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The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

americanaffairsjournal.org

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Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#171

Post by omginternets »

garmaine wrote: post #71
egor598 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't say his parents were poor or blue-collar workers, he compares himself to a child of aristocrat. Context is everything. > He was a child of aristocrats; I am the child of modest workers. When a one-digit millionaire compares himself to a billionaire like Bill Gates, using "modest" to describe one's wealth would be appropriate in this context.

Child of “modest workers” in a communist country can have different meaning. Maybe they’re party elites? We don’t know. Something just doesn’t add up though.

He's using the word "modest" to mean "not particularly prestigious" as opposed to "poor".

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#172

Post by throwaway71324 »

It's rather poetic that the author who was marinated in the cold-hard "we know best" culture of Communism, then in its self-congratulatory more stochastic variant of occidental capitalism, to come back to what was once the core wisdom of the orient, yet not appreciate it.

Pity that while the Europeans destroyed the traditions of much of Asia's (incl., sadly, much of India's), that the Chinese themselves destroyed a large part of their own heritage.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#173

Post by Paradigma11 »

pessimizer wrote: post #81
ordu wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If his emotions are buried so deep, that there no way to see real world consequences of them, than maybe it is better to say, that there are no emotions? I think, that mottos in Western culture are just pathetic ones. Western culture knows nothing about how to raise steady emotions in people. I was born in USSR, and I saw how it should be done. But there is one consequence: with experience comes tolerance to external…

I've never heard a good case that emotions exist. I'm a believer that we have both a sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system that are activated reflexively by the same types of stimulation that activate them in other animals; and as humans who deal with abstractions as physical metaphors, those abstractions stimulate our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems by activating the same ancient reflexes. A…

Are you arguing against dualism? What kind of existence could emotions have that is not "rooted" in the material biological world? Emotions are a useful concept that helps explain and predict human behaviour and makes human interactions more predictable/rational. If a person is sad at t0 i know that his answer to go to a party at t0+1 will be lower than if his emotional state was happy at t0. That you can describe emotions by biological processes is inconsequential. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Concept_of_Mind

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#174

Post by seanmcdirmid »

thrway123324 wrote: post #163
walshemj wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be a British acronym FILTH Failed in London, Try Hong Kong :-)

I am using a throwaway for obvious reasons. But having been to both HK and Shanghai, I can say there is a world of difference between Westerners in both cities. The ones in HK working in finance at least have a college degree. They know how to behave in a proper surrounding. The ones I met in Shanghai are almost all trailer trash that have nowhere else to go. The filth coming out their mouths is astounding. You can s…

Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs like myself, some just had master degrees. But then I was working in a research lab. I heard of the English teachers but never met them before.

The thing about foreigners in mainland China vs. Hong Kong, there just aren’t that many at all. Maybe shanghai has the most, but even then it is less than 100k, a drop in the bucket compared to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, or even Bangkok.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#175

Post by yostrovs »

alexasmyths wrote: post #155
zxcmx wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if you really want to maximise your odds of becoming a doctor, the best thing you can do for yourself is choose your parents wisely. Don't choose to be born in a slum in a third world country, or a trailer park, thats gonna hurt your chances. Make sure you don't pick a family that will abuse you as you grow up. Try to make sure you at least get average genetics for general intelligence and memory (50% of people…

" the best thing you can do for yourself is choose your parents wisely." Maybe. I'd rather have a good worth ethnic than 'rich parents' on the road to becoming a doctor anywhere in the Western world. There are innumerable lazy rich kids and they won't be getting into med school.

Amazing how downvotes correlate with the political opinion of the people here. And then you see comments like "I haven't even seen anti net neutrality arguments at all.. Why would the FCC do that?" You choose to close your eyes, you get a seemingly dark world.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#176

Post by thrway12332412 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #174
thrway123324 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am using a throwaway for obvious reasons. But having been to both HK and Shanghai, I can say there is a world of difference between Westerners in both cities. The ones in HK working in finance at least have a college degree. They know how to behave in a proper surrounding. The ones I met in Shanghai are almost all trailer trash that have nowhere else to go. The filth coming out their mouths is astounding. You can s…

Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs like myself, some just had master degrees. But then I was working in a research lab. I heard of the English teachers but never met them before. The thing about foreigners in mainland China vs. Hong Kong, there just aren’t that many at all. Maybe shanghai has the most, but even then it is less than 100k, a drop in the bucket compared to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, or…

"Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs". Speaking of research, you are illustrating self-selection bias and small sample size fallacy in your argument. A small group of friends do not represent the whole. You shoudn't downvote people just because their opinion differs from yours.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#177

Post by user5994461 »

sAvi0r wrote: post #106
hollerith wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also relevant is that fact that the article contains that statement, "I am the child of modest workers".

I think the upper class/elite in China are pretty isolated from the rest of the people, and really don't realize how bad a lot of their countrymen have it. A good friend of mine is from Chengdu and for most of his life he thought he was just average - a guy whose parents sent him to the US for high school, pay ~30,000CAD/semester in tuition, bought him an X3 for his first car, etc.

Not to mention that china probably has internal differences than any other places.

The biggest expensive cities are in league with NYC/SF/London, but there is still a large countryside that is "modest" and vast unpopulated area with noone or villages that are decades behind.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#178

Post by user5994461 »

pcr0 wrote: post #156
walshemj wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be a British acronym FILTH Failed in London, Try Hong Kong :-)

Heard this a lot in investment banking. Definitely "used to be" as these days you're unlikely to make it in Hong Kong either.

The friends I know who tried to get into either say it's as hard to join HK as London. They are both super competitive.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#179

Post by [deleted] »

alexasmyths wrote: post #134
DamonHD wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does NOT require any sort of religious will, and I posit that religion will be a steadily larger impediment to further progress if it does not fade. We have better and more nuanced ways of making the universe more just these days.

" that religion will be a steadily larger impediment to further progress if it does not fade" Religion, which is the application of Spirituality (however crude) was essential to the development of morality in humanity, and hence civilization. Much of it has been codified and secularized, but the underlying metaphysical value remains the same and nothing has replaced it. Scientific Materialists, who can't even seem to…

[deleted]

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#180

Post by ewjordan »

smallnamespace wrote: post #138
alexasmyths wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People wind up where they are largely through circumstance, not intention. " There may be a lot of randomness on the way to becoming, or almost becoming a doctor, but you don't get to be a doctor by randomness. See what I mean? You get to be a doctor only with quite a very long term intent and perseverance, by stacking the odds, and rolling the dice a lot. Though I get what you are saying - I also don't think that m…

> You get to be a doctor only with quite a very long term intent and perseverance, by stacking the odds, and rolling the dice a lot. So what do you think is the value of P(becoming doctor | intent and perseverance)? If it's only 50%, then I'd argue that whether someone succeeds in becoming a doctor or not is indeed quite random. And maybe more relevant, but what are the factors that cause someone to have strong willp…

At some level most traits relevant to success are at least somewhat genetically influenced (intelligence, however measured, is estimated to be over 50% heritable). I'm sure willpower and perseverance are similar, and in that sense being hard working is kinda a roll of the dice, sure.

But if we go that far, then almost everything about you is just random chance. Congratulations, we've realized that we're not special, but products of evolution, and some of us are more fit than others in certain environments. What practical difference should that make?

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