Geographies in Depth

German vs Chinese: what are the cultural differences?

Arwen Armbrecht
Senior Writer, Forum Agenda

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is making her eighth visit to China this week. As with political and economic points of view, there are many cultural differences between the two nations. Chinese-born artist Yang Liu moved to Germany at the age of 14. Drawing on her experience, she has created a series of minimalist infographics to highlight how people see their world from a Chinese versus German perspective in her piece ‘East Meets West’. The blue side represents a German point of view, the red represents Chinese.

Angeranger

The boss
chef

Connections and contacts contacts

Three meals a daydrei-mahlzeiten

How Germans and the Chinese see one another east-vs-west

Ego
eastwest-ego

Elderly in day to day life
elderly-in-day-to-day-life

Lifestyle
lebensstil

Complexity of self-expression
meinung

Moods and weather
moods-and-weather

At a party
party

Attitude towards punctuality
puenktlichkeit

How to stand in line
queue

Noise level inside a restaurant
restaurant

Ideal of beauty
schoenheitsideal

Animals
tiere

Traveling and recording memories
traveling

Problem-solving approach
umgang-mit-problemen

 

 

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