, calm way of
life. Thus formed the Chinese people's unique psychological quality of
disliking self-publicity.
Since Qin Shihuang, the first Qin emperor (248 BC to 206 BC), unified
China 2000 years ago, China has mostly been a unified country. In this
relatively stable society, there was little competition and no basis for
comparison. In this environment, ancient people did not need to reveal
their wealth at all.
Chinese people's unwillingness to show wealth also has a physiological
reason. Scientists found more dehydrogenates in Chinese livers than
westerners' through studies of intoxicated people from various countries.
This explains why alcohol poisoning occurs much less frequently in
Chinese even though the alcohol content of China's "white spirit" far
exceeds that of foreign liquors. The existence of dehydrogenation enzymes
in the human brain may have to do with the fact that the Chinese are
better at controlling their moods than Westerners.
Cultural traditions and life styles can also have an impact on brain
structure.The cultural traditions, conventions, living habits and
attitudes that Chinese have inherited through generations cause gradual
genic and neural changes. The accumulation of such quantitative changes
eventually leads to qualitative changes, or gene mutation. When the
mutated genes were inherited, the disinclination towards wealth exposure
passed on.
Modern scientific studies find that only the brain's left hemisphere is
active in speaking foreign languages made up of alphabets. However, since
the Chinese language combines sound and shape, both hemispheres are used
in speaking Chinese. Therefore, it is true that the disparity between
people's personalities in the East and West has a physiological basis.

E-mail: zhangqinghua@chinanews.com.cn Tel: 8610-88387443 Fax:
8610-68327649

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