Aspie-friendlier cultures and what it could mean ...

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I presume these boards are West-dominated. I'd like to know if anyone else has experienced other cultures that may be more friendly to aspies than Western culture. I am thinking certain Asian cultures, but my experience is only as a Westerner looking from the outside. Are there other places that are perhaps better?

Having lived in China for 1.5 years, I got the feeling that certain of my aspie/autistic quirks fit better into the local culture than they did into Western (U.S.) culture. This is because it's not uncommon for "good" students to not have a traditional social life like we have here in the West. Shyness is more socially acceptable. They have more friends than most of us do, but the nature of Chinese culture is that you are forced more into close proximity with people and it's not quite a "free market" system socially like it is in the West -- where it's easier to get left behind. It's hard to describe ... being annoying will definitely isolate you. Being shy and aspie-type weird? Maybe not.

This seems almost counterintuitive because they are much less direct than Westerners (lots more unspoken communication) and, of course, everyone's heard of guanxi. And talk about cut-throat workplaces & backstabbing power plays. Yet somehow it seemed different; their indirect communication even seemed a little less mystifying once I learned a little of it.

If this is the case, could emigrating be a partial solution? There are a lot of reasons why U.S. culture seems uniquely unsuited to aspies. It's very appearance and celebrity driven, very aggressive and in-your-face, and also our style of social life seems to uniquely discriminate against aspies. Or, as an aspie, am I just totally misperceiving everything about human relations (quite possible)?

i agree, i lived in japan for ten years..and it is very much an aspie country. if you follow the rules you are pretty much accepted...its viewed as normal to eat by oneself...everyone agrees on the same music and pop culture...everyone at work gets invited to social events..and many little details like that are simpler to understand. In america you have to sell your personality or you will be just left out completely.

On the other hand, part of it could be just not catching the social signals in a foreign culture, whereas in american I can pickup right away if

Basically, maybe Japanese culture is more structured and, therefore, it is more aspie friendly. America is a very capitalist country that grew out of the frontier, so there isn't as much structure in our culture. A famous Nazi general once described the U.S. Army: "Americans are good at war because war is chaos and they practice it on a daily basis." Chaos and free associations--the key aspects of American culture-- are basically aspie hell. I think we'd do much better under some form of structured collectivism. I am not sure about European socialism since I've never been there.

It's also very easy for a foreign man who is decently good looking to date/get married in Japan or China (probably Japan more so). For some reason, I had a lot more success getting girls in my Chinese town than even many NT Western men. (I naively thought my condition had somehow become magically cured till I moved back here and found it worse for about a year).

So the question is for those who have jobs and careers -- is relocation a common thing for aspies who are more on the high functioning side (can live independently, learn language, learn a modicum of foreign culture, keep a job)?

great points all around

but i have to say VERMONT has great solitude and i think that is good for aspies and auties.I will say Greenland sounds like a great place to live too

If you're white, people in China will treat you better because they think you have money. There, I said it. People are also more backhanded in terms of things, like they might hate you but they would keep quiet about it. If you are single-minded during school years, it's okay, but when you are an adult the entire system changes. People also like to say good things because it's seen as bad to be open about things that aren't entirely positive.

My culture is Chinese and I've found more acceptance among the "inner city", "low income" cultures of the U.S. because they are more accepting of eccentricity and more apt to help correct / point out social mistakes. Chinese people will silently exclude you, as will middle class Americans especially if they're liberal urbane types. If you like it in Asia, go for it and check it out. Travel is a good idea if you can deal with it on a sensory level.

I'll second the observation about low-income Americans. I'm not sure how much is the same need for money that you mention in China, but the people that I've known have seemed genuine. Maybe I wasn't as class-aware or something.

The only thing that was a problem was that I had petty trouble with relatives that spilled over, and it's understandably hard for people with real problems to be sympathetic to that. (I barely was...)

Not sure they'd be perfectly nice if they were in power, but it's always worth a try.