Saturday, February 28, 2009

Intercultural Differences.

During our Youth Expedition Project (YEP) to Cambodia last year, our team was told that Cambodia shared many of the same attitudes to dress and social taboos as other Southeast Asian cultures. Cambodians are extremely conservative, and naturally we would gain more respect if we're well turned out and modest in our dress. In general men should wear tops and women should avoid skimpy tops and tight shorts. However under the scorching sun of nearly 38ÂșC, it seemed that even gulping down a gallon or two of iced water didn’t help much to relieve the heat. It was during one occasion when one of the girls, Jenny, decided to challenge the tabooed.

That morning she emerged from her sleeping tent wearing a T-shirt with jean shorts. Most of us were bewildered; wasn’t the instruction not clear enough to forbid us from wearing any thing revealing in the village? A few friends and I went up to her and advised her to change out of her jean shorts to pants or three-quarters, yet she was adamantly unmoved. Her explanation was wearing long pants will only aggravate the condition of her heat rashes.

As we walked across the village to the pavilion for breakfast, we couldn’t help but notice how the locals were staring and pin-pointing at Jenny. It began to stir up some sort of frenzy, and did not take long before the village chief; a pleasant looking elderly man in his 60’s, arrived at the pavilion and interrupted our breakfast.

Our interpreter, Tim, explained that the jeans short Jenny wore brought grave disapproval from the locals as being offensive and disrespectful. Tim proceeded to apologise to the village chief on behalf of the team and Jenny, and reassured him that it was a mistake made in a moment of folly. We were lucky that the village chief was amicable in resolving this issue, for he didn’t persist in perusing the matter any further after Jenny immediately changed out of her shorts. Jenny certainly was taken aback by the degree of seriousness a pair of shorts could implicate, and it was indeed a lesson learnt for Jenny and the team.

Intercultural difference is something we cannot overlook nor take lightly; a simple show of affection may be ordinary in Singapore yet it is particularly offensive to Cambodians. Any display of public affection between men and women, even seeing foreigners holding hands is a source of acute embarrassment to them. We are just so glad that the incident did not affect our relationship with the villagers. It reinforced the point that to be responsible adults, we have to take particular caution in understanding and adhering to the different cultures’ ideology so as to avoid any unnecessary trouble. There have been instances where slight religious or cultural conflicts lead to fights and even escalating into war. All of these should be avoided, shouldn’t it?

8 comments:

  1. Thanks, Shi Wei! The story that you present in this post demonstrates very well how different values lead to different expectations for behavior, including dress style/etiquette. I can understand Jenny's attempt to cool off by "dressing down." What is most surprising to me is that the village chief actually made a comment on her shorts. I would have guessed that the villagers would have just thought to themselves, "oh well, crazy foreigners," and left it at that.

    In Cambodia, it might also seem ironic that villagers frown upon a young woman revealing too much of her legs and her top, especially in the context of their ancient history. Just look at the dress style of the apsaras that adorn so many temple walls!

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  2. Hi Shi Wei,
    It is a great post and i am so happy to share your experience back in Cambodia. I am so sorry for Jenny. In my opinion, she should not be blamed as she did not intentionlly provoked the villagers. Moreover, she was having heat rashes and wearing long pant may aggravate her condition.The villager should be more thoughtful and open-minded

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  3. Dear Shi Wei,

    I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that we cannot belittle intercultural differences and its subsequent effects. Understanding a different culture is essential especially if you do not want to get into trouble in that foreign land. I guess it is more of a situation where it is advisable to adhere to common culture to avoid any unnecessary conflict. When in Rome, do as Romans do right? :)

    ws

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  4. Brad: Yes I know where you are coming from when you say how much it is of an irony when we see the contradiction between the Cambodian sculptures and their 'conservative' mindset. It is however interesting (or rather painful) to note that in certain villages, mothers actually agree to 'sell' their daughters to brothels to support the family. It seems like a total ethical debacle to me.

    Cher: Yes, it was pretty hard for Jenny, having being reprimanded by the chief. I guess it wasnt her fault entirely! Actually we were all glad that the villagers did not hold it against us, otherwise we wouldn't have known what to do. Thank you for your comment=)

    WS: I cant agree more to avoid getting into any sticky situation when you are in a foreign land. In fact I'd rather be teased as a typical 'kia si' singaporean then to get into trouble! Thank you for your comment!

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  5. Hello lovely,
    I know exactly how you felt at that point of time even though I wasn’t around when the village chief came by. (I was probably stuffing myself with food somewhere else god knows!) But I feel that it was rather insensitive of Jenny to conveniently overlook such a sensitive area for the villagers.

    Cultural and beliefs differs so much everywhere we go, even in our small little island of Singapore, we have more then 3 different ethic groups, each with their own unique culture and taboo. And no doubt, we should all take them very seriously, and never ever try to challenge it, like what Jenny did, don’t you agree?

    shihui
    xoxo

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  6. Hi Shi Wei,

    I definitely agree with you when you mentioned that we should not neglect Intercultural difference, especially when we are visiting a society which is unlike our own. Even though Jenny was having a heat rash, I think she should not have worn such dressing. To some society, appropriate dressing is very important. Just for an example in the Middle East countries, both man and woman are expected to dress conservatively. They are not only expected to cover up, but their clothing should be loose too. I think a little research would help before every trip so that we would understand the culture better. Being a foreigner, your mistakes and doings are always prominent to others. I guess we must be extremely careful when we are out there. Anyway I think you did a great job in describing the situation. As you mention, it a lesson learnt for all of us.

    Ayu

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  7. Hello Ayu,

    Thank you for your comment and compliment! I guess even in Sg, we need to take special caution when having to come in contact with people of different race and religion. Say for example when i(as a Chinese) wish to enter a mosque or Indian temple, I will need to respect the respective religion's "rule" to wear long sleeve shirt and pants to cover the legs and shoulder (am I right?)

    Basically i strongly believe that this still narrows down to how much respect you want to receive. The amount of respect you get is definitely proportional to the amount you show others, isn't it?

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  8. ah buttbook,
    i always almost to reply to your comments, blame it on the fact that we live together and the ease of me "responding" to you. Yes i cant emphasise more on how cautious we ought to be when in touch with intercultural issues. this is the only way we can all live in harmony, of course!

    xx

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