Chapter 91 solitary journey

When an American proudly says he intends to travel the world alone, someone mourns for him because he has no family or friends to keep him company. Li Wen, a professor of social psychology at California State University, has been to many countries in order to engage in pan-cultural research. Once, Li Wen carried his schoolbag alone and bought a one-way ticket to travel around Indonesia. Many American friends envied his freedom and adventure, and hoped that he could do the same. In Jakarta, some Indonesians asked him where he came from?Li Wen said proudly: I am alone, and I plan to travel around the world by myself.He waited for the other party's admiration, but what he didn't expect was sad eyes and sympathetic words: alone?You mean no family or friends to keep you company?Then you must be lonely?Are you wandering around the world because you can't go back to your hometown?

Li Wen felt lost.He didn't want to explain that his hometown was a very big city in the United States, but the other party's sympathy made him feel like a lonely loser.In the end, when someone asked this question, in order to avoid causing unnecessary concern again, he lied and said: My wife and children are also here, and they are resting in the hotel. Li Wen comes from a country that advocates individualism. The pursuit of personal achievement and the realization of personal potential as much as possible at work are the values ​​​​valued by this culture.But obviously, Indonesians don't think individualism is an ideal way of life. They care more about the group and the individual's role in the group.

We must not think that collectivism is inferior to individualism because Indonesia is behind the United States.In fact, what Li Wen used his personal experience to say is that in the early days of the United States, the individualistic style of pursuing success and taking risks did play a lot of positive functions, but now the United States has nothing to do with it. The frontier, but the population has increased a lot. To allow so many people to live in a limited space requires some anti-individualistic culture. Every culture is brewed in a special environment for a long time, there is no right or wrong, only appropriate or inappropriate.