China Sociocultural and Technology

China is the most populous country in the world, with its population of 1.3 billion people making up more than one-fifth of the world's total population. 20.4% of the population is under 15 years old, 71.7% is between 15 – 64 years old and 7.9% is above 65 years old based on the year 2007. The breakdown of male and female is shown in appendix 3. It is also one of the most densely populated countries, though inhabitants are unevenly distributed, with more in the east than in the west and more in rural areas than in urban areas. (Population Ethnic Groups) Mandarin Chinese is the main language spoken in China, however, there are many dialects spoken in different provinces under different descent of ethnicity. China’s religion is officially designated as Atheist by the government. However, other religious practice is acceptable but there are rigid limits. According to The World Factbook (2008), China has a high literacy rate of 90.9%. In China, most families are only able to have one child. This is due to the one child policy established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to limit China’s population growth. (Rosenberg, M 2007)

Based on Hofstede’s Dimension of Cultural Scales in appendix 4, China has scored 118 points for Long-term Orientation. This dimension indicates the society’s perspective towards overcoming obstacles with time, will and strength. (Geert Hofstede itim 2003) China has a relatively low ranking of individualism. China scored 20 points with the world average of 43. This shows that China is a high collectivist society which has strong relationship with groups that may be family, extended relationships and etc. China also has a significantly high Power Distance of 80 points with the world average of 55 only. This is indicative of a high level of inequality of power and wealth within the society. (Geert Hofstede itim 2003) In terms of masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, China has a score which is close to the world’s average of 50 and 64.