Do cultural disparities make Americans and Chinese have different perceptions of dogs? A discussion from personal experiences.

Based on my personal experiences, I think dogs interact with human beings in a lot different ways. Importantly, the ways that dogs interact with us are not static; rather, they are constantly changing and developing. When I was a child, I learned that dogs are pets, but I also learned that dog meat could be food sources (since I was born and grew up in China). I was also raised to perceive dogs as the symbols of loyalty from some fairy tales, but conclusively at that time I had more neutral views of dogs instead of positive views. I also remembered that when I was very young, few family had dogs as pets and many people were truly afraid of dogs and saw them as food sources, so I think the perceptions of dogs in China at that time were more neutral and even a little negative rather than positive.

I got my golden retriever when I was 15 years old, and she changed my perceptions of dogs—I began to see dogs more as friends and family members. In the same year that I got my golden retriever, a deadly earthquake happened in China and I learned that dogs could perform rescue tasks. I also watched a movie called Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog (2004), from which I learned about Seeing Eye dogs. That was also a time that dogs became more popular as family pets in China, and that many people learned about rescue and guide dogs. In recent years, increasingly more families raise dog as companion animals. More and more active animal rescue groups appear in China to save abandoned pet dogs and stray dogs. Certain behaviors that were totally acceptable years ago, like eating dog meat, will be strongly denounced by the public.

See some photos of rescue dogs that saved so many lives in 2008 earthquake!

However, although the perceptions of dogs in China are shifting to the positive side during recent years, the cross-cultural differences in perceptions of dogs between China and the United States are still obvious. One notable difference is the perceptions of guide dogs in public places. While Americans with Disabilities Act protects “the right of a blind person to be accompanied by a dog guide in places that serve the public”, China has no legislation regarding the right of blind people to be accompanied by their guide dogs in public places. Another example is perceptions regarding breed discriminatory legislation. While many states in the US are preparing to outlaw breed discriminatory laws, many cities in China are banning certain breeds according to their sizes—for example, some cities banned golden retrievers and Dalmatians because they are “large”. Comparing with people in the US, Chinese people are less informed about safety issues related to dogs and knowledge about dog breeds, and are more likely to have biased perceptions toward certain “large” breeds. The last specific example I want to talk about is pet dogs in public places. While US has many dog parks and some public parks allow dogs to play in certain areas, dogs in my city are banned from entering any public parks and there is no such thing called a dog park at all. Conclusively speaking, dogs are more accepted in the US and Americans generally view dogs more positively than Chinese do.

Let’s just see how happy the dogs are when they are having dogs’ party at dogs’ park from this video:

Despite cross-cultural differences, dogs are perceived as more positively in society rather than negatively on larger grounds. They have multiple roles in society and interact with us in various ways. Dogs are family companions, heroes in law enforcement departments, great rescuers in disasters, reliable guiders for people with disabilities and so on. They are perceived as family members by many people and loyal work partners by many others. They are also stars in many TV shows and movies. However, there are also some negative perceptions and uses of dogs. Such perceptions and uses include food resources, dog fighting, breed discriminations, certain “sport” and “entertainment” activities that may hurt their physical/psychological health and so on.

Just see how many roles dogs are playing in society from those pictures--pets, movie stars, service animals...so many!

Sources used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_dog

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400761/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_dog

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http://www.nagdu.org/laws/usa/usa.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/07/breed-specific-legislation_n_4738583.html

http://www.nycgovparks.org/facilities/dogareas

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