I think basically western society inherited traditions from ancient Greece and Rome, which were maritime civilizations. Their culture tent to explore outward, both on the world we live in or the world exsited in our minds. Chinese was totally an agricultural civilization untill 1950s’, the traditional Chinese philosophy emphasis “inward”. Maritime facilitated trade and commerce between nations, based on that science and spirit of contract started to boom. Agriculture civilization prefer stability and peace, that facilitated absolute monarchy and unity. China was unified more than 2000 years ago, the emperors of each dynasty in the history followed the same strategy which was shutting the rest of the world out. Science and spirit of constitution were no better use for the rulers than Confucianism and centralization of authority since the country was powerful enough that it didn’t have to care about anything else more than itself.

I’m a Chinese and I have been studying in the U.S. for 3 years. So my view of western culture is more U.S.-based. I don’t think I know Western culture in depth so if I’m wrong about Western culture, plz point it out and let me know!

I think the major difference between Chinese culture is the the way they make decision.

Let me get started with Chinese family value. Due to her large population, the competition between individuals are extremely fierce when it comes to job, education, and even basic living resources. Therefore, the family play an more important role in the Chinese society than other less-populated places in the world. The Western countries are usually this case. The sense of family in China is more like old-fashioned Italian family where all the family members who share the same family bloodline look out for each other. That’s a better way to handle the competition coz your relatives can help you in a way or another. And that kind of family can be a double edge. Similar to the Italian family, traditionally there is a head of the family who “run” the family like an organization. Such kind of family still exist in China, although the connection between sub-families are getting weaker. Nowadays we usually don’t have such one person in a family, but the parents play such role in almost every child’s life.

The good part of this is that under one mind, the family will work more efficiently toward a certain direction. The bad thing is that some of the family members don’t get to do what they want to do (lose some freedom) and the very mind might make terrible mistakes.

For example, when you get into college, you need to select your major before registration. Although there might be some determined kids who can make such decision on their own in a informed way, the majority of the young people cannot make their own decision at that age. I believe the same thing happen in the Western countries too but given the high competition in China, the decision will usually be the major with which you can find a job easier instead of personal interest. That explains why Chinese students (and Indian as well possibly) are so in favor of engineering fields. However, the statistically safe choice might not be the best for the very student. Talents might get wasted. And the child might not be happy.

Another great example is the communist regime. I notice there are a lot of question in Quora asking about why the educated people don’t fight against the regime that represses them so hard. It is not that they don’t feel repressed. It is true that they already have too much too lose since they all have a life to live. However, I don’t think that’s the real reason here coz there are millions of educated people who might not have a life meets his/her expectations due to some problems or mistakes or the government. The real reason here I think is that they have already get used to it, because they have been facing this since the day one of their life. Think about it in this way. China is a huge family, and the government, to almost all the Chinese, is the parent to them. We have been listening to our parent and making decisions under their influence since we were born. Now our parents made a mistake, we are not happy, but we can live with it. They made a good decision, we will applaud to it. This leader is smart, we will listen and do what ever he said. (Think about why Mao is still so popular in China.) If the leader is terrible, okay, that’s the life you got, you’d better live with it. Most Chinese get used to listen to someone, parents, boss in work, or government. Even if some of us do not listen, they will be influenced by them. And we have a great tolerance of bad decisions made by others. That’s the major difference I see between in Chinese people and Western people so far.

I think I need to be clear that what I have just described does not apply to all the Chinese.

Just my two cents.

1.The biggest difference: Individualism vs Collectivism

A most common misunderstading on China: China is dictatorship.

China is a republic with multiple parties. CCP has the largest member group of 87.8 million population.

Is Xi a dictator? Same question on Jiang and Hu.

But 20 years later, Jiang and Hu just pass the learder position to their successor peacefully and in a fixed term: 1 term for 5 years and at most 2 terms.

What they are doing is just centralization. As a large country, China needs a centralized government with historic/cultural/practical reasons.

Most Westerners are not accustomed with a strong central government and thus they think it is dictator.

I want to say: Individual democracy is different from collective democracy and both of them are democracy.

Recently an open letter agasint Xi is popular. I think it is made up by Fa Lun Gong Media because CCP makes decision collectively. Even one Xi down, another guy will come up. And there is no reason to point at Xi becuase the life is going better.

There are many black propaganda on China, taking advantages of the misunderstandings.

2.Direct vs Indirect

A typical Chinese will not say anything on you directly in public occasions. If you are friends, you will get a talk priviately and the talk will not be direct.

It is not good or bad, just a custom.

Ofc, there are also many Chinese who are direct---I am!

But one thing very important! It is ok if you are direct to young Chinese, but you should show your respects on the elder. This won't harm you but you will get a better response because most of the time, the occassions with the elder Chinese are serious and important.

I think the two points are the major differences.

Others are not important because with friendly attitude, they can be understood.

Sorry for my poor English.
Western can't understand what is "the oneness of China"(“大一统”), "multi-ethnic country" . They can't understand why China must be one courtry.
In the age of Greece, Greek were belong different city country, although they were Greek.
The Frankish Kingdom can be divided into three different countries.
The western people may consider Xizang(Tibet) can be independant, like Scotland; Taiwan can be independant like US from UK. They considered that one nation(民族，I can't understand why the translation software translate 民族 into nation, maybe it is the culture difference. ) should be in one country, such as Poland, Finland...
They don't know China had been a holomic country for more than 2000 years. 
They don't know Chinese nation is not Han nation, all of the Chinese is belong to Chinese nation.
It is a great culture gap between Chinesa and Western.
If Western want to communicate with Chinese, please try to study Chinese.
That's all.

The most basic difference that distinguishes Chinese culture(or even oriental ,at some degree) with western might go to the mode of thinking.China values abstract and perceptual stuff like Taoism,traditional Chinese poems,medicine and Chi,which you can not tell exactly what’s inside from a scientific and logic viewpoint.The western ,however ,emphasizes the internal structure and logic of everything around them.consequently,the westerners would adopt rational and empirical methods as way of thinking and exploring .

You can also see the reflections on differences between Chinese and Indo-European languages，collectivism and individualism ,and also on art,philosophy and folks' view on lots of stuff.

The distinctions are the most interesting part of culture exchange.

Given that Quora is a pro-China echo chamber, it comes as no surprised that most of the answers favor that of Chinese culture.

In hopes of giving the comment section some balance, I want to add a few things.

The main difference between the West and East is not the presence/absence of religion. Everyone has a religion, whether or not it is supernatural. The definition of religion is ‘what one considers ultimate’. In this sense the East certainly has a religion. In China’s case, it’s favorite religion is the State/Government/Dynasty. It’s easy to tell what one culture’s religion is, just look at what they would kill/die for. China has, throughout its history,murdered their own kind for the sake of unifying ‘All under heaven’. In other words, power. They will work for the state to their death, worship it in the process, just like how a monotheist would with regards to their supernatural God. So, to the self-righteous pro-Chinese culture peoples who think they have no religion, think again.

Chinese culture has one source but Western culture has two. Noted that it is a contentious point, but there’s really only one source for China - and that is Confucius. For the West, they are Socrates and Jesus. Also note that I am not saying that one is better than the other on the basis of the number of sources, it’s just an observation.

The Chinese believe that everything that can happen has already happened, the West believes that not everything that can happen has already happened.
This is why technological progress was never really a value to the Chinese and everything to the West. The Chinese imagine that history is like a cycle going from left to right. The West believes that history is an upward sloping cycle.

“Western” is too broad. Are we talking about Mexican western or Nordic western, Russian western or New Zealand western, Christian western or Islamic western, Jewish western or atheist western?

Let’s dumb it down to Anglo-Saxon American western as this British western mutant has become the leader of the west.

Allow me quote an American China hand Greg Blandino, “America thinks it's values are universal. China thinks it's values are unique.” This pretty much sums up cultural everything.

Now I have been challenging American universal values for 2 years at Quora, and haven’t really met a Quoran who can actually name one and prove it’s real. Therefore, until someone does, the American values remain as surreal.

As to the Chinese values, I don’t have to prove it as it isn’t universal - who cares anyway? But if you do care or are curious, I recommend you read Chinese classic texts just like you read the bible to understand the American values - now I have just proved the American values aren’t real, haven’t I?

Real or not real, that’s the biggest difference between the Chinese and American cultures.

1. How one shows one’s love: more openly in the west, Chinese, more reserved. This is especially pronounced in parent-child relations: some Chinese rarely openly hug their kids, and Chinese parents tend to think they have the right to talk down on their kids in the open.
2. Filial piety: Chinese tend to think the young have obligations to take care of their parents; even the not-so-old parents tend to instill the guilt in their offsprings that they are entitled to part of their kids’ incomes, while the western parents almost never do so.
3. Nationalism: Chinese tend to have the stigma of the humiliations inflicted on the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century, partly from the educations they receive. This results in easy fomentation of Lenin-Mao style nationalism among people. In the west, history is taught just records of past human behaviors, not related to patriotism.

Naturally, as China opens up, the difference will definitely narrow down and —if one can gingerly put it—tilt to the “western values”. Ultimately, an open society value tends to prevail.

If one looks at the “ethical Chinese” raised in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, then the difference between the Western values and “modern Chinese” values will not look as pronounced, especially in the open Internet era.

Certainly, given time, when the educated middle class take hold on their destiny in mainland China, the above differences will be blur, if not totally vanished.

There isn't such a thing as ‘Western Culture’. I wouldn't really call Chinese culture a thing either.

Let me explain why.

The West, as you put it, is made up of numerous different countries that speak many languages, have many customs and ways of life that often conflict with one another.

China also has this. A ginormous country that has 57 recognised ethnic groups is going to have a lot of cultural diversity. Going into a Uyghur household in Xinjiang is going to be a totally different experience from entering a Han household in Beijing or a Mongal household in Inner Mongolia.

Imho, speaking of general features of a certain culture, it is highly probable that inductive conclusions are inevitably not inclusive enough, making it a limited span and biased, even if not necessarily in a bad way.

It should be encouraged to make an acquaintance with any culture, but questioning in detail.

Chinese culture affect people deeper than Western culture.

Not only left it good spirit or things,but also awful trash.Many people who are living or lived in backward place of China still have old-fashioned and enlightened thought,it's difficult for them to update their mind,one of reason is that they are too old to weed out feudal ideas;another is their life has been stable,easy and comfortable so that advanced thoughts are refused to accept,such effect will go down generation by generation...

I know little about western culture, but it seems western are easier to accept new things or thoughts.

I'm sorry for taking so long to answer this question. I thought a lot about this question. And I don't want to answe a question Bc I have to, I want to answer a question Bc I have my own experience and opinion about it.

About money: Chinese people love to share their financial situation with people. And sometimes people will ask you how much money you make every month. Not Bc they care, Bc they want to compare and to see who make more money.

For westerners, it's not polite to ask people's financials. Bc it's none of others business.

About spending money: Chinese likes saving money instead of spending. For example, we decorate our house for living, not for feelings. We don't buy extra useless stuff to make our home look beautiful. We buy stuff to use, not for looking. As long as it's still working, we don't get a new one to replace it.

For westerners: people like to make their home cozy and beautiful, sometimes they buy candles and decorations to put it on the table to make it look better.

About who pay the bill: for Chinese people, the elder,the male,the staff instead of the boss, the one who asked people out.

For westeners: ALWAYS PAY FOR YOURSELF

About dating: for Chinese boys, if a boy likes a girl, he would get her number and talk to her, maybe flirt with her and ask  her out sometimes without telling the girl that he likes her, if he "felt"the same way, then he will tell her that he likes her and asks her to be his gf. Then if everything goes well, after they became bf and gf,they will go on dates. But sometimes, girls just don't get it. For example, one of my friend gave me medicine when I had a cold. I was grateful about that, but I didn't have a second thought. Bc I thought he was being nice as a friend. He had never said anything or did anything to convey the idea that he likes me. We didn't talk that much, I didn't know him that well, he didn't know me well either. One night, he told me that he liked a girl and he didn't know if he should let her know, I was like sure, why not, the chance is fifty-fifty. So later that night, he sent me a message like he wants me to be his gf. I was totally shocked. So I told him that I was busy at doing my homework and I'll talk to him later. He probably thought I was going to turn him down,so after couple days,I told him that I don't him that much, I can't be his gf. And he texted me back said: I was kidding! So I said that I was kidding too. He was trying to save his dignity. But the truth is I don't even know who he is. But for him, it's about I look down on him Bc he's not good Enough. That's not true. It's just Bc I don't know him well Enough. I don't like his personality either.

For westerners: ask a girl out that makes a date and both of them know it. They gets to know each other through the dates.then they establish a relationship. If it doesn't work out, no hard feelings.

Westerners find the Chinese culture complex, and hard to understand, as the Chinese culture has its own values, background and belief system. The Chinese are very friendly and helpful to a stranger, compared to Westerners who would never entertain a stranger. Western culture has a wealthy and luxurious lifestyle, but Chinese mostly have a modest way of living, for example, on average, the Chinese may have no more than 40 sq. feet of living space. Chinese use sir names, and are strictly moral to avoid public displays of affection. The Western culture has the freedom to express them freely. When compared to Western culture, the Chinese culture differs a lot, as they value relationships more than their Western counterparts.

Plato had something called “the idea of the One” that suggested that in reality there are no distinctions between things, i.e., all things are part of some kind of continuum. Distinct entities appear only in “the world of opinion.” However, that idea never became popular in the West, and everybody tried a reductionist methodology that depicted all the individual things in the world as the working out of “laws” in the mind of God (or some variation of that basic scheme). Spinoza was an exception, but continuum ideas didn’t work their way back into Western discourse until encouraged to do so by modern physics (i.e., from quantum mechanics on to several attempts to find a “theory of everything” or “grand unified theory”).

Chinese philosophers were, of course, aware of the same “individual things” that we consider discrete entities, e.g., dogs, birds, snakes, etc. However, from earliest times they took the path of explaining everything in terms of a basic unity that works itself out into articulations that appear to be separate on the phenomenal level but are still united on a deeper level. You can see these ideas most clearly in the Zhuang Zi (Chuang Tzu in the old romanization), Lao Zi, and the Book of Changes, but also in Chinese medicine and other areas of inquiry that are explained in terms of the “five moving/changing influences” (五行 wǔ xíng, sometimes confusingly translated as the “five elements”).

So, at the risk of being utterly simplistic, you could say that Western culture is characterized by a fixation on individuality, whereas Chinese culture is fixated on the community of all beings.

A2A Joye Wang.

Right off the top of my head, food or meal play a very very important role in Chinese life.

For greeting, people would ask “have you had dinnner yet?” instead of “how are you”. Perhaps the elders say so because of their memory of food shortage. But for me, who is in her 20s and never worries about food shortage, still greet others in that way. Nearly subconscious.

Almost everyday, people would ask a question: what will you eat for breakfast/ lunch/ supper. Seriously, for every meal I would ask my roomate that question for advice that what should I eat for the following meal. No metter how tight the deadline is, I would hardly skip my meal. If I have to skip my lunch, I would treat myself a big meal in supper. And for celebration, most people would choose to eating out together.

The biggest difference is the altitude towards flaws in the processes to their goals. Chinese can tolerate flaws, westerners can’t.

If you check ideals and theories developed by westerners, it is usually 0 or 1, issues are simplified to the extent that no more simplification is possible.

That is why most Chinese are atheists by western standard, because Chinese don’t believe that rules must be strictly followed, as long as the results are what you want.

That is one of the reasons why science didn’t blossom in China, because Chinese in general are not interested in studying absolute rules.

One big aspect is attitudes toward groups vs individuals. Western culture, especially in the USA, stresses individual responsibility and achievement. You work for yourself, not your extended family much less your state or city or even country.

I think many Asian countries, especially those with one-party governments, promote group identity partly from tradition, partly to avoid government responsibility for a social safety net, and partly to suppress dissent.

There’s also respect for authority. In America, if you think you can do better than your boss, you quit and start your own company, or at least look elsewhere for a better boss. In countries with a confucian tradition, you wait your turn. This obviously helps repressive governments as well.

In Chinese culture, humility, humbleness and introversion are valued while in western culture it's me me me, and extroversion. Chinese are most likely to be cautious of success while western people will boast them everytime they can. Both have the positives and the bad sides though.

We are dealing with ideal types here, so this should be approached with some caution.

The starting difference is that the West is individualist and the East is collectivist.

In the West, an individual will stress his rights and freedoms. In the East, it becomes more about his societal and familial obligations.

In the West, all men are presumed free and equal, hence deference to age and authority is minimal. In the East, respect for hierarchy is important and its acknowledgement expected to avoid loss of face for both sides.

In the West, the rule of law guarantees that rights and obligations will be enforced by independent courts, hence more time is spent on reducing the minutiae of the relationship to writing. In the East, rule of law is weak and rights and obligations are only as strong as the relationship that underpins them, hence more time is spent on sussing out the opposite number and building rapport with them.

-Accepting offers. In Chinese culture, when someone gives you something, you must first refuse to show that you don’t want to make a mess or spend his/her money. It’s to show your appreciation towards the offering/effort. In Western culture, however, refusing could mean that you don’t like the offering.

-In Western culture, it’s normal to say “thank you” to waitresses/cashiers/shopkeepers/staffs. If you do that in China, people think you’re weird/funny.

-In China (And many other Eastern countries), wealth equals respect and admiting your financial inferiority could harm your reputation and respect. The richer you are (or look), the more respect you earn.

-In China (And most Asian countries), people take off their outdoor shoes at home.

-Most Chinese take a shower twice a day, one at the morning before going out, and the other one after work/school.

-Most Chinese don’t like getting tanned. Culturally, having tanned skin is associated with the poor, while the richer ones are expected to afford their time out of sunlight. In the modern world, having light skin is associated with being able to afford skin bleaching products.

-Typical Chinese occassions/parties would have the whole people in the room talking in one big group. On the other hand, Westerners tend to split into smaller groups.

Western culture is based on individualism rather than on mass (collectivism). For instance, in the US, you always talk about individual rights, instead of placing the whole society above your own self. This is clearly different in China where a country, society or family are placed above your own self.

Chinese culture incorporates elements of Buddhism and Confucianism, which are shame-based, while Western culture incorporates elements of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, which are guilt-based.

I'm not sure 2015 in urban China any longer reflect Chinese culture.

As another Quorian wrote 1990s Chinese society and people were collective and has become individualistic.

At any rate, Mao purged Chinese culture and since the CCP has redefined Chinese recent history and culture and values.

On the other hand I can only reflect the Western USA Northern California San Francisco Bay Arean economy.

With the upsurge of Trump supporters, if the nation further progresses in that mode, China and the USA will eventually intersect in the redefining of Western and Confucian cultures.

China build

Western destroy

Chinese culture just like the great wall.we defense the enemy and develop ourselves.

Chinese invented powder for people.but Western learns for killing. Chinese invent compass for people. Western use it for Colonization.

someone make things for beauty someone use things for blood

To answer your question would take a book or several. The differences are profound, basically hinging around the core concepts of "individualism"(west) and "collectivism" (east). Each "-ism" is the underlying difference that pervades all major and minor decisions that each "-ism" makes. And, every decision made in accordance with the decision-makers "-ism" appears correct and right to the decision-maker, no matter how baffling it appears to an observer from the other "-ism".

The differences are like sky and earth.

Everything is different from genetics, food, religion, language and culture.

Genetics: Chinese are Mongoloid, Europeans are Caucasoid

Food: Chinese food is based on rice/noodles and soya bean. European food is based on milk and bread. Chinese eat with chopsticks whereas Europeans eat with fork and spoon.

Language: Chinese languages are monosyllabic and tonal whereas European languages are polysyllabic and non-tonal.

Religion: Traditional Chinese religion revolved around Chinese Buddhism (Buddhism and Taoism mixed) whereas European languages revolve around Christianity.

Culture: Family relationship (such as filial piety, respect to elder family members) is very important in Chinese culture, less so in western culture.

There is no "Western culture", in the West there are many cultures that are totally different from each other.

Due to different countries and nations have different customs, social traditions, folk customs, thus causing the differences in language. Understanding of the different cultures, so that we can understand the cultural heritage of the world better. The culture of any country in the labor creates a lifestyle of accumulation, thereby affects the different languages.The specific historical development in the formation of culture, the main content includes some allusion idiom, proverb and dialect. The differences between Chinese and western culture in language are reflected in the meaning of the words. Undering the different cultural background, people has different expressions and understanding on the same thing