Being in other countries like China and France really makes me appreciate how world class the customer service is in America. Here in the US, you can tell a waiter that your not happy with a dish and they'll immediately replace it with whatever you want. You can make substitutions, you can alter the way it's cooked (within reason), etc, and they still greet you with a smile and deliver excellent service. There are many parts of the world, where you just can't do that.
I’m leaving China
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Re: I’m leaving China
#72Contrast this: "I will use strong language about the authoritarian communist government but I do not want that in anyway to reflect upon the Chinese people." With these sentences: "There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in China. People do not have innate value as people simply because they exist. This leads most directly to a lack of respect for the law/rules/norms. One thing I be…
I think it’s fine, most Chinese people complain about these things too. Nobody likes a line-jumper, in any culture. What I think is a problem is to suggest the entire Chinese populous of being money-loving but without asking how that happened. Life is tough when you have over a billion people to feed, and no government support structures to lean on in times of need. It’s dog-eat-dog because it needs to be, not becaus…
There is an aspect that if you help someone who is hurt, you are acknowledging responsibility for the trouble that caused it even if you had nothing to do with it (e.g. guilty of murder if you happen to find the body). Chinese police can be very lazy like that, but I think the first incidence of this happened in Taiwan in the 90s.
Re: I’m leaving China
#73Can anyone comment on the risks of posting such an essay while still living in China? Is this considered safely within the lines, a calculated risk, or something else? (Or has he already left China before posting the essay?)
Your question is if something will happen to him? Well, it apparently already did. That was it. He got forced out of his job, probably lost his social standing and is now leaving the country. After spending nine(?) years in China he is, in the eyes of the Chinese, trash talking China and glorifying the US to get back with his countrymen. It is all pretty much in line with how Chinese nationalist rhetoric says that "arrogant foreigners" behave. So it isn't really something that challenges China's narrative.
Re: I’m leaving China
#74> A common one is when someone is run over by a car and pedestrians just step over the body until a family member finds the body. The video goes viral, prompts a week of hand wringing, and then censors step in to talk about Confucianism and how the economy is growing. There is no innate value given to human life as precious.
And yet there is outrage in Chinese social media when that happens. So "not all Chinese"?
I think that's certainly the case, China is a country of vast differences between people. To the extent China has seen arguably the fastest dash of economic development in history, imagine what the corresponding, linked cultural & educational development has looked like.
In the span of several decades, half a billion people shifted from an almost zero traditional education environment in rural, very poor third-world style villages - to rapidly developing, modern, economically considerable, urban, very high density environments with intense competition and far higher education attainment.
Then imagine how wild that must be as all of these different forces and cultures collide and meld in real time, and it's essentially a population group the size of the EU trying to make an epic adaptation leap in 20-30 years. I expect it produces at times a large gap between people in regards to their personal evolution.
Re: I’m leaving China
#75The observations about the Chinese people here are racist, inaccurate, and quite frankly plainly incorrect as a whole. Just the observations about what he thinks Chinese people's values are, when compared to actual Confucianism, are pretty inflammatory and ridiculous. I think the flagging of the comment exemplifies how fearful people are of admitting to being a party to prejudice.
Explain which observations you think are racist, inaccurate, incorrect, inflammatory, and ridiculous. Don't just assert it and expect others to read your mind.
Literally every single section that talks about the citizens that isn't about politics. It's a giant hit job against the Chinese people by someone who is clearly resentful of them. The only thing he says that's nice about them is a platitude.
Re: I’m leaving China
#76Regarding the line-cutting/cheating he talks about. I like to distinguish between "culture" and something vaguer, which is what type of equilibrium someone is trapped in. I started to think this way when I lived in Argentina. Argentina is very corrupt, but just across the river is Uruguay...the least corrupt country in Latin America by some metrics. Argentines and Uruguayos are culturally quite similar (the relations…
I believe it's much more about tribalism. There's a lack of civic bond between strangers because the idea of nationhood sits above individuals. That's why you see people completely ignoring the existence of others, while being overprotective of their own kins.
Re: I’m leaving China
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd imagine he's referring to the little ways in which our government and laws seem to end up going against the interests of the average consumer. Lobbyists orchestrating Congress to act against the interests of their constituents, etc. Or issues like the chairman of the FCC undoing net neutrality, when nearly every citizen is in favor of keeping it, etc. Increasingly it seems to be "of the will of the corporations",…
FCC and other federal bureaucracy are by-product of Will of People .. centralize the power .. Federal government any way! To blame libertarians for FCC is like blaming John McCain for Vietnam war.
The follow up would be that the will of the people has been coopted by corporations and the 1%. They use their wealth to control the funding of politicians and bend them to their will. "Corporations are people", brings an imbalance of power.
Re: I’m leaving China
#78Being in other countries like China and France really makes me appreciate how world class the customer service is in America. Here in the US, you can tell a waiter that your not happy with a dish and they'll immediately replace it with whatever you want. You can make substitutions, you can alter the way it's cooked (within reason), etc, and they still greet you with a smile and deliver excellent service. There are ma…
American wait staff have to rely on tips rather than a living wage, which forces them to take unending amounts of crap, or else they can't pay the rent. American consumers can and do verbally (and sometimes physically) abuse wait staff, and if the staff don't sit there and take it with a smile, they get fired. I don't find this an endearing trait.
Re: I’m leaving China
#79I really like this piece. So many good paragraphs. Especially the end, and specifically: > The United States has repeatedly failed and continues to fall short of its ideals but has shown a greater sense of self correction than almost any other. In China you cannot talk about most of history, while in the United States there are constant reminders about failures and how to apply those lessons.
I don't think I can agree with it. We completely ignore our biggest mistakes and failures, for example it's still not acceptable to admit that the Iraq war was a total disaster and our biggest foreign policy mistake in decades.
Re: I’m leaving China
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
And yet there is outrage in Chinese social media when that happens. So "not all Chinese"?
I think that's certainly the case, China is a country of vast differences between people. To the extent China has seen arguably the fastest dash of economic development in history, imagine what the corresponding, linked cultural & educational development has looked like. In the span of several decades, half a billion people shifted from an almost zero traditional education environment in rural, very poor third-world…
This isn’t true: at various periods during world history, China has been one of the richest and educated countries in the world. The potential of its people was already there and all that was needed was a peaceful environment with an enabling government.