In Asia, family is much more important than in Europe.
In many families, it is tradition that parents choose who their children marry. Even though families are very large in Asia, they often live together in very little space.
When the sons get married, their wives move in with their husband's family, who also takes part in raising the children that are born.
The individual means less than the family
Even though it is part of Asian culture that a single individual are less important than the family, there is a growing tendency in many areas that young people wish to live a more independent life. In the larger cities many couples try to get their own apartments when they get married. Some of them may have even met each other through a lonely-hearts ad.
Maybe the difference between how people live in Asia and how people live in Europe is not that big afterall. Most of us grow up with our parents; then as grown-ups we meet a partner and get married – and all of us need food and a place to stay.
Written and unwritten rules
And then again, it is of course not as simple as that. In Asia as well as in Europe, there are a lot of written as well as unwritten rules which have a great impact on how society works. In Denmark, society is founded on the Constitution as well as on a lot of other laws, unwritten rules and norms. In large parts of Asia, it is often basic cultural and religious codes of conduct that decide how life is lived in practice.
You can read about some of these rules on the following page. One of the rules has to do with the fact that in some places, boys are perceived to be more important than girls.
