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The ranking of 'I don't know my blood type' (30 countries included) done by Seikaibantsuke
No.1 Holland
No.2 Sweden
No.3 the UK
No.28 Japan
The last: Iran/Korea
P.s. It's a taboo to talk the personality based on blood type in Europe. |
Blood type and constellation, especially zodiacal signs, are common topic between friends (sometimes even between strangers) in eastern Asian countries including China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. To be more precisely, blood type is more popular in Japan and Korea while zodiacal signs in China and Taiwan. A conversation could happen like this:
'A: He/She is a perfectionist. '
'B: Yeah... a Virgo obviously.'
or
'I don't know why a Taurus person can be that stingy...'.
Also, I often be asked the blood type by my Japanese friends to catogorise my characteristic and personality. In most of the time, I don't dislike these topics, just take them as a seasoning in the conversation. This idea hasn't been changed until this year.
Seikaibantsuke is a Japanese TV programme which includes about 20 guests from foreign countries and some Japanese local celebrities and idols. And then ranking of different topics would be showed on the TV based on the survey. After that, exotic cultures would be shared and discussed with video. Once a ranking of 'percentage of I don't know my blood type' as showed in the figure appeared and that was my first time to hear about the opinion of blood type from European people.
'What does my blood type to do with my personality?' said a Swiss girl. Others gave the similar opinion like 'Are you meaning that something is in my blood?' Well, it could be easily considered as cultural difference but I would like to think twice before simply going to this conclusion.
Firstly, a easier reason might be that individual>>group in Europe and group>>individual in Asia. Therefore Asian people like to classify people by blood type or constellation as we are in the same group sharing similar characteristics. European people vice versa. From this perspective, whether blood type and constellation are popular or not is cultural difference.
Secondly, it might relate to the European history. After World War II, European countries tend to deal with race problem very carefully. Apparently the blood is a deriving part of racism. So in modern Europe it is a taboo as concluded by Sekaibantsuke.
I am not sure if my hypothesis is correct since I've never talked to European people about this. But I am eager to hear about other perspectives.