Reply #33 Petay_1283's post
Very much in the spirit of this thread ... one thing I noticed when I first arrived was the issue of "personal space". Personal space is the distance that people naturally adopt, when they are in a social situation.
We notice that different cultures adopt different amounts of personal space - for example people in London will be most comfortable at a different distance from each other, than New Yorkers would (don't ask me which is greater, my guess would be personal space in NY is greater than London!)
Some things ...
people from rural areas tend to need greater personal space - when they shake hands (if they ever do!) they have to lean forward just to reach each other. Conversely people in cities stand much closer, and would feel insulted if you stand as far apart as rural people prefer.
If you put a large-distance person with a small-distance person, you get interesting things happening - for example if an Indian talks with a Brit, they go into a sort of a dance, with the Indian trying to get close enough to talk, and the Brit backing away trying to increase the space ... each of them being uncomfortable about the other's behaviour.
So what about Hong Kong?
Hong Kong is the only city I'm aware of that seems to have a "negative" personal space.
What I mean is, this is the only place where it is accepted as a normal part of life, to bump into people as you move around. In other cities, however busy it is, if you bump into someone they will stop and look around, and you both apologise to each other. Ok maybe not everyone apologises, but there is an acknowledgement anyway. Point is, bumping into each other is not considered a normal social behaviour.
In Hong Kong, you bump into people all the time, and even if you stop they don't. It's just accepted. I.e. it is assumed that even if you are in each others' way, the correct behaviour is to just charge ahead anyway.
This contrasts with Japan, for example, which I would describe as a culture where "zero" personal space is the accepted norm. Complete strangers have no hesitation of standing right next to you in full physical contact (especially on the subway) but even in the busiest places in Tokyo, nobody ever actually bumps into anyone, and if they do (those very rare instances), both parties stop and acknowledge.
But in Hong Kong, no matter how hard you try to duck and weave, it's bump-bump-bump as you go about... | |
