Creativity

When East Meets West

Sing Lau, Anna N N Hui;Grace Y C Ng

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9789814482820
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What actually is creativity? And what contributes to its conceptualization and development? For decades, these and other questions have fascinated researchers, educators, parents and laypeople alike, and equally so in the East and West. This interesting collection of articles is an attempt at exploring and answering the above questions from both the Eastern and Western perspectives. Readers may find some answers stimulating, and others bewildering. This is in fact the reality and fascination of creativity research and education. It is hoped that readers will share the joy of reading such a road map.

Contents:

• Creativity: A Meeting Between the East and the West (S Lau et al.)
• Personal Creativity and Culture (M Runco)
• Creativity: Developmental and Cross-Cultural Issues (T I Lubart & A Georgsdottir)
• Creativity Among Chinese People: Beyond Western Perspective (E Rudowicz)
• Why is There a Paradox in Promoting Creativity in the Asian Classroom? (A K Ng & I Smith)
• Creativity and Innovation: East-West Comparisons with an Emphasis on Chinese Societies (K Leung et al.)
• Progress from Traditional to Creativity Education in Chinese Societies (V M Y Cheng)
• Recognizing and Nurturing Creativity in Chinese Students (J-J Wu)
• The Social Psychology of Creativity: The Beginnings of a Multicultural Perspective (B A Hennessey)
• Beauty is in the Eye of the Creator — A Psychological and Cross-Cultural Account of Children's Understanding of Pictorial Art (S F Lin)
• Blue Apples and Purple Oranges: When Children Paint Like Picasso (K C Soh)
• Singapore's Creativity Education: A Framework of Fostering Constructive Creativity (A-G Tan)
• Inspiring Creativity Through Music (M Adachi & Y Chino)
• Creativity and Multiple Intelligences: The DISCOVER Project and Research (C J Maker)
• Nurturing Creative Thinking: Western Approaches and Eastern Issues (G J Puccio & D W González)

Readership: Students, instructors, researchers and professionals in education, Asian culture/politics/society and psychology.
Keywords:Creativity;East;West;Culture;Creative Thinking;Chinese;Asia;Education;PsychologyReview: “A particularly impressive feature of this book is the cultural diversity and regional variations represented by the range of authors … this book extended my understanding of the relationship between culture and creativity through the presentation of central theories and solid empirical evidence. It is also a good general reference book for anyone who is interesting in studying creativity or other topics with a cultural theme.” American Journal of Psychology
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Chapter 1

Creativity: A Meeting Between the East and the West

Sing LAU

Anna N. N. HUI

Grace Y. C. NG

Center for Child Development

Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

1.Introduction

Creativity: When East meets West.

But when?

And how?

In the meeting, cross-cultural comparisons are inevitable. And if made on equal grounds, such comparisons can ignite meaningful reflections and controversies.

With the passing away of Edward Said and the subsequent reports by Asian scholars in the media, more people have come to know of his works and writings. In brief, as in one of his earlier books entitled Orientalism (1978), Said puts forth his argument against the West’s (in particular the United States’) narrow and stereotyped view of the East (in particular the Middle East). His research has also aimed at raising Americans’ awareness of the diversity, richness, and dynamic nature of the culture of Arabic nations. Said was born in Palestine, grew up in Egypt, and got his higher education in the United States. Like his background, his thinking and research cross both academic and cultural boundaries. As such, apart from arguing against the West’s molded view of the Middle East, his work has also helped to alert Arabs of their unique identity, and not to take up the West’s view of themselves so readily.

To extrapolate from Said’s thinking and research, we should also alert ourselves of similar pitfalls in the discussion of creativity between East and West.

In fact, in the cross-cultural discussion on almost any topic between East (mainly Chinese societies) and West (mainly the United States), several typical approaches or stance can be noted. First, the West usually adopts some dominant ideology (e.g., Confucianism) and concepts (e.g., collectivism) in describing Asian culture and in explaining Asians’ behaviors. Second, as such, a list of as-a-matter-of-fact pre-concepts, beliefs, and assumptions often comes up (e.g., filial piety, authority-binding, conforming, group-oriented, face saving — all these and other traits are highlighted as being not beneficial to the cultivation of creativity). Third and more worth noting is that Asian researchers also adopt the Western viewpoints. Sometimes such adoption happens quite readily without any questioning even in light of weak or opposing evidences.

In contrast, we tend not to find a similar picture in Western research. For example, even though the United States is a predominantly protestant country, no dominant or any single ideological thought is used in theory building or in explaining Americans’ behaviors and thinking. Research has in fact taken issue with the Western view of Asians. For example, studies have indicated that Asians (e.g., Chinese youths in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Singapore are no less individualistic than their American peers in value orientation; Lau, 1992). They also place great importance on the value of being imaginative (Lau, 1992). On the purposes of education, results are mixed: American students believe that the school should teach them to think critically and to consider the family first, and Hong Kong students indicate that the school should teach them to respect authority and to face challenges creatively (Lau, Nicholls, Thorkildsen, & Patashnick, 2000). On the style of parenting, research has also shown that functional authoritative (in terms of providing guidelines) rather than controlling behavior is practiced by Chinese parents in Hong Kong (e.g., Lau & Cheung, 1987) and the United States (e.g., Chao & Sue, 1996).

In summary, all the above point to the issue that it is sometimes too easy to resort to simple concepts and presumptions in explaining Asians’ behaviors and the comparison of differences between East and West. More often, such attributed presumptions are not based on actual measures. This has been raised previously (see Introduction in Lau, 1996) and by authors in this book (e.g., Cheng; Lubart & Georgsdottir; Runco). Apart from Confucianism, Cheng and other researchers (e.g., Lau, 1996) have suggested that other ways of thinking such as Taoism and Buddhism have immense influence in Chinese and Asian cultures. People in Western countries could be high on collectivism as in many social and political interactions. In fact, the reliance on building and maintaining good networks are important to attaining goals, be they personal or social in nature. Even in resorting to Confucianism, we should note that Confucius was a non-conformist as he refuted what were being practiced by different emperors. His teachings (as well as those of others like Laozi and Zhuangzi) were rejected by the emperors in his time.

Let us take Chinese people as one Asian group as an example: before using the cultural label to explain the phenomenon of creativity in the Chinese, Chang (2000) critically pointed out six wrong places in search of the ethno-indigenous psychology of the Chinese. In the first approach, the objective demographic variable — ethnic Chinese — is taken for granted as equivalent to the subjective aspect of culture — beliefs and values. In most of the cross-cultural studies on creativity and Chinese people, researchers conveniently equate ethnic Chinese with subjective or self-identified Chinese. In the second approach, similarities among Chinese and people from different cultures will be classified as universal elements among human individuals but when differences occur, it seems difficult to look for an explanation especially when non-average samples are used. Chang (2000) thus suggested that the everyday life of the average Chinese people should be examined.

In the third and fourth approaches, a standardized set of independent variables are used under the same experimental conditions to investigate how people from various cultures behave or react in the same or different ways. Chang further questioned the generalizability of behaviors observed in laboratory situations to a normal life of the individuals. She also queried about the similarity in perception of stimulus or instruments in various cultures. She recommended that observations should be made in the daily life of the Chinese and culturally based measurement should be developed. In the fifth approach, culture is interpreted as a causal factor of certain behaviors. It, however, does not attempt to investigate which particular cultural belief or value is contributing to the similarity or difference as very often theories seldom include cultural variables. It tells little about how culture plays a role in human behavior (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993). Any operational definition of a psychological construct should be contextualized in the specific culture.

2Focus and Structure

The focus of this volume is three-fold. First, it aims to reexamine and question commonly held conceptions of the nature of creativity, especially in the context of culture. Second, it aims to stimulate new thinking on the cultivation of creativity, again in the context of culture. Incompatible findings and controversies are put forth, and new hypotheses are proposed to accommodate opposing facts and beliefs. Third, in the present decade of globalization, some new issues and problems happening in the East and the West are also brought forward.

Creativity is of great interest to psychologists, educators, and policy makers. The present volume is significant in reviewing and extending our current knowledge of its nature and development. In recent decades, both Eastern and Western scholars are becoming increasingly aware of the need for cross-cultural research. In such research, comparisons are inevitable, and readers will be aware of the various compatible or incompatible interpretations of the differences found. Authors in this volume have tried their best to bring together the current cross-cultural research done on creativity and the conceptual issues and controversies involved.

The structure of the volume consists of three parts. As the present volume is on creativity in the East and the West, almost all chapters touch upon the issue of culture and its influence, albeit to a different extent. Nonetheless, in the first part, the six chapters focus on the conception and influence of culture (Runco; Lubart & Georgsdottir; Rudowicz; Ng & Smith; Leung, Au & Leung; Cheng). Runco starts off with a seemingly simple but important question on the conception of culture. Echoing this, Lubart, Georgsdottir and Rudowicz bring forth the understanding and misunderstanding of the Eastern culture and cultural difference in the conception of creativity. Ng and Smith show their support, which is based solely on Confucianism. In their chapter, Leung et al. alert readers to the fact that although the majority of research evidence on creativity is unfavorable to Asians, there are similarities and opposing findings found. Moreover, Cheng points to the fact that we should take other concepts and thinking such as Taoism and Buddhism in the study of Asian, in particular Chinese culture. In her chapter, Cheng is able to introduce to readers a rich source of research and literature published in Chinese that are less known to Western scholars.

In the second part, the four chapters focus on education and development (Wu; Hennessey; Lin; Soh). Wu highlights the blockage toward creativity among Chinese students and he proposes some passages. Hennessey indicates, in her studies including Arabic children, that creativity can be enhanced when motivation and development are also considered. Both Lin and Soh show that children’s drawing can be a meaningful channel in the understanding of children’s artistic creativity and appreciation. Like Runco, Soh also alerts us not to make any hasty judgement in the comparison between apples and oranges in cross-cultural studies on creativity. In their chapter in the first part, Lubart and Georgsdottir have provided a rich source of empirical evidence and ideas on education and development related to creativity.

The last four chapters in the third part are related to creativity in practice (Tan; Adachi and Chino; Maker; Puccio and González). The focus is on introducing different approaches and models towards creativity enhancement. Tan starts off in describing the development of creativity research and education in Singapore, and she shows the construction of modules on creativity for teachers. Through different activities, Adachi and Chino demonstrate how people can come to be more creative in music making. In integrating creativity and intelligence, Maker introduces a problem-solving enhancement model, which has been practiced in different Asian countries. Puccio and González focus on enhancing creative problem solving, and their model has also been tried out in Asia. Through their on-site practice, both Maker and Puccio become more aware of the eagerness and propensity in creativity development among Asian children and educators.

3.The Meeting of East and West: When and How?

In this volume, readers are introduced to creativity research done in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the United States, and other Eastern and Western countries. Authors of this volume are in the forefront on creativity research, especially of the cross-cultural nature. In their chapters, their insights can be noted in the way they present theoretical concepts and research findings, identify controversies, and pinpoint overlooked and misunderstood areas.

In reading through this volume, readers may be aware of some shortcomings or dilemmas. First of all, it is impossible to cover all areas of research related to the conceptualization, development, and education of creativity in the East and West.

Second, either East or West is too broad a term. We need therefore to delimit them to just being generic in nature. In most chapters, East refers to Asian countries mainly of Chinese in origin, and West refers mainly to the United States. This is due to the fact that most published cross-cultural works in the West involve these two groups of people. Nonetheless, authors in this volume have tried their best to include other populations.

Third, readers may either agree or disagree with the contributors’ interpretations of various cross-cultural differences on creativity. Authors may also challenge the explanations of results found in the studies done by different researchers. The precise intention of this volume is to bring up controversies for discussion and future research.

As on the meeting of East and West on creativity, it seems evident that the time is not right yet. There are at least two reasons. First, the theorization of creativity in the East is too lopsidedly dependent on Western concepts and theories (Lau, 2003). As mentioned before, even if attempting to include Eastern concept, the reliance on traditional ideological framework (such as Confucianism), Western prescribed landmark (such as individualism-collectivism) as well as the self-imposition of such thinking tend to hinder any breakthrough in theory building by scholars in the East. Nonetheless, conceptually, we have seen some scholars in the East findi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Preface
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Chapter 1. Creativity: A Meeting Between the East and the West
• Chapter 2. Personal Creativity and Culture
• Chapter 3. Creativity: Developmental and Cross-Cultural Issues
• Chapter 4. Creativity among Chinese People: Beyond Western Perspective
• Chapter 5. Why is there a Paradox in Promoting Creativity in the Asian Classroom?
• Chapter 6. Creativity and Innovation: East-West Comparisons with an Emphasis on Chinese Societies
• Chapter 7. Progress from Traditional to Creativity Education in Chinese Societies
• Chapter 8. Recognizing and Nurturing Creativity in Chinese Students
• Chapter 9. The Social Psychology of Creativity: The Beginnings of a Multicultural Perspective
• Chapter 10. Beauty is in the Eye of the Creator — A Psychological and Cross-Cultural Account of Children’s Understanding of Pictorial Art
• Chapter 11. Blue Apples and Purple Oranges: When Children Paint Like Picasso
• Chapter 12. Singapore’s Creativity Education: A Framework of Fostering Constructive Creativity
• Chapter 13. Inspiring Creativity Through Music
• Chapter 14. Creativity and Multiple Intelligences: The DISCOVER Project and Research
• Chapter 15. Nurturing Creative Thinking: Western Approaches and Eastern Issues
• Index