Changed by a Changing Culture

Our society is in a constant stream of change. The lives of people of different generations become more different with each passing from parents to child. This is also true in regards to different cultures. While in some ways different cultures are becoming more alike, through globalization and the spread of modern technology, each one still contains elements that keep the cultures separate.



The first time I personally experienced culture shock was when I visited China for a month. Culture chock is defined as "a feeling of confusion, doubt, or nervousness caused by being in a place (such as a foreign country) that is very different from what you are used to" by http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture%20shock. And boy did I have it. Almost everything was different compared to what I had been used to for the past 14 years of my life at that point. I never knew that the Chinese culture would be such a drastic change. I was prepared for some of it, the hustle and bustle of the streets and the noisy way people slurped their food when eating. But I was not prepared for the intensity of it all.

We stayed, for the most part in a "little city" of approximately 1.3 million people called Suzhou. Being about an hour and a half away from Shanghai, I thought it would have been a little more quiet compared to Shanghai. But it wasn't. We stayed in a completely modern condo complex that was approximately 80 stories high and one of many within a small area. However, what I did not expect was how preserved and ancient other parts of the city was. It was such a diverse city. Twenty minutes by car from the complexes, you could find yourself in an old fashioned water town, complete with crumbling houses and people washing clothes in the river. One water town, Zhouzhang, even offered boat rides to tourists for around the city. This shows the effect tourism changes a culture, Without tourism, those people would have no need to provide boat tours.

Overall, it was an extremely eye-opening experience to me. I had never seen such diversity within such a short car ride before. The Western culture is represented in the modern section and the authentic area had dirt roads and little formal electricity. I try to live simply as those in the water towns do because they were always so happy and polite which is the exact opposite of the modern area of Suzhou. It just shows how much Western culture can change other nation's culture in both positive and negative ways. But, I still would like to go back as it was a wonderful experience to see how those on the other side of the world live.

http://suzhou.jiangsu.net/attraction/premier.php?name=Zhouzhuang_Water_Town&city=Suzhou&id=10