Comparison of Chinese and Japanese Culture

         We have noticed that Chinese and Japanese have similar cultures. In fact the people look almost alike that we can mistake them for one another. The writing systems can also be confusing because Japan has a writing system called Kanji, which is the Chinese characters being used in their language. Now why is this? Hundreds of years ago China and Japan were in isolation meaning they "closed" themselves to the world not allowing to enter the country and forbidding people to immigrate. Finally, when those countries opened their doors to the world, that was when cultural influences occurred. Those two countries dealt with the cultural changes differently. The Chinese had a war with the Europeans due to the fear of losing their culture from foreign influences while the Japanese just cooperated and accepted the foreign contributions. During the war hundreds of years ago, the Chinese invaded Japan which drastically influenced their culture. I've once heard that Koreans and Japanese descended from the chinese which explains why the people have similar physical traits.

         Considering their culture now there is a big difference. China is still very traditional while Japan is very modernized that the traditional culture is no longer active among the youth. When it comes to feelings towards the opposite sex, the Chinese follow the traditional universal way which is the male should be the one to court while the female just waits. Unlike in Japan the female is the one to confess the feelings as well as doing the courting. As a matter of fact the traditional costume in China is frequently worn during celebrations while in Japan today the kimono is only worn by the elderly or some people who are getting married. With this, we can tell that Chinese are still very conservative while Japanese are not as conservative as before. Thus, China still focuses on it's cultural identity while Japanese partially follow their own culture but most of the time focuses on media culture.