Which countries are most similar to China? (similarities, visiting, westerners)
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Taiwan like 99% minus communism. Taiwan has much more upper standard of living though I believe.
Singapore is very diverse; Chinese, Malays & Tamils. So is Malaysia.
So I believe Taiwan is the most similar, in terms of culture.
Vietnam is different culturally. They may have similar religion but Vietnamese have completely different values to the Chinese people.
Taiwan is the most similar to China. The language and culture is similar as Mandrain is spoken in Taiwan, and Taiwanese is a dialect of Chinese as well though they use different characters. The food is similar too, yes there are differences but that is more like comparing New ENglish vs Southern food vs Southern food and Italian food. The government is the biggest difference obviously between Taiwan and China. China's largest cities look more modern than Taiwan's, but the average Taiwanese lives a LOT better than the average Chinese. Taiwan and especially Hong Kong are similar.
Aside from Taiwan, I would say Japan and South Korea have the most in common with China. 20 years ago I would have said North Korea but not today.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70
Taiwan is the most similar to China. The language and culture is similar as Mandrain is spoken in Taiwan, and Taiwanese is a dialect of Chinese as well though they use different characters. The food is similar too, yes there are differences but that is more like comparing New ENglish vs Southern food vs Southern food and Italian food. The government is the biggest difference obviously between Taiwan and China. China's largest cities look more modern than Taiwan's, but the average Taiwanese lives a LOT better than the average Chinese. Taiwan and especially Hong Kong are similar.
Aside from Taiwan, I would say Japan and South Korea have the most in common with China. 20 years ago I would have said North Korea but not today.
I think East Asia is often grouped together for geographical reasons but I see as many differences between Japanese and Chinese culture as similarities. Korean has more similarities, but Korean seems to lean slightly more to Japanese. Their language sounds more similar (more an Altaic-Siberian sound compared to Mandarin) and the food seems more similar. For some reason beef isn't all that popular over most of China (mostly the West and Southwest), but is popular in the nations surrounding it. I never thought about it much but I feel Vietnamese is more similar to China, especially after visiting it. Parts of Vietnam not so much; like areas dominated by the Cham and Khmer type people, like in the far south. But Hanoi felt very much like southern Chinese cities, with less high-rise and massive shopping malls. The Vietnamese even have their own 'Citadel' the equivalent of the Forbidden City, had dynasties equivalent to the Chinese ones (at one time even ruled from southern China), an Emperor, their own Lion dancing, a tonal language and used Chinese characters until the 1930s. The Japanese do use kanji but like Vietnamese it's just the alphabet. Neither language is that similar to Chinese but Vietnamese sounds a lot more like the southern Chinese dialects to me.
Hi Trimac20, Having viewed background of 6-page threading from your topic, you have stated that the Vietnamese is the most similiar to the Chinese because of: 1) Confucianism; 2) The Viet was conquered by the Chin for 1 thousand year; 3) Citadel and/or culture ... Now before debating with you, I'd like to ask you some basic questions then we can go farer 1) Who is the so-called Chinese? Is it the Chinese that we know they are living in China now? or just the Chinese is under the English name called Chinese around the world? What is about sino-based? or whover? 2) How can you define the different culture even you feel it as the same? the same question is about the Citadel that you called the same as forbidden City Later Tommy
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,029,399 times
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Originally Posted by tommyle
Hi Trimac20, Having viewed background of 6-page threading from your topic, you have stated that the Vietnamese is the most similiar to the Chinese because of: 1) Confucianism; 2) The Viet was conquered by the Chin for 1 thousand year; 3) Citadel and/or culture ... Now before debating with you, I'd like to ask you some basic questions then we can go farer 1) Who is the so-called Chinese? Is it the Chinese that we know they are living in China now? or just the Chinese is under the English name called Chinese around the world? What is about sino-based? or whover? 2) How can you define the different culture even you feel it as the same? the same question is about the Citadel that you called the same as forbidden City Later Tommy
Yeah like I said it's not really a definitive answer, because China is so large and diverse. I feel Vietnam is more similar to the adjacent part of China - say Guangxi Province, Guangdong and Yunnan Provinces, than Korea is to the adjacent part of China and Chinese as a whole. When I mean China I guess I mean the culture of Han China past and present, at least since most of what is 'China proper' became colonised by the Han. Many of the peoples of the nations surrounding China did at least partly come from China, including Vietnam and Korea, and indeed the Nam Viet civilisation began in what is now Southern China. While Korea shares some Chinese things like Confucianism, it seems more aligned to Manchu/Altaic culture, and was never colonised for as long as Vietnam. A lot of Han cultural customs and beliefs were imported to northern and central Vietnam during the millenia of Chinese rule. The early Vietnamese civilisation was mostly northern and central Vietnam. Southern Vietnam was either sparsely populated or inhabited by various other civilisations like the Funnan/Champa.
I've been ignoring this thread, so I haven't read any of the responses.
But, in my opinion, VIETNAM and SOUTH KOREA are the most similar to CHINA.
I've spent a lot of time in all three, and pretty much everywhere else around Pacific Asia...and those are the most similar by far.
Japan is completely different. More similarities than most other countries in the world, but nowhere near as many similarities as Vietnam and South Korea have with China. (I've never been to North Korea, no idea where they'd fit in, but might be similar as well? Not sure).
Japan feels like a completely different country altogther which just happened to adopt buddhism and the chinese writing characters....rather than the imposing that China did on Vietnam and Korea.
Going from Korea to China doesn't feel all that different. Going from Japan into China feels like major culture shock.
Yeah like I said it's not really a definitive answer, because China is so large and diverse. I feel Vietnam is more similar to the adjacent part of China - say Guangxi Province, Guangdong and Yunnan Provinces, than Korea is to the adjacent part of China and Chinese as a whole. When I mean China I guess I mean the culture of Han China past and present, at least since most of what is 'China proper' became colonised by the Han. Many of the peoples of the nations surrounding China did at least partly come from China, including Vietnam and Korea, and indeed the Nam Viet civilisation began in what is now Southern China. While Korea shares some Chinese things like Confucianism, it seems more aligned to Manchu/Altaic culture, and was never colonised for as long as Vietnam. A lot of Han cultural customs and beliefs were imported to northern and central Vietnam during the millenia of Chinese rule. The early Vietnamese civilisation was mostly northern and central Vietnam. Southern Vietnam was either sparsely populated or inhabited by various other civilisations like the Funnan/Champa.
I can see instantly that you might put your awareness on the Chin differently as it was! The Chin, this term actually has been named since the Tung Hoa mainland (ruled by the Manchu) invaded partly by the West in late of the 18th century, due to some political point of views and led by the Sino-based idealism then they made their own consolidation to foreigners from out side of asia.
Before the Manchu, the Mongolian did establish their rule on nearly-the- whole Asia included "china" mainland and VN, in the end after their crown, they, themselve transformed into the Han while the Viet was NOT! Repeatedly if you view back to the history of them older then you will see some interesting things!
Funny things were that Manchu/Fukien/Cantonese... they seemed to be happy (with proud of) when they are becoming the so-called chinese...
So if you take a look at "china" mainland as Europe mainland then you will see differently
Later...
Tommy
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What is Chinese?
