Perceptions

This is a bit of a philosophical post, but it's something that has been on my mind. I am reading a new book, Foreign Babes in Beijing, which is an account of an American woman who moved to Beijing in the mid-90s. One of the things which the author brings up in the first couple of chapters is how important perceptions are, and more importantly how important what we think others perceive about us can be to reality, and that it is perhaps more important than our own actual perceptions.

The example that she uses is the American perception of the Chinese. From her experiences, the Chinese think that Americans have a perception that they are a lazy people and as such the Chinese rebel against this stereotype. The author, and I would agree, points out that she as an American has never heard of a perception or stereotype like this about the Chinese, but in the end this doesn't matter. The perception is real in the mind of the Chinese and causes consequences.

This is a pretty powerful statement about international relations and human relations. Many times we get caught up trying to correct perceptions about ourselves while in the end perhaps the perceptions would be better broken if we didn't address them specifically and worked with them towards positive goals. I'm still contemplating this a bit, but one thing that I do think is important is to understand the perceptions that others think we have of them. More and more, it is the easy path to shield oneself of the way in which "the other" - Republican/Democrat, liberal/conservative, etc. - thinks and perceives. This has a tendency to lead towards entrenchment, fighting, and general misunderstanding. I know that I have felt myself retreating more and more and have seen information in the press that would seem to indicate larger trends. Long-term, this is a trend that I think we must fight.

Some food for thought.