Americans are creative and Chinese people are technical

This is a generalization, but it’s something that I’ve sensed working in my lab, which is comprised of mostly international Chinese students. It’s strange because the entire Laboratory of Neuroimaging (LONI) department at USC consists mostly of international students, and most of them are from Asia. This sort of makes sense because the work that is done at the institute is highly technical and Americans today are not very good at math.

Yet, there’s this saying that the American education makes one a little more creative than the technical training that an Asian student gets. For one, here in America, there is a heavy focus on individuality and extracurricular activities, which varies from person-to-person. In China, you have one ultimate exam that determines your college fate and, in many ways, job prospects after college as well. Not the case in America. The US is a land of opportunities, and you can quite literally start over in your job at any given moment. I’m still not sure which system is the more favorable one for me…