Happy Chinese New Year! As this is a very special day for many of our colleagues and partners, we would like to share a few insights into how China differs from other Asian countries in terms of core values. To do so, we used our latest values-based cross-cultural research among 2,895 Chinese and 17,130 people from South and East Asian countries.

Mutual influence
Several countries in East Asia have had tributary relationships with China throughout history and this helped Chinese culture spread across Asia(*). Furthermore, the Chinese diaspora that often migrated for business to various parts of Southeast Asia further contributed to the spread of Chinese culture. However, Chinese culture did not only influence other cultures but was influenced by neighboring countries itself. Anime, K-pop and the beauty industry from Japan and South Korea are good examples. Nowadays, the relationship between China and the rest of Asia (and the world) is entering a new phase since China is now the world’s second largest economy(**). To better understand this new world power, it is not enough to look at China as an Asian culture but also to understand what makes contemporary Chinese culture unique.

We first look at Glocalities values cards, which are culturally tested visualizations of fundamental human values. Compared to other Asian countries in the Glocalities database, Chinese people find wealth, harmony, capability, and recognition more important. This is in line with the Confucian school of thougth.