Here's a common Chinese idiomic expression for you to ponder:

独乐乐不如众乐乐 Du Le Le Bu Ru Zhong Le Le

I long had difficulties translating this. On Baidu.com, I found several translations:

Entertain everyone rather than yourself.
Alone joyfully was inferior to everybody is joyful.
Enjoying alone is no better than enjoying together.

If you have not learned Chinese, such expressions may sound senseless. However, the difficulties of conveying its meaning to many Americans aroused my suspicion of an important cultural difference; a difference between the U.S. and Chinese culture - the Self versus the Collective Object.

Popular saying/idioms/folk-lores, such as Du Le Le Bu Ru Zhong Le Le, are important to every society. These discourses pass down knowledge and cultural meanings. More importantly, they reorientate psychology of thoughts, to the extent of influencing the predicaments of individuals; predicaments influence subsequent formation of motives, goals, and decisions. Du Le Le Bu Ru Zhong Le Le reorientates the attention of Chinese learners towards collective wellbeing. "Making every happy" became the focal point in speaking and then thoughts.

On the other hand, the Self has an important place in many western societies. The notion and importance of Self is a fundamental building block of its economic system, copyright laws, and ownership of properties. Seeing things in the notion of self, it may it hard for the first person to comprehend why does he need to share their properties or make others happy.

If there is anything that set China apart from the U.S., I think it has to be something fundamental like Du Le Le Bu Ru Zhong Le Le. Apart of such things that can possible emerge in common day to day encounters, it is hard to comprehend how culture get passed down and spread out. We can similarly find something unique to the U.S., for example, the "American Dream." These signs reinforce the way actors within each culture think.

Lastly, I wanted to share my amusement at comparing U.S. and Chinese films. If you pay attention, U.S. films commonly have an individual (a self), mostly an unknown and average person on the surface, but rise up to some tyrants (mostly some sort of government or corporation)l at some point, the individual achieved something great while many died (others are dispensable) and became somebody (reinforcement of self image). In Chinese films, there is also a self--an idyllic person, who despite having some talents, do not enjoy utilizing them. He wanted to be nobody, attracts no attention, so as to enjoy every moment of his life. His family, particularly his father, is annoyed by his idleness. After some family calamity (for instance his father being killed), he rose up to his family's name to avenge the killer. He finally became an important and authoritative figure in his family (became a symbol of the collective object).

Whether one would act because there is a tyrant that threatens the integrity of the self, or because of one's responsibility for a collective goal, has to be something influenced by culture.