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> Politics is not natural part of the Chinese conversational diet in much the same way that bread is not a natural part of their nutritional diet. What do you
by anontoday126 9y ago
> Politics is not natural part of the Chinese conversational diet in much the same way that bread is not a natural part of their nutritional diet.
What do you mean by natural? Because I hear Chinese people talk about politics all the time. It's an extremely popular topic and they love to get into the intricacies of it and compare how current leaders act compared to historical leaders.
I definitely hear them talk about how society and philosophy influence current day politics. For example, how different would this political leader be if he followed the Mozi [1] school of thought.
Of course, I understand Chinese so perhaps that's why? I know that many Chinese people dislike talking about politics with foreigners. Especially if they can't speak/understand Chinese.
Also, not to be nit-picky, but mantou [2] and shaobing [3] are both a natural part of Northern Chinese diets. Of course I guess some people might not consider them true breads.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozi
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantou https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantou
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaobing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaobing
- IIAOPSW 9y agoWhat can I say. I guess we just knew different people.
- justicezyx 9y agoThe OP conflates politics with criticizing government or CCP. Arguably some do believe politics is solely an activity of blaming government.
- jhedwards 9y agoThis is tough because it's mostly anecdotal, but after living in China for two years (I can speak mandarin) talking about politics in the US was like suddenly being able to breathe again, it was a tangible culture shock. Sure, some people liked to talk about society and politics and economic development especially when it related to China's history, but I can only remember one or two times in two years that I experienced the kind of completely open political conversation that we have every day in the US. China is big, so this could be related to region as well, I was in Hunan.