It seems to be common knowledge in China that the west is open-minded. We love our sex, drugs and homosexuality. If you watch any western movies and TV shows you’ll see a great deal of all of these things going on at any one time and everyone seems perfectly ok with it. But is it the truth? Yes and no.

First off we should clarify, there is no such thing as Western culture, every area of the West is different just like China is different compared to Japan and Korea. But I’ll talk more on that on a later entry. Back to open-mindedness.

If we break this down to its roots, we need to think what part of open-minded we’re talking about. So let’s start with homosexuality, is it common in the West? Somewhat, it’s becoming more and more common everywhere. Is it accepted in the West? Somewhat, but it really depends where you are in the West. Many Western countries have legalized homosexual marriage and gave these couples all the same rights as heterosexual couples. But let’s look at the place everyone claims is the most open in the West, the USA. In the USA some states do not allow homosexual marriage and some states do, so you can see that there is a very large divide in the USA, this is true in most Western countries. However I think that divide is becoming smaller as more and more are becoming accepting of this way of life as can be seen by the growing number of countries where it is legal and the growing number of states in the USA. In the West we are more open-minded about homosexuality than China but there is still many people who are not. This divide will be a big part of most of my articles about Western culture.

Sex in the West, if you listen to movies and TV shows, seems freely available with one night stands all over the place and young kids having sex in the streets. However, like most things on TV, this is a massive exaggeration. Do one night stands happen? Yes, but not as often as people in China seem to think they do. Do kids have sex? Yes, but not as many as you think do. Sex is less taboo in the West compared to China but it’s not a wild all night sex party like Hollywood portrays it as. There are many people who don’t like or agree with one night stands in the West. There are people who wait till marriage for sex, though those numbers are admittedly quite small. The honest idea of sexuality in the West is that people generally don’t have a lot of sex partners, we have sex with those we date and relationships are serious usually and often last a long time. Yes the West is more open-minded than China about sex, but it’s not nearly what most Chinese seem to believe is going on.

Drugs, this is another area with a very big divide, first off we should specify, what is a drug? There are legal drugs like alcohol and cigarettes, but most people don’t pay attention to these when it comes to open-mindedness. What most are talking about is the illegal drugs like Marijuana, Cocaine, Heroin and such. now I’ve had some Chinese tell me they think the West likes illegal drugs, most Western people do not. However we should break down illegal drugs into two categories, Marijuana and everything else. Marijuana is quite a common drug in the West now, those who use it view it as about the same danger level as Alcohol and studies have shown this to be true. Other drugs however are not commonly used and those who do use them are looked down on by most of the population. What gives the West it’s reputation for drug use is Marijuana, Canada leads the world in Marijuana use with over 16% of the population having used it, and in fact I would say that number seems a little low to be honest. Small amounts of Marijuana in Canada is mostly viewed as a small offense punishable by a small fine. In many Western countries marijuana is on the verge of being legalized for medical use as it helps in things like glaucoma, Alzheimer’s, stomach and intestine problems, tremors, seizures, epilepsy, Cancer and more. So yes, when it comes to Marijuana, the west is much more open-minded about drugs, but for most illegal drugs, no the West does not really condone or support their use.

So is the West open-minded? Well it depends what you compare it to I guess. Compared to the traditional and conservative culture of China, yes of course it is. All modern cultures will be viewed as open-minded compared to traditional ones, but as China modernizes you will see that difference disappear because it’s not Western culture that is changing China so much, it’s modern culture. Modern culture takes away borders and demands acceptance of other ways of life and if you look at big cities in China, that’s exactly what we see happening and will continue to happen for the forseeable future.

I think China’s view of Western culture is mostly shaped by the movies and TV shows they watch, but one has to remember that Hollywood is probably the most open-minded place in the world just about. That’s what you are seeing, Western culture through the eyes of Hollywood and it’s not honest. You rarely see the more conservative and traditional people of the West in these shows, even though they make up the majority of people, because a TV show about a woman who doesn’t sleep with men, doesn’t have homosexual friends, doesn’t have any sex till marriage and spends every Sunday at church would be a very boring TV show and no one would watch.