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East Meets West: An Infographic Portrait by Yang Liu

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The artist and visual designer Yang Liu was born in China and lives in Germany since she was 14. By growing up in two very different places with very different traditions she was able to experience the differences between the two cultures first-hand.

Drawing from her own experience Yang Liu created minimalistic visualizations using simple symbols and shapes to convey just how different the two cultures are. The blue side represents Germany (or western culture) and the red side China (or eastern culture):

Lifestyle: Independent vs. dependent Lifestyle: Independent vs. dependent

Attitude towards punctuality Attitude towards punctuality

At a party At a party

Ideal of beauty Ideal of beauty

Elderly in day to day life Elderly in day to day life

The boss The boss

Noise level inside a restaurant Noise level inside a restaurant

Problem-solving approach Problem-solving approach

Size of the individual's ego Size of the individual’s ego

Perception: How Germans and the Chinese see one another Perception: How Germans and the Chinese see one another

How to stand in line How to stand in line

Complexity of self-expression Complexity of self-expression

Traveling and recording memories Traveling and recording memories

Connections and contacts Connections and contacts

Three meals a day Three meals a day

Animals Animals

Anger Anger

Moods and weather Moods and weather

Read an interview with Liu about the project here.

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6 Comments »

  • Satyajit says:

    Brilliant. Me being an Indian, I can relate to the Chinese side. Similar behavior.

  • JPN Perspective says:

    It’s interesting to note that the modern Japanese perspective is a little bit of both sides, since the influence of American/Western society is strong there. Some things like idea of beauty, the boss, ego, and complexity of self-expression are the same as Chinese, but other things like punctuality, how to stand in line, noise level, and independent lifestyle are much more Western in belief.

  • Jung says:

    I don’t understand about the pic Animal. Could you explain more about that?

    Thanks a lot

    • red says:

      Chinese kills every animal for mass consumption, be it for food, clothing or medicine…

    • Kieran says:

      In my opinion, the pic means when German love a pet or an animal, they may collect them and let them live like the left side. In Chinese case, they mostly kill them all and collect as a collection.

    • Junke says:

      When Chnese think of animals they often think of dishes in which they ate that animal. (That is not to say that Chinese eat everything, though.) For example, when Americans see a species of fish, they talk about its natural habitat and other thinks they know about the animal. Whereas Taiwanese and Chinese, for example, would talk about a time they ate that fish, how it was served and the restaurant they ate it at. Was it Japanese style, Szechuan style, Peking style, whatever, they may try to recall. Another thing is Chinese will eat a whole fish, head and all, for example, whereas the fillet eaten in the Western does not really represent what the actually animal looks like.

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