身份与平等 Status and Equality

通常说，华人的文化是‘身份文化’，而西方文化是‘平等文化’。

华人社会就基于阶层身份。这真情况有儒家思想的背景，所以华人把阶层结构当成是自然而然的事，自然如此。作为一个孩子，你生来就自然的有了阶层。父母有发言的权力，很自然地应用于孩子身上，就算是孩子已经长大成人。

就此而言，‘权威’一词有不同的理解。它并不是一个负面的名词，反而与正面的素质，如关怀、仁慈、责任、成熟，等联系。长者与父母受尊敬，以长辈为尊的原则控制了中国（包括东亚）人的生命与工作环境。既然国家与社会被看成是个大家庭，身份就随时随地变成很重要（名片就说明了身份，让你自我调整行为）。
一般上，华人领袖被赋予权力来决定什么是对族群与其成员最有利。事实上，他们的权力来自他们声称他们所拥有的高人一等的道德洞察力与政治智慧、他们对善政的知识。

在西方，看来最有名的语录是：‘人人生而平等。’作为政治的原则，平等表明在法律之下，没有一群的公民拥有特别的待遇。这种法律本身被视为治理的执行机制之一。就是说，不管哪一种信仰、族群与身份，这个法律都有效，没有一个人在法律之上。就算是在家庭里，父母与孩子是平等的。华人对家庭的每个成员有相同的权利的理念是不能理解的。

西方人却认为这些是这不证自明的真理，他们的创造者给予不可夺取的权利，这些权利还包括了生命、自由与快乐的追求。

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It has often been said that the Chinese culture is a ‘status culture’ and the Western culture is an ‘equality culture’.

The Chinese society is a society which is based on hierarchical conditions. The background is the Confucian family thinking, that's why in China hierarchical structures are usually regarded as natural, as naturally given. As child you are namely born into a natural hierarchy. Parents have the saying, and they keep it towards their children, even though these grow up.

The term 'authority' has in this respect a different rank. It is not associated with something negative but with positive qualities, such as care, kindness, responsibility, maturity. Elders / parents are respected and the principle of seniority controls the life and working sphere of China (and generally in Eastern Asia). And since state and society are seen like a family, it is always and everywhere the respective status that matters (visiting-cards inform about it and let you accordingly adapt your behaviour).

Chinese leaders are normally credited with the ability to determine what is in the best interests of society and its members. Indeed, much of their authority to rule is based on their claim to superior ethical insight and political wisdom, their knowledge of the best way to govern. Even in a family, parents and children are equal. The Chinese will never understand this mentality of equal rights of family members.

In the West, arguably the most well known quotation is ‘All men are created equal’. Equality as a political principle implies that there is no class of citizens with a right to more favourable treatment under the law, which itself is seen as the enforcement arm of governance. In other words, it means that regardless of faith, creed and status all laws should apply equally to everyone and no-one was above the law.

But the Westerners hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.