Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Leaving China

persuasion.community

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 686 posts

Re: Leaving China

#131

Post by nonethewiser »

yibg wrote: post #82
xiaolingxiao wrote: post #2

Can other expats who has since left, or have decided to stay, share their experience as well?

I spent 3 years in China before Covid. Happened to be out of the country during initial lockdown and that was that. My experiences are pre Covid so things may be different now, I don’t know. Pros: - very vibrant, never bored even though when I went I didn’t know anyone really - I was paid a Silicon Valley salary so high income compared to the typical local. Can afford a very nice lifestyle - due to demographics and b…

You were paid ~150k+ USD in China, from a Chinese employer?

Re: Leaving China

#132

Post by RedCondor »

nebukhadnezzar wrote: post #126
RedCondor wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[dead]

What do you win or get out of the attempts to rewrite atrocities like they have never happened in history? What did the victims that died that week do to you? https://imgur.com/a/q8ZIS

I'm Latin American and very, very happy we have China as an alternative to America's tyrannical Monroe Doctrine.

The demonization of China feels incredibly absurd, like when someone wearing an exceedingly ugly outfit, lacking self-awareness, tries to criticize someone else's fashion.

Re: Leaving China

#133

Post by RedCondor »

meh8881 wrote: post #121
RedCondor wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[dead]

Are you citing the Chinese government as the best source on supposed Chinese government atrocities?

Absolutely.

If the accusation is "the Chinese government denies it!" the best way to demonstrate the falsehood is by citing the Chinese government not denying it.

It seems pretty straightforward.

Re: Leaving China

#134

Post by Aperocky »

hayst4ck wrote: post #116
coldtea wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meanwhile, Taiwan’s value to the Chinese diaspora can’t be understated—it’s a bastion of a mandarin-speaking democracy. A bastion of democracy which has been a right wing dictatorship from its inception until the 90s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Taiwan)

I watched a Taiwanese election in Taiwan. I observed their polling stations. A Taiwanese citizen started a conversation and educated me, an American, on democracy and elections. This Taiwanese person told me that elections are for the loser. If the loser does not believe in the validity of the election, it serves no purpose. That's why electronic voting machines are anti-thetical to the purpose of an election. Electr…

> If the loser does not believe in the validity of the election, it serves no purpose.

The idea seems correct, however, unsure how electronic voting machine comes into the picture, perhaps only in a mental sense, but people have shown that they will not believe in the validity of the election regardless of the evidence presented.

Re: Leaving China

#135

Post by scrubs »

jasonjei wrote: post #110
scrubs wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although off topic from the original post, would you entertain this question? What's Taiwan's position on integration with China? What does Taiwan want for itself? I'd like to hear more about that minus American and Chinese input.

This is an extremely interesting question because I’ve heard various viewpoints. The vast majority want to keep the “technical debt” (legacy code being “Republic of China”) of this uneasy bridge to China—that is trade and movement of people between the strait, and maintaining the status quo of the “Republic of China” government (controlling Taiwan) and PRC (controlling China or “mainland”). Many Taiwanese don’t want…

Well, if China invades it'll have even less incentive to maintain anything remotely like pre-invasion. You gave HK as the example. That was only paperwork to get in the front door.

Re: Leaving China

#136

Post by winrid »

another_story wrote: post #109
tiny_ta wrote: post #13

It's so interesting to read this perspective since it drives home "the grass is always greener.." for me. I've lived a pretty charmed life in the US for the past few years (like the majority of HN, I imagine) but I find myself longing to move to a country with dense cities, affordable housing in the city center, great public infrastructure and a modicum of agreement among the citizens and China fits the bill pretty g…

Ahh yes, China, with its brutal Darwinian rush hour on the metro. The experience of needing to shove aside a 70 year old women with her grocery trolley who doesn't understand you need to wait until people get off before you get on. That affordable downtown housing which is on par with costs in Manhattan, where you'll hear someone renovating until 9pm every night and smell the sewage gas wafting from bathroom drains b…

The bathroom drain thing is so true. I documented that in a bunch of cities all the way from Xinjiang to Beijing. I don't get why they don't install u-traps. There were a couple of my hotels that had them, but most did not. This includes someone's home I stayed in.

When I asked a local about it they got very angry, like I was insulting them. The need to save face in China is real. But I get it, "who is this American who thinks they can tell us how to do things?"

I didn't find the smog to be bad everywhere, though. Beijing was pretty bad in the morning/early afternoon. But from what I remember Chengdu was nice smog/weather wise.

Re: Leaving China

#137

Post by nonethewiser »

elbigbad wrote: post #72
nonethewiser wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "this didn't start in China, this actually started in America." How did the reasoning work here? Not sure if this speaks to poor education, propaganda, something else, or all of the above.

Probably the same way conservative media portrays US joblessness as starting from other countries and their immigrants, and it’s clear that people who consume that media really buy into that way of thinking. People in echo chambers are particularly vulnerable to this sort of propaganda I expect.

I get what you’re saying. I haven’t seen that example from conservative media though. Most of the narratives I see center around illegal immigration, drugs, drain on social services, etc.

Re: Leaving China

#138

Post by dumpster_fire »

nonethewiser wrote: post #131
yibg wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent 3 years in China before Covid. Happened to be out of the country during initial lockdown and that was that. My experiences are pre Covid so things may be different now, I don’t know. Pros: - very vibrant, never bored even though when I went I didn’t know anyone really - I was paid a Silicon Valley salary so high income compared to the typical local. Can afford a very nice lifestyle - due to demographics and b…

You were paid ~150k+ USD in China, from a Chinese employer?

If you worked in FAANG and switched to say, Tencent, then yes. More than that.

Re: Leaving China

#139

Post by shell0x »

Lots of people used to go to China for work and could do pretty much anything they want, but since Jinping took over it went downhill fast.

Most people in the expat community I know went to Hong Kong and Singapore instead for the following reasons: 1) Easy to do business 2) Easy to get your money in and out. 3) Low taxes 4) Central travel hubs in Asia 5) Less backwards mindset as these cities feel more cosmopolitan and are interconnected with the outside world

With HK having less and less freedom, Singapore is really the only choice for foreigners to have a decent life quality in Asia. Tokyo could potentially be an option too, but it's really hard to live there due the very different structures in Japanese society and taxes are pretty high.

Re: Leaving China

#140

Post by dumpster_fire »

nonethewiser wrote: post #52
hayst4ck wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not an expat, but I was considering spending several months in China. After Hong Kong, there was a strong message of "Americans caused this," likewise after covid there was a strong message of "this didn't start in China, this actually started in America." It wasn't just a message of "America is our enemy," but looking at how the People in Hong Kong were robbed of due process from an impartial justice system it…

> "this didn't start in China, this actually started in America." How did the reasoning work here? Not sure if this speaks to poor education, propaganda, something else, or all of the above.

Take a step back and look at how the US blames China for all its woes. Looks the same to me as a non-American non-Chinese. Ideas planted to distract from underlying issues.
Post reply on HN