When a tree falls in the forest

In two posts last week (Wednesday and Thursday) I touched on an American breed of moralism and discussed some of its implications. Today we start to bring out some key differences between this view and a predominant Chinese view.In some research I did, I asked the following question to American and Chinese respondents:

A tree has fallen and is blocking a public road in a remote location, hours from the nearest city.  Several large trucks are present, and could move the tree off of the road.  Will they?  Should they?

在一个很偏僻的乡下地方,有一棵大树横倒在公路上,挡住了过往车辆。在这个时候正好有几辆卡车经过。你觉得他们会不会主动把这棵大树从公路上拉开?你觉得他们应该不应该这样做?

To most Chinese respondents this was a fairly straightforward question, with an equally straightforward answer: the truck drivers’ actions would line up with their personal interests. If they could significantly speed their own passage by moving the tree, then they would; otherwise not. Since from the question it looks like moving the tree would speed them along, then in this case they probably would move the tree.

The Americans sound a similar theme, but the focus of the discussion is entirely different. While the Chinese discussions center around the “Will they?” question, the Americans are drawn to the “Should they?” question. And they are broadly in agreement that the truck drivers should indeed move the tree. What I find most interesting is how the Americans, explicitly or implicitly, frame the discussion in moral terms. One American says flat out:

You know if there's an ambulance that needs to get through that public road, and it’s sitting there and a tree happens to fall down in front of it, I mean I would think that there'd be a sense of a moral obligation to help out by moving it.

The word moral comes up several times in the American discussions. Not once, though, does any Chinese discussion touch even remotely on issues of morality. In fact, there seems to be an aversion even to discussing the “should” question. One Chinese respondent says:

I think they would do this.  “Should they do this?”  I think this is a conceptual question.

我觉得他们会这样做的。  "他们应该不应该这样做?"  我觉得这就是一个观念的问题。

By itself there’s nothing shocking about saying that this is a “conceptual question.” What shocked me, though, when I heard it is that being a “conceptual question” is grounds for dismissal: after saying this the speaker abruptly shifts the topic back to what would happen under various circumstances.

Eventually I discovered that the responses to the “fallen tree” question were but a small part of two contrasting systems of thinking: an American, “God’s eye view” that has to do with morality, and a day-to-day, problem-solving approach from the Chinese.

One way this difference can play out for Westerners in China is what I noted last Wednesday: a thirst for “justice” that can be blinding and counterproductive. “Justice,” though, is just one aspect of the broader moralistic system of American thinking that can cause problems for us in China. It’s just too easy for Westerners to make snap judgments about behaviors we see in China, labeling them “wrong” or “immoral,” without understanding — or, sometimes, even trying to understand — the broader cultural context for contrasting frames of reference.

We’ll keep digging into this as the week goes on.