“We westerners are in a bubble, the bubble of individualism…so it does not occur to us that other people see the world very differently,” says Gish Jen, author of several books and short stories that deliberate on the way of thinking in the eastern and western part of the world.
Herself an American, Jen says about her new book titled, “The Girl At the Baggage Claim”, “In the West, very generally speaking, we value the self very very highly. We prioritise the self in a way which is very unlike the rest of the world. In the west we are like the avocado with a very large pit and we are interested in developing that pit, in making sure that pit is able to express itself. In most of the world, and particularly in Asia this is not the case. In Asia the self that dominates is the self which prices flexibility.”
Between flexibility and the I embedded in the avocado pit, lies the story of the world. Jen says the level of individualism is highest in America. Of course Jen repeats a million times that these are generalizations and we should avoid stereotyping….the culture that gives weightage to flexibility, avoids stereotyping and so provides an enabling opportunity to everyone to do everything. However, she cautions, this may lead to some real talent being overlooked… so there is something to gain and something to lose in both states of being.
At another level Gish Jen says, “… because the “avocado pit” outprices everything else, we do not like the idea that we are very highly formed by things outside us even though that is, in fact, the case. The objective truth is that all people have both selves in them.”
Individualism reflects in the life of a writer as a pressure to be completely original. In a sense this is true for all arts, even commerce and for this she quotes the example of Steve Jobs, “…who is the modern day ideal because it was like he gave birth to himself…”
Sushi master’s work
Jen continues along these lines to say that, that is why the one who is mastered a traditional art is seen as an expert, a master, but only the one who has produced something original is seen as a genius. “This is something I feel is completely wrong…In the west there is a certain condescension about other cultures and the masters there. Only the work produced here is taken seriously and that I think is wrong. If you see some of the artworks and creative outputs of the people from the East they are indisputably great with a capital G.”
Jen explains with the example of a sushi master from Japan who works day in and day out refining his work…his routine is the same, his purpose is to refine and refine further. Jen says, “Greatness lies there too…by not understanding this it leads us to completely miss some aspects of human endeavour.”
