The Girl at the Baggage Claim, Gish Jen
The Girl at the Baggage Claim, Gish Jen
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The Girl at the Baggage Claim
Explaining the East-West Culture Gap

Author: Gish Jen

Narrator: Caroline McLaughlin

Unabridged: 7 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/27/2017

Categories: Nonfiction, Psychology

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

The Girl at the Baggage Claim is a provocative and important study of the different ideas Easterners and Westerners have about the self and society and what this means for current debates in art, education, geopolitics, and business.

Never have East and West come as close as they are today, yet we are still baffled by one another. Is our mantra "To thine own self be true?" Or do we believe we belong to something larger than ourselves—a family, a religion, a troop—that claims our first allegiance? Gish Jen—drawing on a treasure trove of stories and personal anecdotes, as well as cutting-edge research in cultural psychology—reveals how this difference shapes what we perceive and remember, what we say and do and make—how it shapes everything from our ideas about copying and talking in class to the difference between Apple and Alibaba. As engaging as it is illuminating, this is a book that stands to profoundly enrich our understanding of ourselves and of our world.

About Gish Jen

Gish Jen is the author of four novels, a book of stories, and a previous book of nonfiction, Tiger Writing. Her honors include the Lannan Literary Award for fiction and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

She teaches from time to time in China and otherwise lives with her husband and two children in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


Reviews

Goodreads review by John on July 14, 2017

One time, teaching a course on the graphic novel, I described the differences in artistic form and storytelling technique between manga and Western comics. A student raised her hand and offered the opinion that the contrast between the two modes reflected the difference between individualist Western......more

Goodreads review by changeableLandscape on August 23, 2017

Why was this book so annoying? I'm not sure; I think because it was all over the place; Jen talks about herself and her life, she talks about psychology and sociology and culture, and most of all she talks about an 'American self' that I mostly do not recognise at all. I wish this book had been ONE......more

Goodreads review by erforscherin on November 15, 2017

I like the author’s thesis and see where she’s coming from, but as a child of immigrants myself, I couldn’t help wondering how much of the behaviors or thought-patterns she points out are not rooted in differences between Eastern and Western cultures, but rather American vs. non-American cultures. I......more

Goodreads review by Kate on June 22, 2017

A lot more cultural psychology theory than I expected - I was hoping for more practical examples and anecdotes. Would be a good university textbook. Interesting, but not what I was expecting.......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on March 20, 2017

Think of your favorite college professor: knowledgeable about his or her field, of course, thoughtful about the research, able to synthesize the work of others into a syllabus — and thoroughly engaging for the uninformed undergraduate (that's me, or you) who has signed up for the course and is willi......more