An Integrated Ecological Approach to Mapping Variations in Collectivism Within China: Introducing the Triple-Line Framework

Abstract

Measurable regional variations in collectivism have been found across the Chinese mainland, challenging the simple classification of China as a “collectivistic society” in cross-national studies. In previous studies, a small number of distal or proximal ecological factors have been used to explain these regional variations of collectivism. However, there has been little consensus on which ecological factors best predict regional collectivism. In this article, the authors propose the “triple-line framework,” an integrated perspective on regional variations in collectivism. This framework divides China into four regions using three lines—the Hu Huanyong Line, the Great Wall Line, and the Qinling–Huaihe Line—according to their ecological, historical, and social characteristics. A growing body of empirical research is largely consistent with this framework. The authors conclude by discussing the potential for this framework to generate new, testable hypotheses and consider some ways in which this approach to intranational variation could be used by cultural psychologists working in other parts of the world.

Developmental Trend of Subjective Well-Being of Weibo Users During COVID-19: Online Text Analysis Based on Machine Learning Method

“…Second, collectivism might be one of the important reasons for China’s success in the prevention and control of the pandemic and an increase in residential SWB. There is general agreement that China is a typical paradigm of a collectivistic society ( Alkhadher et al, 2020 ; Ren et al, 2021 ). In collectivist values, individuals tend to regard groups and communities as the core of social units, which emphasize social relationships and self-identity in a group ( Hofstede, 1980 ).…”

“…In collectivist values, individuals tend to regard groups and communities as the core of social units, which emphasize social relationships and self-identity in a group ( Hofstede, 1980 ). And individuals in collectivist societies tend to use the power of the collective for reducing the perceived stress when facing stressful events ( Ren et al, 2021 ). Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why China was able to receive many forms of internal assistance during COVID-19–this country believes that “when disaster struck, help came from all sides.” For instance, all the other provinces in China raced against the clock to assist Hubei province after the COVID-19 outbreak.…”

The Impact of Mortality Salience, Negative Emotions and Cultural Values on Suicidal Ideation in COVID-19: A Conditional Process Model

“…This lexicon includes 165 keywords related to individualism, such as ‘jìng zhēng’ (competition) and ‘wǒ’ (I or me), and to collectivism, such as ‘fēn pèi’ (allocation) and ‘wǒ men’ (we or us). By examining keywords related to individualism and collectivism used by Weibo users, we could effectively identify their cultural values [ 46 , 69 , 70 ].…”

Exploring the impact of Chuangguandong Movement on individualism in China based on Sina Weibo information

“…Although more than 100 years have passed, the northeast immigrant culture still reflects this state of multiethnic coexistence with the Han nationality as the theme. Northeast food, humor, art of paper-cut, song and dance duets, cheongsam, and the national spirit of self-improvement, hard work, self-reliance, and cooperation that can be observed in the northeast are still passed down from generation to generation (Kitayama et al, 2010;Fan and Jia, 2016;Fan, 2021;Ren et al, 2021). Some scholars used independent/interdependent measures, such as self-construal scale, symbolic self-inflation, nepotism tasks, and percentage of most common names, to examine residents of Heilongjiang and Shandong, revealing that contrasted to Shandong Province, Heilongjiang residents had lower levels of interdependence and in-group preference, but the self-inflation was higher, and a greater preference for giving their children unique names.…”

“…Although more than 100 years have passed, the northeast immigrant culture still reflects this state of multiethnic coexistence with the Han nationality as the theme. Northeast food, humor, art of paper-cut, song and dance duets, cheongsam, and the national spirit of self-improvement, hard work, self-reliance, and cooperation that can be observed in the northeast are still passed down from generation to generation ( Kitayama et al, 2010 ; Fan and Jia, 2016 ; Fan, 2021 ; Ren et al, 2021 ).…”