Orientalism is a powerful idea in Western culture. It has associations with being strange, foreign, representing the Other. It conjures up images of an ancient society, filled with squinty-eyed inscrutable men with long queues, willowy women with painted faces and silk dresses, and benign-looking old men with fists of steel and mouths full of riddles. It is a compelling image, one that fascinates Westerners and brings them to study Oriental culture. Modern Westerners (usually) understand that this is phantasmagoria; a myth with little substance in today’s reality. The Chinese have an equally compelling myth in their language—xifang, Western. Like Orientalism in the West of 50 years ago, this myth is still very much alive and relevant to today’s Chinese.

Xifang is a potpourri of ideas and concepts, constantly shifting and changing. Every person you ask will give you a slightly different answer—it’s a very personalized concept. There are, however, some commonalities of thought—it stands for kaifang (open, esp. in regards to new ideas), xianjin (advanced, modern), and qiangda (strong). Xifang represents a new way of looking at things and doing things—new management styles, business plans, and social etiquette. There is a poorly understood view of the West, amalgamated from fragmented news pieces, gossip, and too much Hollywood. They hold a monolithic view of the West that lacks subtlety and nuance. This undiversified point of view may be one of the leading causes of the current tensions erupting when young Chinese internet bloggers meet unfiltered Western culture—they lack a well-grounded context to understand what they see and hear.

For some people, kaifang is an insult, conjuring up images of epicurean playboys with too much money and debauched women with too little clothing engaging in nights of heavy drinking and drug abuse in dimly lit clubs. It has the connotation of dubious moral and sexual practices, people who have abandoned their family and social obligations in the relentless pursuit of self-gratification. For many, it is the reason behind the skyrocketing divorce rate and the perceived increase in teenage pregnancies. Certainly, in my time in Beijing, I’ve seen many hotels that do a lucrative business renting rooms by the hour, something that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. It means people who have thrown away morality in the pursuit of a decadent Western lifestyle (whatever that means).

For others, it is a point of pride, a deliberate casting-off of traditional (i.e., backwards and outdated) attitudes. Chinese culture is traditionally extremely superstitious—offerings for luck, homophones for other words (apples and vases displayed as a homophone for peace,; the ubiquitous character for fortune fu displayed upside down as a pun for “fortune has arrived”; etc.). A kaifang person doesn’t believe in any of that. It also means being more open towards strangers—Chinese families are traditionally extremely distrusting of strangers and nepotism is considered a virtue. People who pass over talentless relatives for talented strangers are considered more kaifang. It is the transcendence of local parochial ties—an identification with China as a whole, rather than with your town or province or family. Someone who is not offended by the violation of traditional etiquette—for example, splitting the bill (called “going A-A” here)—is kaifang.

For women, especially, it is the equivalent of feminist liberation in the West. A kaifang woman is one who eschews the traditional subservient role of women as the keepers of the household and the guai (docile, obedient). And while the old Mao quotation “Women hold up half the sky” is often quoted, the reality has always been that women hold a more subservient or dependent position within Chinese society. A kaifang woman has her own job and doesn’t need a husband or a man to complete her identity. She may live on her own if she chooses. The rising number of single mothers and women who raise children out of wedlock is definitely associated with the new kaifang morals.

China is a country in the middle of profound social change, to go along with its economic revolution. It is struggling to maintain its own cultural identity in the face of what is perhaps the largest generation gap in history—parents who toiled in the fields using simple age-old implements who never went past the next village, and children who surf the internet on an iphone while flying around the world. The cultural clash between China and the West is not just in ways of doing business, but between generations as well. It is therefore important to remember that the way we perceive ourselves is different from the way others perceive us, which is different from the way we perceive others perceive us.

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