Historical patterns of rice farming explain modern-day language use in China and Japan more than modernization and urbanization

TL;DR

This study shows that historical rice farming practices have a stronger influence on modern language use and social behaviors in China and Japan than economic development or urbanization, highlighting the lasting cultural impact of agricultural history.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that the legacy of rice farming explains cultural differences in language and social orientation better than modernization factors in China and Japan.

Findings

Rice explains twice as much variance as urbanization in language use.

Rice farming correlates with social ties, holistic thinking, and cautious orientation.

Results replicate across China and Japan using different social media platforms.

Abstract

We used natural language processing to analyze a billion words to study cultural differences on Weibo, one of China's largest social media platforms. We compared predictions from two common explanations about cultural differences in China (economic development and urban-rural differences) against the less-obvious legacy of rice versus wheat farming. Rice farmers had to coordinate shared irrigation networks and exchange labor to cope with higher labor requirements. In contrast, wheat relied on rainfall and required half as much labor. We test whether this legacy made southern China more interdependent. Across all word categories, rice explained twice as much variance as economic development and urbanization. Rice areas used more words reflecting tight social ties, holistic thought, and a cautious, prevention orientation. We then used Twitter data comparing prefectures in Japan, which largely replicated the results from China. This provides crucial evidence of the rice theory in a different nation, language, and platform.