What do fellow Asians think of "knowing what's best for someone else" or "collective decision-making"?

"collective decision-making" is a term I made up. I'll explain later.

As a self-identified twinkie or banana, I haven't spent that much time with Asian people outside of family. With them I haven't even been in touch with in a long time so right now I lack much perspective about what constitutes Asian culture-ish ways of thinking, that is, outside of what I read through the internets.

Without getting specific, I'm curious about this because I want to know, when I meet other Asian people, to what extent are certain differences I notice cultural?

Which is why I'm asking you all: In your opinion, is "knowing what's good for someone else" more common in Asian culture than in white Western culture?

How do you personally feel about when someone else, whether a parent, friend, or other person, acts like they know what's best for you better than you know yourself?

Me personally, I hate it when people do that, and I always have ever since I was a little kid.

The part of "collective decision-making" is an idea I'm playing with but need to think about more.

If it is more common in Asian culture than white Western culture to "know what's best for other people," is this related to Asian culture being more collectivist (if that's the right word) and white Western culture being more individualistic?

In that case, if anyone is like me and is interested in deconstructing white cultural supremacy and criticizing white Western culture as being the best or standard for healthy behavior - can the collectivism of Asian culture be actually better in certain ways than the individualism of white Western culture? And could that translate to matters like "knowing what's best for other people?"

Basically, I hate it when people act like they know what's best for me. Meanwhile, I wonder if there's another side to it I'm missing and if I should be more open to considering what people like that say.

Can it be true that you can sometimes know what's best for other people more than they know it themselves?

Again, my first reaction is no. But again, am I missing something?

/r/AsianParentStories Thread