By Xu Cuimei

One of the SFL traditional events for the trimester is a series of lectures given by outstanding professors or scholars during the trimester. On July 4th, Wang Jun, who has studied and worked in Japan for over a decade, gave a lecture entitledDifferences between Chinese and Japanese Culturesin Gongcheng 1105.

As Ms. Wang observed, Japan is a country that values education. Its educational system includes a large amount of state schools, public schools, and private schools, and it is notable that many private schools are able to provide excellent education, although they don’t get financial aids from the government. Jun Wang was also amazed by what she witnessed at a graduation ceremony in Japan. She found that the principle called each graduate''''s name and hand over the certificates one by one by himself. Besides, Japanese women have a stronger voice in the country nowadays. In her time in Japan, Ms. Wang realized that women were well-educated in general. They had knowledge and skills, and in most situations they were really independent from their families. The statistics of the age of women''''s marriage provided a strong proof of the change of Japanese women. In fact, Chinese women also have enough freedom for them to make decisions on their own in the 21st century, and this significant change marks a milestone in the development of our culture.

There was an important difference in social etiquette between China and Japan. In China, people give a friend expensive, valuable gift to show that they care about the relationship. On the contrary, Japanese never try to emphasize the value of their gifts because they do not want to put pressure on others. Ms Wang concluded that every nation has its strengths and weaknesses, and we must look at the differences calmly, carefully, and neutrally in order to help us improve ourselves.