For all of us who work between the East and West, I am currently reading an excellent book that I would suggest to all. I have talked to both Easterners and Westerners who have read it and they all highly recommend it.
The book is:
The Geography of Thought - How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why
Author: Richard E. Nisbett
ISBN #: 0-7432-5535-6
This book goes through the fundamentally different thought processes that the two systems (Western and Eastern) work under. It breaks down the long believed scientific beliefs that all humans “think” in the same way.
I am sure many of you have seen how we think in different ways and I know how this causes real problems in the business world.
The more I read this the more interesting it becomes. It is not as simple as we only think differently. We actually percieve the world in completely different ways, so when I say “think differently” I am not talking about having different opinions, I mean we truly think in a completely different manner.
It is like when I read “Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars”. When they explained how men saw the situation I said “Yes” and when they explained how women saw the same situation I said “What?”. I have spoken with my native born Hong Kong friends who have read thead “The Geography of Thought” and they have felt the same way.
PS: I did not write this book nor do I know the author, so this is not a shameless plug.
Lorraine Justice (Head of the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytecnic U) recommended this book to me back in late June. I just started it about a week ago. It’s very interesting and it’s a pretty quick read in spite of the depth of the subject matter.
BTW, another book that comes highly recommended by a designer with considerable experience working in Asia over the last 15 years is East Asia: Tradition and Transformation by John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer & Albert M. Craig. It’s available on Amazon and BN.