What Social Distancing Tells Us About Culture

You can tell a lot about a culture from its social distancing. A government tells the same message — to stay far apart from each other — but in different ways.

What people do or don’t do to follow these orders reveals attitudes toward authority, personal freedom and how we respect each other.

Japan

Take, Japan, for instance, a culture that values group harmony. For most of the pandemic, there was no official government order to stay-at-home yet many businesses voluntarily have closed and many Japanese voluntarily stay indoors.

If Japanese police officers see a group of people gathering in public, they will approach you and tell you to go home in front of your friends. Shaming you in public is quite effective in Japan.

To help Japanese social distance, the government uses an animated character to appeal to the Japanese love for animation.

A small yellow fairy named Quaran, has been used as a quarantine mascot. Quaran protects the Japanese people from harm. It wears goggles, a shield, has wings and flies around telling people to stay apart.

Think again if you think Quaran is just to remind kids. No, it's for adults as well. A person dressed up as Quaran travels across the country to keep an eye on merchandise coming into its ports and airports.

"With these goggles, I will detect infection and imported food that violates Japan's regulations," Quaran says.

China

The Chinese government message for social distancing is "zero contact." So this has driven more Chinese in love with shopping to buy more online.

Even before Covid, e-commerce was very popular in China, at least compared to the U.S. (China, 36.6% versus 16 for e-commerce transactions) but with the Covid restrictions, the delivery of your packages goes something like this:

A delivery man parks a cage full of packages in front of an apartment complex. Then the delivery person calls you, the customer, from the street to notify you that he has left your package on the roadside in front of your building, along with various packages belonging to neighbors.

After the call, you are to come down to fetch your package. The cage where the packages are kept stays unlocked but the packages aren't stolen. My guess is that this system wouldn't work in the States because the packages would disappear! China has taken advantage of its low crime rate.

South Korea

In Seoul, South Korea, the Internet cafes, nightclubs and Karaoke rooms have been closed in the wake of a new outbreak.

But before the recent crackdown, the government has taken the Korean love for technology and used it to keep track of people for its social distancing. Visitors to the bars, clubs, gyms and entertainment venues must get a one-time QR code via a smartphone app and submit it to the venue.

The venue manager then scans the QR code and puts it into a digital customer registry to be used to identify who was there and pinpoint the origin of the outbreak.

Besides bars and clubs, the government is encouraging other facilities to adopt the QR code logs, including private educational institutes to help protect students.

The US

The U.S. uses its rule-oriented society to deal with social distancing. So many signs are taped onto the front door of shops—stating the regulations by the county, state, and the federal government— that stores looks closed even when they’re open!

Even with signs announcing in big letters that the store is open, you might actually find the store closed due to shortened hours or certain days.

Let's not forget about the sign requiring a mask to enter the store. A security guard or store employee person stands at the door to make sure you are wearing a mask.

The chances of getting a fine in the U.S. for not wearing a mask is low. Not all states require a mask. From my latest research, I found 30 of the 50 US states require a person wear a mask to enter a public place.

If a person takes a mask off in the store, they will be politely told to put it on and that's it. Or perhaps the store will give the customer a mask. Maybe they will be told to leave the store.

Ironically, in the U.S., with our space and low density, you’d think we would have an easier time to control our social distancing yet we have done such a poor job of keeping ourselves apart compared to many countries.

For example, the Asian countries. Their corona virus positives and death rates are much lower even though population density makes social distancing all the more challenging when people are living so close to one another.

Our culture is on display with social distancing orders—we can see it clearly, even if we are two meters apart.