Gender and Regional Differences in Creativity: A Comparative Study on Playfulness and Humor in Postgraduate Students Between Mainland China and Taiwan

Abstract

This article aims to study both similarities and differences in female students’ creativity between Mainland China and Taiwan. As two main aspects influencing creativity, playfulness and humor are especially focused on in this comparative study. Empirical data were collected from 831 students in Mainland China and 703 students in Taiwan. Based on data analysis, we find common characteristics, gender differences, and regional differences in the creativity of female postgraduate students. The female students in both regions are less confident in their abilities in scientific research and innovative behavior than males. The female students in Mainland China are less confident in playfulness, humor, and creative life experience than their counterparts. The female students in Taiwan are more masculine than their counterparts in Mainland China.

Acknowledgment

This study has been partially supported by Jingmei Zeng and JingJyi Wu at the Taiwan National Chengchi University. Special thanks to Professor JingJyi Wu, who generously let us use his scale.

Notes

¹ The original definition of “cognition for past set-up information” by scholars of Taiwan is that according to the question’s setting, the understanding of a sentence containing double meanings, and the mastery of humor are mainly testified. Owing to the different expressive manners for the different linguistic habits between the two areas, it has been revised as “embedded information sensitivity” in Mainland China.

² The original definition of tackling difficulties by scholars of Taiwan has been revised here for the different linguistic habits.