Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

The hungry ghost festival ended a couple of weeks ago. During this period of time, many local Chinese believers would prepare ritualistic food offerings and burn incense and joss papers for the visiting spirits.

This particular incident that I witnessed involved two neighbours of mine. Neighbour 1 (N1) is a Chinese family while Neighbour 2 (N2) is a Muslim family. N1 was performing his offerings and burning paper incense for his ancestors one of the afternoon during the lunar 7th month. Due to strong wind, the burning ashes started flying all around. Some eventually landed in N2's house which is on the second floor, creating a dusty mess. N2 was very disturbed as his son has asthma and he believes that the ashes would trigger off an asthmatic reaction. Shouting from his window, he confronted N1, insisting that they should not burn so much incense as the ashes will start flying all over. He demanded them to stop immediately, otherwise he would complain to the town council. He even made an insensitive comment stating he don't see why N1 needed to burn those incense!

N1 apparently wasn't very happy with the way N2 confronted him. He argued that B was exaggerating the whole situation and refused to budge. The whole conversation got so tense that everything could be heard from my 4th floor unit. All these while, I was observing from my window. Eventually the whole incident came under control when some other neighbour came down to act as mediator. No compromise was made eventually. Ever since then, the two neighbours' relationship remained sour.

Personally, I feel that since we are living in a multi cultural society, we should all be tolerant, patient and be more accommodating towards different cultural practises. In this situation, I believe that both parties are at fault. On one hand, N1 should have graciously admitted that his actions did affect his neighbours. In addition, he should also have assured N2 that he will be done quickly and apologise for any inconvenience caused. On the other hand, N2 could have been more tolerant of the Chinese cultural norm of burning incense. He should have approached N1 with a more polite tone and negotiated assertively with patience. Both parties should have also develop more cultural self awareness. If all these were done, I believe that they could have reached a win-win situation. The situation could have been avoided if both families could be more sensitive to each other's race and cultural beliefs.
From the conflict, we can actually see that effective communication is vital in intercultural situations. The key to solving this unpleasant conflict is perhaps to be empathetic. Only by putting yourself in other people's shoes, will you be able to understand the other party's expectations and be more sensitive to others' traditions, cultures and feelings.

Painful but very cool?

Any Prison Break fans out there?


Do you recognise him?


And what's your impression of the person featured in the photo below? Is it the same for the previous two photos you have seen?

I do not have a tattoo by the way....

The word "tattoo" comes from the Tahitian "tatau" which simply means to mark.

Tattoos serve different purposes and carry a variety of meanings for various people. For some people, it may represent a symbol of faith, identity, and memory for lost love ones . For others, it could just well be a fashion statement.
Tattoos have the power to leave a strong impression on people, how they perceive you as a person, and maybe even create a strong social stigma.
In the past, tattoo-ing was often associated with triads, gangsters and secret societies. Each gang had its own distinct tattoo, and members who owed allegiance to the group had to have the mark of a tattoo on themselves. Tattooing therefore came to be associated with anti-social activities and people with tattoos were looked down upon.
Recently, I have noticed an increasing number of youths with tattoos walking along the streets. Interestingly enough, an online study indicates that getting tattoos is an increasing popular trend amongst the youths worldwide. Hence I thought maybe this would be an interesting topic to work on for the research project, in a local context. As we move into the 21st century, it would be interesting to find out how the general public percieves youths of generation Y having tattoos. Does having a tattoo carry any social implications on them these days? Are these youths with tattoos still considered deviant or are we open minded enough in today's society to accept their behaviour? Having the answers to these questions, tattoo-ing studios may then be able to develop better strategies to change people's mindset about the art, making people more receptive to tattoo-ing, which will in turn improve their business.

In a nutshell, here's what i propose.

Issue presented:
Increasing trends of youths (GEN Y) getting tattoos in Singapore.

Possible research question:
Do youths (GEN Y) with tattoos carry a social stigma these days? Generation Y population refers to the people born in from 1982 to the mid-1990s.

Survey required?
Yes. Survey is required to get a general opinion on whether there is a social stigma that tags along with a Generation Y individual. If it is proven to carry a social stigma, what are its implications? If proven otherwise, why is it so? People being surveyed will include people from both Generation X and Generation Y to cut down biasness.

Hypothesis:
Having tattoos no longer carry a social stigma for our Generation Y population.

Purpose Statement:
The objective of the report is to determine whether having tattoos carry any social stigma in our Generation Y population these days. Results will then allow tattoo-ing services companies in Singapore to come up with business strategies that overcome possible stereotypes people have and better promote the art of tattoo-ing. The report is also prepared for the general public. The purpose is to let them have a better insight on the current perspective that people have on tattoo-ing among youths these days.