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An update on YC China

blog.ycombinator.com

391–400 of 403 posts

Re: An update on YC China

#391
post #203

Strange optics not to mention the elephant in the room. I could see them hitting some roadblocks and wanting to try again to get into China, but that would be a reasonable thing to come out and say. It also would be reasonable to come out and say they've changed their minds due to political climate or some other risks. Instead its... the new guy is busy?

I had to dig up one of my old comments about YC China, because I specifically recall this one. I think the issue isn't one elephant in the room, it is elephants. My comment from August 15, 2018: "I would like to see a statement that YC China will not discriminate based on ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation and more importantly will not support startups which create technology which make doing so easie…

Agreed. Not insuring basic human rights is a non starter.

Re: An update on YC China

#392
post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a company famous for the CCP removing their CEO (Ali) [citation needed] > the company being an arm of military intelligence (Huawei) [citation needed]

Google and a mind not already up is all you need, good luck.

Not already made up*

Re: An update on YC China

#393
post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understood the first time but am I being singled out here? I see lots of comments spewing unsubstantiated nationalistic hate and I don't see them getting flagged/banned. Those comments are getting left up and leaving the argument totally unbalanced. At least when I comment I make an attempt to link to (legit mainstream) sources and explain in a rational way.

I know it inevitably feels like bias to get moderated like that, but we are careful not to single users out because of their views, and indeed there's a child comment to yours which expressed an opposite view in an unacceptable way, and we moderated it. If you see a glaring case where the rules weren't enforced, the likeliest explanation is that we didn't see it. We don't come close to seeing everything that gets pos…

Understood. Appreciate your response.

Re: An update on YC China

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that this kind of equality is going to be a thing in China is putting the cart about 200 miles ahead of the horse.

China, as most other communist countries, implemented gender workplace equality much earlier than the West. Furthermore, China has probably the most aggressive affirmative action programs in the world. Yes, China is bad on human rights in some aspects, but these blatant misrepresentations need to stop. They only serve the massive propaganda campaign the US started in recent years.

> gender workplace equality

The workplace isn't the only area where someone can leverage technology to discriminate against a characteristic...

Re: An update on YC China

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are strong, and unlikely assertions. Do you have any sources for your claims?

Native Chinese here. Some Minorities get automatic extra points and special admission category at college entrance examination. You don’t know how big a deal it is to normal Chineses

[deleted]

Re: An update on YC China

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is possible. Just extremely hard. And I will love to write a book about it after I have gone through a good amount of papers on cultural theories and had a good amount of interaction with Chinese of all walks of life so to have a better grasp of "the Chinese way" and somehow utilise the very knowledge of it in my new start-up to make Vsauce-inspired Chinese videos on liberal arts, philosophy, science and tech for…

This does not do much to clarify. Which person in Chinese history has had the most influence on your perspective of the "Chinese way"?

That is an interesting question, unfortunately I would say probably no one. "The Chinese way" that I'm talking about here is a contemporary phenomenon that has enabled the Chinese economy to thrive in the last 30 years, which is what makes it more interesting economically speaking than, say, "the Russian way". Basically it is about how the 1.3-billion-people system works and evolves to be more efficient over the years, macro-economically as much as micro-economically. And this is where culture theories come in. Ultimately, it is cultures that govern how people act and think in groups. Cultures towards interpersonal relationships, work-life balance, technology, infrastructure, human right, cynicism, dignity or 面子, how to navigate in grey area, irony and sarcasm, criticism, hierarchy, what roles authority play, how to game the system, etc. Of course, there are also the social-political aspects that arise from it, etc.

Recently I stumbled upon a Zhihu post (Zhihu is basically Quora in China) discussing about Vox: "What do you think about the Youtube channel Vox" (https://www.zhihu.com/question/314185948) filled with opinions accusing Vox of slandering (抹黑)China in a malevolent (恶意)manner. And the accusations regarding the biasness of Vox were in no way unbiased themselves, commingled with comments on how bad the content quality of all Vox's videos are. If you think this is just pure propaganda or some sort of communist bot commentary then you are taking the simpler path out of this, and people in China would probably find it to be disrespectful. These Chinese comments reflect the general view of people in China who are exposed to Western media that would otherwise be censored without the use of VPN. These people support the government by their hearts and they believe in the government and the surrounding ideologies. There is a somewhat modernist honesty in it. This is why people actually get agitated when the government is being criticised in ways they condemn as "pure slandering". You may be tempted to call out bigotry and label these people as having been brainwashed but from their point of view the same label and description can be applied to people in the West. And epistemologically what is brainwash but just another Freudian invention from the time of bigotry? And what is bigotry really but closed-mindedness? My point is that this is a very complex social-political situation of the 21st century. And some aspects of it certainly have direct impact on consumer behaviours - we have seen that with the boycotting of Dolce & Gabbana. And some aspects of it influence business processes too, and what it means to be professional, and how politics plays or not plays out in a working environment, etc. There are just a lot more to it than what you see on the surface. I have denoted the central mechanism to be cultural but in many ways it is behavioural and psychological as much as linguistic and philosophical. And out of all these the most fascinating is that - let it be a bubble or not - the Chinese economy has been doing extremely well over the past few decades with crazy growth rate and my prediction is that they would continue to do well in the next many decades or so until some sort of a Nash equilibrium is reached. Not only would "the Chinese way" continue to work, it would be more and more relevant in the future, especially to people in the West that will increasingly be affected by it as the world gets ever more interconnected.

By understanding more about "the Chinese way", and by having a better appreciation for it, people in both the East and the West would have a much more accurate view of how not just China but the world works. As much as "the Chinese way" is about China it is also about pragmatism and a deviation from Western ideologies.

Re: An update on YC China

#397
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the pointer! Here is the link of the article coverage: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KdfV4hF4qz8Ti1XL0i_S3A (it's in Chinese though) I'm based in Guangzhou at the moment.

Thanks. I can read a little Chinese. Unfortunately, I don't know much about GZ. However, I think in SZ the entrepreneur community is slightly more developed

I see. Yeah SZ definitely a more vibrant city. But am stuck in GZ for a while. It's alright. Will figure out something. I'm connecting with people in the contemporary art scene here. They are pretty nice.

Re: An update on YC China

#398
post #290
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The chinese way is also about selfishness and growth at all human cost.

Please don't cross into nationalistic or ethnic slurs. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Please apply your own "rules" to your own damn self. Also see the phrase "ideological and nationalistic battle" you love to hide just about everything behind.

Re: An update on YC China

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not do much to clarify. Which person in Chinese history has had the most influence on your perspective of the "Chinese way"?

That is an interesting question, unfortunately I would say probably no one. "The Chinese way" that I'm talking about here is a contemporary phenomenon that has enabled the Chinese economy to thrive in the last 30 years, which is what makes it more interesting economically speaking than, say, "the Russian way". Basically it is about how the 1.3-billion-people system works and evolves to be more efficient over the year…

It just came to me that there was indeed someone in contemporary history that had the most influence on my perspective of "the Chinese way". That would definitely have to be Lee Kuan Yew. Not exactly a Chinese in terms of nationality, but he sure knew profoundly lots about "the Chinese way" in contemporary China. I highly recommend his book One Man's View of the World where there is a chapter if not a couple of them on China.

Re: An update on YC China

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not do much to clarify. Which person in Chinese history has had the most influence on your perspective of the "Chinese way"?

That is an interesting question, unfortunately I would say probably no one. "The Chinese way" that I'm talking about here is a contemporary phenomenon that has enabled the Chinese economy to thrive in the last 30 years, which is what makes it more interesting economically speaking than, say, "the Russian way". Basically it is about how the 1.3-billion-people system works and evolves to be more efficient over the year…

>a contemporary phenomenon that has enabled the Chinese economy to thrive in the last 30 years, which is what makes it more interesting economically speaking than, say, "the Russian way".

You mean the Russia where per-capita GDP (both nominal and adjusted for purchasing power) is higher than China's?

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