--GC Wk9 Read Textbook: "China’s Great Wall and Cross-Cultural Paradox", "The Chinese Family Altar", and "The Singapore Hawker Centers"

Due Mar 22 by 11:59pm
Points None

Understanding Global Cultures Textbook Cover

**Read Textbook**
PART VIII: THE BASE CULTURE AND ITS DIFFUSION ACROSS BORDERS (CLUSTERS OF NATIONS): THE EXAMPLE OF CHINA Ch. 23: China’s Great Wall and Cross-Cultural Paradox Ch. 24: The Chinese Family Altar: The Expatriate Chinese Outside of China Ch. 25: The Singapore Hawker Centers

Textbook Guiding Prompt
- As mentioned in this week's "Overview", China is one of the largest, most populous, politically and economically influential countries in the world. And it has been for thousands of years. China is large and powerful enough to merit two cultural metaphors in Understanding Global Cultures, "China's Great Wall" and "The Chinese Family Altar".
  - Pay attention to how those two cultural metaphors are the same, and how they are different, and how--taken together--they represent the Chinese people and their culture.
  - Singapore, geographically tiny by comparison, nonetheless remains an important cultural and economic and political player in Asia. Pay attention to how their "Hawker Centers" are said to represent who they are.
- When you are finished reading these chapters, you should understand the cultural metaphors of China, large and small, and how they represent the country and its people.
- And you should understand the cultural, social, historical, political, and economic importance and outreach of China, one of the dominant cultures of the world, past and present.
- You should also understand the nature of the relationships of the smaller countries in the region, as represented by Singapore, and their cultural dynamics in an area dominated in many ways by China and the other world economic and political powers.
- Finally, and importantly, you should come away with some understanding of what life is like for individuals who live in these countries, and in this region of the world.