So many in China talk about their love of Chinese culture and how foreigners don't understand it. It is a fundamental founding part of patriotism for many in China in addition to being an argument used to often counter any argument a foreigner has when critiquing China and yet I find this concept of culture, very ambiguous, very superficial...so very false. When we say we love culture, are we in love with this perpetuated belief of our national culture and the ignorance of all other facets of culture within our society? Where does culture come from? What is our culture? When we say we love it, what do we really love?

Xinjiang traditional dress

My main issue with culture, especially the cultural education in China is this sense of a super, all encompassing macro culture. Chinese culture in this sense is all the traditional cultures, the tea drinking, the dragon dancing at new yeat, the festivals etc... yet for me, this is simply not culture. It is a very VERY small part of your culture, and for many Chinese isn't even a part of their own personal culture. Take for example the tea drinking, I haven't seen a tea house in Harbin, and yet this culture of drinking tea is supposedly a big part of Chinese culture? This is the problem, culture isn't country wide, all encompassing. It is more localised, it works on a more personal level and is shaped by the reiteration of ideas, beliefs and the society around us. No one here would tell me that the Harbin culture is the same is guangzhou, xinjiang or xi'an. All four of these areas have their own culture, and even within smaller areas, there exists smaller, micro cultures. So when you say you love Chinese culture, when you say you understand Chinese culture; Are you talking about the Islamic culture of the north west, the drinking and culture of manliness of the north east, or a more southern example of culture? This media perpetuated culture of dragons, poetry and art...Is it really the culture of your country, or is it the culture of history you wish still existed, the facade you attempt to pull over the eyes of others?

How I see Harbin, lots of beer

Micro cultures are more what I think of when I say I have experienced a culture. When my friends back home ask me what China is like, I can only really tell them about Harbin in all honesty. I have no idea what the culture in Shanghai is like. I see Harbin as quite a laid back, quiet city with a heavy drinking culture, a lack of religious beliefs, a lack of many of the major Chinese traditional cultural traits (lets just say, I was thoroughly disappointed never to having seen dancing dragons or tea houses when I arrived). There exists a real brotherhood amongst friends in Harbin that feels stronger than in other Chinese cities, there is a great pride in being seen as the barbaric north, and even more pride in their supposed fighting abilities. There is a hatred of Japan stronger here than many other places in China with a population who still remembers what they done. Fashion here is wild, and absolutely bizarre and seems behind the more developed areas of China with crazy colours being the norm and no sense of a western influence. Now after seeing this, why is it that everyone here still talks about a love of Chinese culture when they themselves, in all reality have no true understanding as to what IS Chinese culture. When your own culture is so very different from the macro culture, can you say yourself that you truly understand Chinese culture just by being Chinese?

Japanese culture as a Chinese sub culture. Cosplaying.

And then there are sub cultures, cultures within cultures of which you yourself are aware of yet others around you are oblivious to. We have the bar scene in Harbin, where you can see the same people every week without fail, all partaking in a very western form of drinking. We have the Modern Chinese hiphop culture with kids meeting on the streets to have dance offs like they see in movies such as step up, shaking hands with a bro hug, a symbol of their own personal culture. We have a strong islamic presence here, a culture imported from the north west and very isolated, always talking in small groups, We have geek culture, with the small manga shops being filled with kids who have a love of all things japanese sporting their own funky looks based on the animes, big hair to be seen all over, board game shops for those who love to relax with some hard thinking and even a dungeons and dragons scene where many jokes amongst the group become private to the shared group. This is simply because culture is the sum product of our shared experience amongst our small groups of friends and community, we cannot share our experience with everyone in China.

Traditional Scottish culture. Not how I experience Scotland however.

I often hear questions of "I wish to learn of other cultures, teach me your culture..." and I simply do not know how to answer, I feel like trying to explain what pork tastes like to a devout Muslim. If you have never tried it, it's almost impossible to experience it's flavour from description alone. Culture is the same, it cannot be learned or described but simply experienced. In my own culture back home, we have a strong geek culture within our group of friends. You drop a fork at dinner, and you will get a reply along the lines of "haha did you roll a one?" Unless you have any experience of a pen and paper roleplaying game, you simply will not get our cultural humour. I cannot begin to explain scottish culture as my experience of it and others is entirely different from everyone else. Football for many is a big part of this supposed Scottish macro culture, and yet I simply do not watch it nor care what happens. How can I then even begin to explain my culture in an objective way when I myself do not fully understand the tribalism that encompasses Scottish football?

In this very same way, culture is not possible to learn from your books. I hear so often "you British are all gentlemen" and yet the reality is so far from the assumption. The books on British culture are so unbearably shallow, superficial and historical that they don't even begin to explain as to what is Modern British culture. Think of modern Chinese culture, what is it? For me there are good and bad aspects, one that instantly comes to mind is the culture of mobile phones and eating. Your grandparents probably wouldn't dare bring a phone to the table deeming it rude, yet this is a massive part of modern Chinese youth culture, one that I haven't seen anywhere in any textbook on Chinese culture. Culture is malleable, it changes day to day and so your textbook is out of date as soon as it hits the shelf. All you learn from your textbook is historical culture and it is nothing but a very bad representation as to what your current culture is....

So, next time you decide to tell a foreigner "they don't understand the culture", is this really true or just a bad excuse to try and win a debate you are clearly losing?. Go push your "I win" button in the debate, but it's getting old and the only one who is convinced is yourself.