This semester, we are taking
Cultural Differentiation as the elective for IHE. I really enjoyed the course
last year as I learnt a lot of the differences in cultures between the Chinese
and Western societies. I even learnt about how top companies in the U.S such as
Apple and Google functioned, in comparison to the top PC company in China,
Lenovo. As such, I really anticipated the course this year. The main focus of
the course this semester was more on the
roles which youths play in America and China, as compared to last year where
the main focus seemed to be a broader comparison between the similarities and
differences in the cultures of China and America.
The first topic for this module
which we analysed was China's Me Generation & the
American Presidential Election of 2008. The set of articles allowed us to learn
more about China's "Me Generation" and America's "Millennial
Generation", and the potential impacts which the youths may cause towards
the future developments and progress of their respective countries.
This
lesson showcased the youths in both China as self-centred, indifferent and
ignorant towards political issues in their countries. However, their American
counterparts during the American Presidential Election of 2008 tend to be more
involved and concerned in politics, and they are not hesitant to voice out
their opinions and views towards important economic and foreign affairs. This
certainly has somewhat to do with their respective cultural up-bringing in
their countries. In China, the China Communist Party (CCP) has always been in
charge of the country, and as such no matter what the youth's might feel
towards their country's politics, they are not given a say in the politics,
thus leading them to become uninvolved and oblivious to the political
situations in their country. However, unlike China, the US promotes the youths
to play an active role and be more aware about politics. The youths are encouraged
to voice out their views and concerns, and the government would consult public opinions
before implementing policies in the country.
Compared
to the youths in China and America, I feel that they youths in Singapore skew
more towards the youths in China. Most youths do not show any interest in
politics and do not bother to be involved in politics. This can be seen from
General Elections held in 2006 and 2011. Comparing both years, the void votes
increased by a significant amount from 26,727 in 2006 to 44,737 in 2011. The fact
that the number of void votes has almost doubled implies that youths are politically
uninvolved, and they cannot be bothered to even make a decision which would
directly impact the country and their well-being. Thus, I feel that it is
important for the government to get youths in Singapore to become more
politically educated, or this situation might only worsen in our future
generations.
