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China’s Millennials

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Re: China’s Millennials

#71

Post by pwinnski »

elliekelly wrote: post #22

> They were offered free software that would enable them to dodge the Great Firewall of China – which blocks almost all major Western news sites and social media outlets – and browse the internet without restrictions. There was some surprise when it turned out that even elite students in China had little interest in finding out what Westerners were thinking. Only 53 per cent of the participants had activated the soft…

How much time do westerners spend on the Chinese internet? How much relevance does either set of sites have to someone living in the other hemisphere?

I find myself barely-remembering most western sites while I'm in China for even a couple of weeks, and language issues (mostly) keep me from spending much time on Chinese sites while I'm in the USA.

Based on my experience as a Westerner making trips to China, I find this VPN anecdote unsurprising.

Re: China’s Millennials

#72

Post by pwinnski »

jhbadger wrote: post #51
lonelappde wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a term to refer to "the current crop of young adults". I so rarely see the anti-"Millennial" crowd complain about the term "Baby Boomer"; usually it's the opposite, in fact.

But that was a real cohort with an actual cause (soldiers returning home from WWII and starting families, leading to a large increase in births in the decade following 1945). Later generations called Generation X and Millennials are much more arbitrary because there isn't really a defined cause for their existence.

If the complaint is the name, as you seem to be suggesting, then pick whatever name you wish. If the complaint is that not everybody of a given age should be lumped together as one, then that's as true of any generation than any other.

Either way, Millennials are not being singled out.

Signed, a reluctant member of GenX.

Re: China’s Millennials

#73

Post by geogra4 »

corey_moncure wrote: post #20
freeflight wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In China, everybody fully supports the government, don't they? I mean that what the Party does, has 100.00% approval rating at all times, there are no Facebook groups for discussing it, there is no activism protesting anything or driving for any kind of change, and everyone there just totally supports everything. (In Mainland China). I take issue with that description of China because any government that is in powe…

Have you ever been to China? You can find yourself cornered by armed soldiers with assault rifles just for taking a photograph of the "wrong" building in a completely ordinary public thoroughfare. Dissent is literally banned and access to external social networks is cut off. There's no way support for the government is completely genuine in such an environment.

There are plenty of places in the USA where you're not allowed to take photographs too.

Re: China’s Millennials

#74

Post by jameskegel »

baybal2 wrote: post #69
Jommi wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an even bigger joke if you know that residential areas of the 2 biggest Unis in Beijing have built-in VPNs allowing you to access google anyays :)

I know of few Western universities in China giving out VPN on campus from under the table, but nothing like that in BJ. Can you elaborate?

What are you doing?

Re: China’s Millennials

#75

Post by yourbandsucks »

yorwba wrote: post #70
yourbandsucks wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your argument is that all the people spreading the news of that kid in HK being shot were surprised ? They didn't sound surprised to me. They sounded elated and fulfilled that they were right about the 'bad guys'. News stories spread because people want to click them. Nobody wants to hear about Iraq, it's a bummer and a reminder that they probably supported it. The other, though? Tell me how bad they are!

Nobody wants to hear about Iraq? Did you miss https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21140801 ?

Yeah, that's my point. That's actually the only place I saw it reported. I checked the WP, NYT and Fox News that day after seeing it here. Nothing. Maybe there was a story hidden in the back that I couldn't find, of course.

Compare to the absolute deluge of HK stories across all media sources.

Re: China’s Millennials

#76

Post by baybal2 »

jameskegel wrote: post #74
baybal2 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of few Western universities in China giving out VPN on campus from under the table, but nothing like that in BJ. Can you elaborate?

What are you doing?

Working in an manufacturing/engineering consulting shop

Re: China’s Millennials

#77

Post by meiraleal »

jacobush wrote: post #58
luckylion wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minor correction about Iraq: ethnicity isn't that big a deal, religion is. Saddam and his government were Sunni muslims, the majority (2:1) are Shiite (both are predominately Arabs), with other tiny minorities making up the rest (Kurdish, Yezidi etc).

Yeah, I've heard that too, but I wonder... religion is not something you easily switch between families, and families run deep and old. I am more familiar with Yugoslavia. Look at the Serbs and the Croats. They are both Slavs. Yet the war was hardly over Orthodox Christianity (Serbs) vs Catholic Christianity (Croats).

This is more about factions and power than religion.

Re: China’s Millennials

#78

Post by elliekelly »

theseadroid wrote: post #67
elliekelly wrote: post #22

> They were offered free software that would enable them to dodge the Great Firewall of China – which blocks almost all major Western news sites and social media outlets – and browse the internet without restrictions. There was some surprise when it turned out that even elite students in China had little interest in finding out what Westerners were thinking. Only 53 per cent of the participants had activated the soft…

You might be thinking that the majority of Chinese are constantly under the fear of being monitored. The reality is people don't care and use VPN all the time. You might've heard people get in trouble using VPN in China. Many of you assume that's the norm. At least for now it's not. It would be like people from other countries heard there are shootings in U.S. schools and assume there are shootings in every U.S. scho…

Apologies, I wasn’t trying to insinuate the students feared monitoring. For example, when I use the internet at work I’m not afraid of being monitored by my employer but I’m definitely aware that my activity could be monitored. And it does change my behavior to some degree.

Re: China’s Millennials

#79

Post by luckylion »

jacobush wrote: post #58
luckylion wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minor correction about Iraq: ethnicity isn't that big a deal, religion is. Saddam and his government were Sunni muslims, the majority (2:1) are Shiite (both are predominately Arabs), with other tiny minorities making up the rest (Kurdish, Yezidi etc).

Yeah, I've heard that too, but I wonder... religion is not something you easily switch between families, and families run deep and old. I am more familiar with Yugoslavia. Look at the Serbs and the Croats. They are both Slavs. Yet the war was hardly over Orthodox Christianity (Serbs) vs Catholic Christianity (Croats).

That's true, but I don't know if Slavs are comparable to Arabs. There are different Slavic ethnic groups with very distinct languages. Arabs are one ethnic group with one language, but part of the Semitic family.

I suppose the Sunni/Shia conflict has an ethnic component with the Persians mostly being Shiites, while most Arabs are Sunni.

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