I spent much of my twenties in China, where I sometimes discussed cultural stereotypes with the locals. They told me that Chinese people were like onions: the stereotype is that they tend to be cold and reserved at first, but spend more time with them and they gradually reveal their softer side. I wasn’t a big fan of this metaphor as it’s flawed at a basic level: onions are only soft in the middle when rotten.

I completely forgot about the onion metaphor until a recent conversation about Czech culture. While deconstructing the characteristics of Czech of people, a Czech friend explained that they’re stern when you first meet them, but soft inside – like walnuts. I wasn’t a big fan of this metaphor either: the inside of a walnut is brittle not soft.

It did however, get me wondeing. Why had the Czechs and the Chinese created similar metaphors to describe their national psyche? Initially I related it to living under communism, which tends to breed a general distrust of unfamiliar people. Then I began to question whether these metaphors are in fact unique to a culture. Perhaps they’re not stereotypes but the human condition:

• We protect ourselves from unfamiliar people and reveal our true selves only to those we trust.
• This manifests in different ways; whether that be presenting a breezy, positive, or cold exterior.
• Intimacy is based on the idea of revealing our innermost selves to a select few.

As it turns out, there’s a whole food-based theory on cultural stereotypes called peaches and coconuts:

According to a Harvard Review article, a culture can be classified as either peaches or coconuts. In peach cultures like the USA or Brazil, people tend to be friendly with new acquaintances but protect their true selves behind a hard stone – only revealing themselves further when they are ready to become more intimate. In coconut cultures like Russia and Germany, the stereotype is that people are initially more wary of strangers, but become friendlier as they get to know you (relationships are built up slowly but tend to last longer).

It pleased me that someone had found a foodstuff that worked: coconuts are rock hard on the outside and soft and sweet in the middle – making this the perfect metaphor. The peach also makes sense: in America the friendliness to strangers is its own brand of protective mechanism. If everyone is open and friendly, then maybe you only know someone is letting you into their inner world when you go beyond this. Perhaps an American showing you their sad or cold side is intimacy (the peach and the coconut are the same, they just reveal themselves in reverse).

Are theories like peaches and coconuts (onions and walnuts) useful? Yes and no. We can’t stereotype a whole group of people and expect these characteristics to hold true 100% of the time. Hopefully we also realise that assigning stereotypes to large groups of people is dangerous. At the same time however, recognising cultural tendencies can promote cross-cultural understanding. For example, knowing that Czech people tend to be stern at first can encourage you to persist and get to know their soft, sweet, or brittle side – depending on which food you choose for the metaphor.