In this club, you can ask and say anything you want! All are welcome.

Are cultural stereotypes always harmful? We're supposed to say yes… right? But when we're constantly meeting, working with and communicating with people from different countries and cultures, do we inevitably use generalisations to help us navigate unfamiliar situations? Can knowing that a culture tends to communicate more directly, value hierarchy differently or have different ideas about politeness actually help us avoid misunderstandings? Can stereotypes sometimes prepare us, protect us or give us a useful starting point — and at what moment does a useful cultural shortcut become an unfair assumption about an individual? Join Tasha, a cross-cultural livestreamer who represents Chinese products to international customers, for a lively exploration of the surprisingly complicated line between cultural knowledge, generalisation, stereotype and prejudice.

We'll put stereotypes about different local and international groups under the microscope: Where did they come from? Is there ever a grain of truth behind them? Who gets to decide whether they're funny, useful or offensive? And what happens when we treat a general tendency as a rule about a particular person? Tasha brings extensive experience communicating across cultures from both sides of the equation, but this club isn't about teaching you the “correct” opinions. Bring your questions, experiences, uncertainties and disagreements, there are no stupid questions, and nobody is expected to arrive knowing the right thing to say. We'll challenge stereotypes, defend some generalisations, probably laugh at a few, and see whether understanding the shortcuts our brains naturally make can actually help us become more thoughtful and curious about the people behind them.

文化刻板印象一定都是有害的吗？我们好像应该回答“是的”……对吧？但当我们不断跟来自不同国家和文化的人见面、合作、沟通时，我们是不是不可避免地会借助一些笼统的概括来帮自己应对陌生的情境？知道某种文化倾向于更直接的沟通方式、对等级的看法不一样、或者对礼貌的理解不同，这些会不会反而能帮我们避免误会？刻板印象有没有可能在某种程度上帮我们做准备、保护我们，或者给我们一个有用的起点——那它又是在哪个时刻，从一个有用的文化捷径，变成了对一个具体个人的不公平判断？加入跨文化主播Tasha——她负责向国际客户推介中国产品——一起来一场热闹的探讨，看看文化认知、概括、刻板印象和偏见之间那条意外微妙的界线。

我们会把对国内外不同群体的刻板印象放在显微镜下：它们从哪来？背后到底有没有一点道理？谁来决定它们是搞笑、有用还是冒犯？当我们把一种普遍倾向当成一个具体个人的准则时，会发生什么？Tasha在跨文化沟通方面有丰富的双向经验，但这场俱乐部不是来教你“正确”观点的。带上你的问题、经历、困惑和不同意见吧——没有愚蠢的问题，也没人期待你一开始就知道该说什么。我们会挑战刻板印象，为一些概括辩护，可能会笑话其中一些，然后看看，理解我们大脑自然形成的这些快捷方式，能不能帮我们对背后的人变得更包容、更好奇。