A very good friend of mine who is a British Asian, once summed this subject up very well for me. The difference between Asian and Western Culture he said, could be described in one word - FAMILY. I also think that in some ways, Asian cultures live as the West did maybe fifty years ago, but as we have moved on to a more modern view of things (whether a better or a worse view is your own personal opinion of course), theirs has stayed the same.

To the Asian culture, family is the most important thing. They tend to have more children than their Western counterparts, they tend to live together or close together in what we Westerners would call a more old-fashioned extended family (sister next door and Granny upstairs etc), and if you look around, there are very few Asian old people in Homes or Care Centres, because their families will always look after them in their old age.

If you look around your own circle of friends in the Western world however, you will almost certainly find that things are quite different. People usually move away from home to study, and quite possibly then make their own lives in their new, adopted city, - buying homes and having children some good way from their parents and childhood homes. As the pressures of raising their own children and fulfilling their own careers grows bigger, they visit Mum and Dad less and less each year, until it is not uncommon for a man to visit his elderly parents only once a year. To an Asian family this is monstrous and disgusting. A work colleague of mine, who is first generation British Asian, just cannot understand why her elderly, British neighbours receive maybe only two visits a year from their two children. The concept of keeping the family together, and of respecting your elders is generally far stronger in Asian cultures.

Going hand in hand with this, is the fact that religion generally has more importance in Asian than in Western cultures, Outside of maybe the “Bible Belt” area in the US, most of America and all of Europe has certainly become much more secular over years. Whereas their religion is very importantl to most Asian people - whether that religion is Islam, the Sikh religion, or the very strict Catholicism of the Philippines. In the West, most people only visit the local Church for the requisite christenings, weddings and funerals, and the role of the Church in society is virtually non-existent. A recent study here in the UK for example, showed that less than half of British children know the true meaning of Easter, thinking it is just a long weekend with loads of chocolate! However, in Asian cultures it is very different. It is still very common for Filipino girls for example, to be virgins on their wedding night because the Bible tells them this is te correct way to do things, and most give up work to look after their husbands when they marry, and to go to Church at least once a week. How many Western women can say the same?

Another difference between the Western and Asian cultures is in the treatment of animals. In most Western countries, pets are a very umportant part of peoples’ lives. Most people, at least in Europe, keep cats and/or dogs, and vast amounts of money are spent on Pet Insurance, Vets’ bills and the like. To most Asian cultures though, this is an alien concept. They see animals as a lesser species, there just to provide food and to work, which is why so many animals are so cruelly treated in their countries, and so many well-meaning Brits and other Europeans spend money starting charitable funds to look after them.

Attitude to and interest in sport is another big difference. In most Western cultures sport plays a huge part in our childrens’ schooldays and in our lives in general - especially for men. Whether it is football in the UK (maybe to an American readership I should have called that soccer but it just doesn’t seem right to me), or baseball and NFL in the States, young men love their sport, and large events like the SuperBowl, the World Cup Football tournament, Wimbledon tennis, or the Olympics, can literally close down a country for a day! For Asians, of course, there is less interest and hysteria connected to sport. The Indians and Pakistanis do love their cricket, which is a throwback to their British colonial past, but on the whole they are not so inetrested in sport, and as a result you rarely see Asian names amongst the higher echelons of sport along with the Tiger Woods, David Beckhams, and Andre Agassis.

In short, there are very many differences in culture between the Western and Asian cultures. Whether those can ever be completely overcome to make the world a more harmonious place, remains to be seen.