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Re: China

#231

Post by thatsjustcrazy »

thevardanian wrote: post #175
Afforess wrote: post #55

I disagree with a lot of this. The Chinese value the appearance of working hard, not actual hard work. Cheating among Chinese students is pandemic. Chinese companies regularly publish misleading or outright fraudulent earning statements and quarterly reports. While the Chinese government seems to be taking steps to reverse these trends, it will take a long time to undo their culture of corruption. Contrast this with…

A better question is why America became a super-power in the first place? I think many of the assumptions of American exceptionalism are not root causes, as the majority of the reasons for why America, and the west in general, have risen to global domination are embedded in, how should I put it, conflict creation, and not conflict resolution. The west has benefited tremendously from the deliberate, and sometimes acci…

These are good points but I would disagree specifically that other nations want "a more equal world". My take is that they want to wear the crown next, not share it.

Re: China

#232

Post by npalli »

paul wrote: post #91

It's difficult to explore this question without being accused of racism, but I'd like to better understand why some cultures are so much more economically successful than others. The Chinese are such a great example of this. Wherever they go, they seem to end up being very successful. For example, in the Philippines it's claimed that Chinese are 1% of the population, but control 60% of the economy ( http://opinion.in…

Indians in Uganda controlled something like a quarter of the economy while being only 1% of the population. That was one of the main reasons they were expelled from Uganda. I find the Philippines number pretty remarkable not so much for the Chinese success but that the non-chinese allowed the situation to continue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Asians_from_Uganda

Re: China

#233

Post by tomsun »

Afforess wrote: post #55

I disagree with a lot of this. The Chinese value the appearance of working hard, not actual hard work. Cheating among Chinese students is pandemic. Chinese companies regularly publish misleading or outright fraudulent earning statements and quarterly reports. While the Chinese government seems to be taking steps to reverse these trends, it will take a long time to undo their culture of corruption. Contrast this with…

As someone who spent more than half of his life in China, I'd have to agree with you, at least from an anecdotal perspective. Trust is hard to build in China. A lot of people care about making money but people scarcely think about creating value for the society. Wealth is synonymous with consumption. The worst part I think, is the 1) social stability is valued over social mobility 2) individuality is shunned rather than celebrated.

In America people are encouraged to pursue your desire, the mentality of "not giving a fuck" and do what you love is admired and regarded as a sign of courage. In China someone who questions the conventions is deemed as social outcast. People in China are more concerned with the appearance (having face) than trying to be innately satisfied.

Things may have changed over the last decade. But I think China still faces this tremendous cultural problem, despite the development growth.

Re: China

#234

Post by nikanj »

The chinese build factories where they make pretty much everything for the global market. The americans build free time-oriented startups, such as image sharing, social news aggregation and messaging. And advertising, gotta keep those leisure sites funded.

Re: China

#235

Post by thebooktocome »

fredliu wrote: post #227
Afforess wrote: post #55

I disagree with a lot of this. The Chinese value the appearance of working hard, not actual hard work. Cheating among Chinese students is pandemic. Chinese companies regularly publish misleading or outright fraudulent earning statements and quarterly reports. While the Chinese government seems to be taking steps to reverse these trends, it will take a long time to undo their culture of corruption. Contrast this with…

"Cheating among Chinese students is pandemic." Care to give some reference and more clarification (Chinese students where? in US? China?) to back this up? Sounds similar to me to the same narrative as "Asians get good scores because they cheat." I'm appalled when I first heard about this, do people really believe that? or is it just an easy excuse for "non-asians-not-getting-good-scores", to feel good about themselve…

So, for example, http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/world/asia/china-exam-cheats/

Note that this particular exam was taken by 25,000 people, so that's almost ten percent.

Re: China

#236

Post by jpatokal »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #218
nissimk wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that 15 years ago that was true of Korean manufacturers, and look at them now. Hyundai was a brand that was fairly reliable, but was ridiculed in popular media. Now it's on par with Japanese brands and often considered premium. Also, Samsung went from making parts for everything to developing and marketing their own premium products. Chinese manufacturers can easily follow this same path and I think it is alr…

Except Korea and Japan aren't autocracies. They're just so much more flexible by having an open democratic process and open markets. The CCP is its own roadblock in China. Sure it can make special economic zones and play command economy with construction and development (lets ignore the ghost towns they have built for now), but that approach is self-limiting. China won't liberalize the way Korea and Japan did after t…

> They really don't have a capitalist and innovators culture.

Have you ever read any of Bunnie's many articles about shanzhai? Sure, the big corps in China are state-controlled monoliths, but the grassroots level is seething with innovation and way more capitalist in a "red in tooth and claw" sense, unconstrained by silly Western ideas about intellectual property, health & safety, etc.

http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=284

Re: China

#237

Post by soulmachine »

psychometry wrote: post #229
TeMPOraL wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. People forget that China has twice the population of United States and European Union combined . It's often silly to treat them all as one uniform group.

A group's uniformity has nothing to do with its size.

You're bind-minded

Re: China

#238

Post by flyrain »

tomsun wrote: post #233
Afforess wrote: post #55

I disagree with a lot of this. The Chinese value the appearance of working hard, not actual hard work. Cheating among Chinese students is pandemic. Chinese companies regularly publish misleading or outright fraudulent earning statements and quarterly reports. While the Chinese government seems to be taking steps to reverse these trends, it will take a long time to undo their culture of corruption. Contrast this with…

As someone who spent more than half of his life in China, I'd have to agree with you, at least from an anecdotal perspective. Trust is hard to build in China. A lot of people care about making money but people scarcely think about creating value for the society. Wealth is synonymous with consumption. The worst part I think, is the 1) social stability is valued over social mobility 2) individuality is shunned rather t…

As a Chinese, I agree with you. A lot of (let's say most of)Chinese people actually care more about making money than creating value for society. But, I think this is a short-term wave, especially starting from 1978. And in China, people need more money to establish safety of life since there are less social security and public welfare comparing to western countries. This could change when there are more social security program, more insurance, medical care. So, I don't think this is a "tremendous cultural problem".

Re: China

#239

Post by novaleaf »

Afforess wrote: post #55

I disagree with a lot of this. The Chinese value the appearance of working hard, not actual hard work. Cheating among Chinese students is pandemic. Chinese companies regularly publish misleading or outright fraudulent earning statements and quarterly reports. While the Chinese government seems to be taking steps to reverse these trends, it will take a long time to undo their culture of corruption. Contrast this with…

Americans tend to under-estimate the country we live in, or conversely, over-estimate the competition. I lived in and ran a Startup in Thailand for 7 years, and therefor learned this lesson the hard way.

Re: China

#240

Post by auganov »

What I hope for is not US coexisting with China, EU or any other state. I hope that more freedom-leaning countries open up to immigration and blur or erase the concept of being a citizen. In fact I hope everyone sees the current status quo as immoral rather than just not optimal. NWO ftw
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