Het Hoofdstuk van China
Door Ernie Tadla
Wat aan me gebeurde terwijl ik dit boek schreef.
„Oh, het Oosten is het Oosten, en het Westen is het Westen,
en nooit zal twain samenkomen,
Tot de tribune van de Aarde en van de Hemel weldra bij
Zetel van het Oordeel van de god de grote;
Maar er zijn noch het Oosten noch het Westen,
grens, noch ras, noch geboorte,
Wanneer twee sterke mensen zich van aangezicht tot aangezicht bevinden,
hoewel zij uit de einden van de aarde!“ komen
Rudyard Kipling, 1889
Toen ik naar China ging, had ik een negatieve, self-righteous mening van alle dingen Chinees. Het was een communistische, godless dictatuur. Wij, enerzijds, waren de kapitalistische, democratische, Christelijke maatschappij.
Zo na zeven jaar, frustratie, pijn die door sommige ernstige binnengesprekken wordt gevolgd, veranderde ik mijn paradigma en stond me toe om vele positieve dingen over de Chinese manier te ontdekken.
Ik keerde aan Canada terug en schreef dit boek vanuit mijn vers, nieuw Chinees perspectief. Mijn redacteur, Ross Freake, die aan mijn aandacht wordt gebracht dat ik de Westelijke nu manier bashing aangezien ik vroeger had bashed de Chinese manier. Ik was besmet met het syndroom van Stockholm. U leest nu een volledige revisie met een verandering in houding en paradigma, maar terug naar voordien geen wat het was; er zou geen aanwinst in dat zijn.
Door synchronicity, ontving ik belangrijke epiphany.
Het is het concept geheel-hersenenintegratie.
Na zijn de verschillen tussen de twee hersenenhemisferen.
| De linkerhemisfeer | De juiste hemisfeer |
| gebruiks logica/reden | gebruiks intuïtie/emoties |
| denkt in woorden | denkt in beelden en verhalen |
| overeenkomsten voor een deel/details | deals in wholes/relationships |
| will analyze/break apart | will synthesize/put together |
| thinks sequentially | thinks holistically |
| is time bound | is time free |
| is extroverted | is introverted |
| is characterized as male | is characterized as female |
| identifies with the individual | identifies with the group |
| is ordered/controlled | is spontaneous/free |
While our Western society and our education system emphasizes the left brain approach, it is important to learn how to create balance and peace with both sides of the brain.
analysis and synthesis
reasoning and intuition
extroversion and introversion
outer and inner
male and female
friend and enemy
capitalism and communism
My a-ha! The West is left-brain and the East is right brain!
Our actual brain structure includes the corpus callosum, a band of nerve fibers that bridges the two hemispheres. Interestingly, the female corpus callosum has 33 per cent more neurons than the male. That leads us to suppose that the female integrates both sides better than the male. Maybe that is why women can multi-task better than us guys.
East, West, left, right, wrong, right: which is best, which is right?
“..and never the twain shall meet,” or is it possible to meet?
This book is my story about how they did meet for me!
I believe the right way for humanity is to balance, to integrate the best parts of both. Instead of yes-but, it is yes-and.
Might this kind of thinking help us in our desperate search for world peace? Let us build bridges of balance to harmony, prosperity and peace.
Ernie Tadla, www.odysseychina.net
Next week: Chapter Two: Apprehension and Trepidation.
How we got to go to China.
| From the book: How to Live and Do Business in China: Eight Lessons I Learned from the Communists. Ranked #4 on Amazon’s China business books category of over 570 titles. The first eight chapters of the book explain my personal experiences in settling into living in Shanghai. The second eight chapters are the Lessons I learned about how to do successful business in China. I have just completed sharing these lessons on this blog and they can be referenced through the archives. The last six chapters consist of the case histories of Microsoft, Wal Mart, VW, DMG, an example of one expat who didn’t make the transition and a summary chapter. |
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:41 pm
I think this article over-idiomizes the difference between eastern and western culture as some biological brain function difference, which is weird and not very scientifically valid. I also am sure that not all people work that way … for example, I am a male (checked this morning!) and multitask way better than my ex (a female, of course, otherwise I’d have no basis for this comment). With this counterexample, it’s easy to see that gender generalizations are silly. Do you really know how females are? Have you ever been a female? And can you really have world peace with resource contention that comes from having a limited finite set of natural resources?