Folium: The Cultural Differences Between East and West via Quartz
Folium: The Cultural Differences Between East and West via Quartz
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When athletes compete in races, they observe and compare their performance against their competitors. In the same way, humans naturally engage in mental comparisons with the people around them during the course of their daily life. Generally speaking, people tend to compare themselves with those who are similar. Comparisons can also subtly affect your motives and feelings. For example, I lived in Perú for a couple of years. I was constantly comparing their lifestyle to the one I knew. Every day I was saying “they do this, but in the USA we do this”. It’s an inevitable, natural, and normal human process. But it made me feel bad sometimes. In 1954, psychologist Leon Festinger hypothesized that people compare themselves to others in order to fulfill a basic human desire: the need for self-evaluation. Graphic artist Yang Liu illustrated this hypothesis when she designed comparative drawings to show how she viewed the differences between the people of Beijing and the people of Berlin.
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ed. Have you ever “shushed” your child at a restaurant? That’s a cultural thing!
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Have you ever thought about how other people see the world? How different is the world you see from theirs? Do you think you could convey the way you see the world through illustrations? Yang Liu thought so. She moved from Beijing to Berlin at the age of 13, and spent the next 13 years of her life there. In order to fully express how she saw the differences between the two, she started a comparative illustrated project to document her dual experiences. She began by illustrating the cultural differences of the East and West. She says, “This project reflects very much my personal way of seeing things.” It started originally as 47 simple blue and red posters, then a series called Man meets Woman. When looking at her illustrations, you sometimes can’t tell what it is. Many of the situations we face daily, can only be understood when seen in juxtaposition. Different types of squiggly lines drawn to represent the sounds coming from restaurants seem confusing until you switch your point of view. The stark differences between the two sides of the illustration translate through one’s perception of reality, and Liu captures that perfectly.
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“This project reflects very much my personal way of seeing things,” Liu told Quartz. She said that moving as a child gave her the habit of comparing situations and interactions. “Many situations are better understood if they can be seen in relation.” – Yang Liu
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ed. How people form lines (queues) says a lot about how they perceive the world around them!
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A lot of times when we don’t quite understand something, it helps to write or draw it out!
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ed. What needs to be said versus what you want to hear?
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When I was little, I used to make drawings on the ground with chalk just like any other normal child. But my drawings were anything but normal. I was comparing what I saw/heard in my own perspective to what my sister saw/heard. We lived next to a busy street where many cars would pass by. I didn’t like the noise of the cars, I thought they were too noisy. My sister on the other hand loved the sounds from the cars as she perceived them as white noise. How would you draw the sound of cars through illustration? Would it be a large blaring horn, or a calm river running? How about illustrating how to deal with problems? Yang drew how she saw the people of Berlin dealing with problems. To me, I would translate it to mean that the people of Berlin approach the problem head on, while the people of Beijing avoid the problem altogether.
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ed. Are you unafraid to speak your mind, or does it take you some time to get it out?
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I believe that when comparisons come in the form of self-evaluation, they are good and healthy. Stop when you feel you are making a comparison to bring yourself, or the other person down.
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Now, how can I illustrate to my husband how I see the dishes and how he see them?
Julie Thatcher
LEAF Contributor
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