East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet

¹

1. The culture of the West ( Europe and the Americas) will always be very different from that of the East ( Asia ). ( Twain means “two.”) This saying is part of the refrain of “The Ballad of East and West,” a poem by Rudyard Kipling .

East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet

²

1. A line from a poem by Rudyard Kipling . It continues, a few lines later: “But there is neither East nor West … When two strong men stand face to face.”