Chinese language tends to be quick, economical. To know what people are saying, you always need to know what the context is.
Gish JenI'm trying to give people an idea of what black looks like and what white looks like before I introduce them to gray.
Gish JenIt's a matter of whether you see the self as fundamentally in relationship to other selves or not - whether you see the boundary between self and the world as relatively permeable, which makes you "interdependent" (collectivist) in outlook, or relatively impermeable, which makes you "independent" (individualistic).
Gish Jen