Thread by @shrikanth_krish

China's share of World GDP (PPP) is 19% today
Up from 2% in 1980!!

Yet the influence of Chinese culture on the way we live is very marginal

There's Chinese food. But what else?

Is it fair to say China's cultural influence is v slight relative to its heft in the global economy?

India's share of World GDP in PPP terms today is close to 8%, up from 2.5% in 1980.

Way lower than China's 19%

But culturally India appears to wield a greater influence, at least relative to China

Indian food, I agree, is a somewhat behind Chinese food. In popularity

But then Indian showbiz is definitely way ahead of Chinese showbiz in terms of capturing eyeballs around the world

India is a global leader in a major sport - Cricket (perhaps the world's second biggest team sport in terms of spectator audience after Football)

China in contrast wins a lot of medals in Olympics yes

But there isn't a major team sport where China is the global HQ

Indian religions attract a great deal of the world's attention
Indology departments galore in most major universities

Does China match India here?
Mandarin is widely studied in Western universities - more so than any Indian language

But Chinese thought? Not as sure

Sure...there are confucian scholars. And there's much interest in Buddhism. But Buddhism isn't really Chinese in its origins

In contrast, certain Indian texts like Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras, have an appeal that transcends specialist audience - thanks to Yoga, and ISKCON

Do we have as much wide interest in Chinese traditional texts as there is in Indian texts? I doubt. But I may be wrong

In the arts and sciences Indian names seem better known. E.g. More Indian-origin economists have won Nobel than Chinese

Chinese martial arts have a global appeal. Greatly exceeding any form of Indian martial art or even dance form

But then Yoga trumps any art form / cultural movement from China - in terms of appeal in the West

On the whole I think India is punching above its weight

China below its weight...

Chinese immigrants tend to mingle with the culture around them far more than Indians, who remain distinct up to the 2nd / 3rd generation

Within China itself, I think the degree to which western norms are adopted is arguably greater in China, relative to India

Notwithstanding the fact that India is historically closer to the West (Indo-European culture, British Raj etc etc)

To sum things up -

China (despite the language barrier) has westernized more than India (both the Chinese in China, and the Chinese diaspora)

India seems to resist westernization more. Its cultural distinctness w.r.t. West is starker

One trivial way of highlighting the resistance to westernization is to notice the name-change frequency among immigrants

Indians insist on their Sanskritic Hindu names

A large proportion of Chinese immigrants to the West adopt a Christian name (within few years of moving)

When an average Westerner thinks of China, he recalls -

Sichuan food, Jackie Chan, Kung Fu, Communism, Buddhism (the latter two aren't exactly Chinese). What else?

W.r.t. India - the average Westerner recalls -
Bollywood, Hinduism, Cricket, Arranged marriage, Vegetarianism, Cow, Yoga, call centers, H1B coolies and more...

I think India stands out a bit more in terms of invoking distinctly Indian things in an average outsider's mind

Despite being less than half as important as China in economic terms