By Yang Yan

Recently I have read a book about west history. I am really confused because there are many historic events I couldn’t understand. For instence why Balkan region’s problem is so controversial, and how does it possible that European countries can become a union after so many severe wars. Then I found another book to read so that I can have a better understanding of western people’s thinking.

Interestingly, I learned the way of thinking between Chinese and westerners are extensively different. The most outstanding point is the attitude towards competition. For our Chinese people we like to stay where we lived thousands years before and do not want to change voluntary. Also we’d like to lie in the middle to avoid conflict and competition. Although, today we are changing a little bit, many young people have to show their capability to win a job, but the inside of Chinese minds still hold this point of view. So most Chinese people do not want to move to another region and this may be the reason why Chinese people aren’t eager to invade other countries and tolerate some troublesome disputes as much as possible in order to maintain peace. But this idea led to China’s failure centries ago. People didn’t want to change so their minds had been restrained and creative thinking had been murdered before it could be born. Then our development stopped, people became stupid and life faced roughness.

However westerners, especially some developed countries, want to conquer others and show their supremacy. This attitude may be influenced by their religious thoughts. For example, Americans always think themselves as a chosen people of God and their democracy is the best. So they’d like to force the others to do what they want. Iraq War, I think, is not a victory for common people both Iraqis and Americans. Most westerners value individuality a lot and they want to show their differences. So I guess that’s why they like to compete with others and invent new things. I really admire westerners’ creativity. It seems that they always have some brilliant ideas and great inventions. Besides I should admit that the courage of westerners is really beyond my understanding. Their Extreme-Sports are a big challenge to me even watching. I think it must be westerners to find the American Continent and finish the circumnavigation.

Although there are a lot of differences between Chinese and westerners, we can cooperate well in many fields. Thanks to globalization some thinking patterns are changing nowadays, Chinese become more creative and westerners become more moderate, I think it is good for us to learn from each other and concentrate on developing our conditions of living.