Crossing the rice-wheat border: Not all intra-cultural adaptation is equal

Abstract

This study aimed to test whether or not where people come from and move to impacts their method for dealing with stress. We investigated this research question among newcomers crossing between the rice and wheat farming regions in China—south and north China, respectively. New evidence suggests wheat-farming agriculture fosters a coping strategy of changing the environment (primary coping), while rice-farming regions foster the converse strategy of fitting into the environment (secondary coping). Using two longitudinal studies on newcomers at universities located in both the rice and wheat farming regions, we hypothesized that students from south China (rice region) at a university in north China (wheat region) would use more primary coping and it would lead to better adaptation (Study 1). In contrast, students from wheat-farming regions moving to a rice university would benefit from secondary coping as an effective strategy for buffering stress (Study 2). Results indicated that for students from rice-farming regions who were studying universities in wheat-farming regions, secondary coping was damaging and attenuated the stress-adaptation relationship. However, in study 2, the reverse was found, as secondary coping was found to buffer the negative effects of stress on sociocultural adaptation for students from wheat-farming regions who were studying at universities in rice-farming regions. This study lends further support to the theory that ecological factors impact how individuals cope with the acculturative stress of moving to a new environment.

Ethnic Stereotype Formation and Its Impact on Sojourner Adaptation: A Case of “Belt and Road” Chinese Migrant Workers in Montenegro

“…It is still unclear as to why this was the case; there are three possible explanations. The first explanation implicates the origin culture of the present study's mostly-homogenous participants-the Chinese culture, which is known to be conflict aversive, to deal with problems indirectly [53,54] and to pursue politeness and harmony [55,56]. As a consequence, the study's finding might be applicable only to the present sample (or similar Chinese cultural background groups).…”

The Lineage Theory of the Regional Variation of Individualism/Collectivism in China

“…However, those crossing the North/South border for university education do. Coping strategies learned from home are highly important when coping with this stress ( English and Worlton, 2017 ; English and Geeraert, 2020 ). Hence, future studies of regional variation of culture in China should seriously consider the effects of migration.…”

Middle School Students From China’s Rice Area Show More Adaptive Creativity but Less Innovative and Boundary-Breaking Creativity

“…Second, planting and harvesting wheat requires only half the labor that rice requires (Buck, 1935), and wheat farmers can thus plant and harvest crops without relying on help from the other farmers in their regions. In this regard, intensive cooperation is much less important for growing wheat than it is for growing rice (see also English and Geeraert, 2020). Over time, communities in which individuals must cooperate intensely (e.g., rice-farming regions) tend to become more interdependent and show more characteristics of a collectivistic culture, such as valuing consensus, conformity, in-group cohesion, and harmony (Shulruf et al, 2011a;Nouri et al, 2015).…”

“…Many past studies have focused on comparisons between Western countries (representing an individualistic culture) and East Asian countries (representing a collectivistic culture) in the context of creativity (see Nouri et al, 2015 ). This study aimed to analyze cultural differences in creativity by examining a recently proposed perspective – the rice theory, which postulates an interesting hypothesis regarding major psychological differences among different agricultural regions in China ( Talhelm et al, 2014 ; see also English and Geeraert, 2020 ).…”

“…Joining this discourse, the rice theory articulates that there are large cultural differences between different regions across the wide territory of mainland China. Specifically, China’s rice-growing regions show more collectivism (or interdependence culture) but less individualism (or independence culture) than its wheat-growing regions ( Talhelm et al, 2014 ; see also Talhelm et al, 2018 ; Zhu et al, 2019 ; English and Geeraert, 2020 ).…”