It is almost every ones habit and desire to get to know something about other cultures that are different than their own, to know their habits, their customs, their daily routines, their languages, etc. but the question remains, how far they can live within a different culture, especially if the new culture is totally different than his / her own.

We've grown up hearing a controversy differentiating statement, EAST AND WEST, with time, the differentiation expanded to add another terminology, Far East and Far West and then, suddenly, a forgotten area came up to be one of the most troubled areas … Middle East.

We live our lives with the prejudice that our knowledge allows us to judge and determine that our culture is the best amongst all other cultures and without bothering into looking into the differences and dig deeper to find the essence of these differences and / or find the possible resemblances.

When Chinese used to go out to open new markets for their businesses and widen their trades, they used to introduce their products and return home. If the business expands, a whole community shall be established in this country that accommodates Chinese businessmen and their families and finally call this community with China Town. Same original Chinese culture shall be used, same language, same style, and same everything that would create the boundary that eliminates the penetration of others into their small community. And the question for other cultures remains, why would I bother to understand and integrate with other cultures, Chinese or none Chinese that are confined to themselves?

The situation changed when it came to United Arab Emirates and in particular, Dubai, a country that was formed from different controversy cultures, and mainly from Middle East, East and Far East. At the end of the day, we are all related to east and this word should have something in common amongst these different parts.

In order to reach to new limits and attract people from different countries, races, religions, and origins, it was inevitable not to form a suitable environment for all of these cultures at the same time, to enable them live in harmony, to look to others in an accepting way, to attract other cultures to plant their seeds in different soils, to form a phenomenal and exceptional life style that would unconsciously force people to live, share, experience and adopt new life style.

People in different part of the world would usually look to other cultures in a degrading way and superiority of their own life style on others. The world mind set was established on the idea that the Middle East is nothing more than desert and the gulf region including United Arab Emirates is merely desert and people riding camels, but they didn't know that there is much more that what is told. It was with no doubt that desert and camels are part of the culture of this country, and not only an ordinary part, but it forms an honorable side of the life style, that is why it was the method of advertising and presenting the country's culture to different parts of the world in a way that make it simple for others to understand and attractive to experience.

The question that keeps raising in the heads of the Chinese, why to trust someone who is from another country and different culture while I have the whole company from china and I know their style and can trust them more? Why to bother?

The whole idea of superiority and resistance to other life styles float to surface and it was no choice but to involve other bloods from different cultures to start penetrating through this wall of resistance and avoidance to change and it was only a matter of time and patience to allow people gradually and unconsciously adopt a new life style and most importantly, give the trust to other non-Chinese person.

During this transition period, we started sharing our experiences and original cultures and surprisingly, it was found that many of the cultures strangely matches and sometimes typically matches the other side. It was then our understanding to other cultures changes.

Traditional methods of marriage, mother and daughter in laws controversy relationship and the ancient unresolved mysterious conflict between them, relationships between relatives, way of eating whether using hands, chopsticks, forks, spoons, etc. and other things that had the same ground but different shapes and the more we talk the more we gain knowledge, experience and most important, bonding and start establishing the friendship. The seed is then planted and started growing with time. 

Later, if any new person comes to the group, old merged group starts pulling him/her to the group and then he / she starts noticing the bonding and realizes that it is not as what they have been thinking or expecting.

Time, patience, determination, willingness, ability, and open minds are the secret words for a change to take place. Everyone has and should be proud of his / her own culture and there is no harm at all to continue practicing your own life style in your daily life activities and accept the other side way of life. Mostly important is to respect others.

We have to allow change to take its time and make people understand the importance of this change to take place.
(From CSHK Dubai)