In review for a closing music school exam, my professor introduced a new concept: cultures outside the West are more accustomed to adding rhythms together, rather than subtracting beats from a "measure." The measure represents our tendency to think of people with different views and identities as volatile, and causes a virulent reaction to our own sense of self-identity. Whereas, adding rhythms together reflects the capacity for cultures to develop many sub-sets of identities within them, such as many ethnic groups in China having completely different dialects, but still governed by one country.