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Contrast this: "I will use strong language about the authoritarian communist government but I do not want that in anyway to reflect upon the Chinese people." W

Contrast this: "I will use strong language about the authoritarian communist government but I do not want that in anyway to reflect upon the Chinese people." With these sentences: "There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in China. People do not have innate value as people simply because they exist. This leads most directly to a lack of respect for the law/rules/norms. One thing I began to realize over time is, while not German, how law, rule, and norm abiding Americans are with minimal fear of enforcement. in my experience laws/rules/norms are simply ignored. Lying is utterly common, but telling the truth revolutionary. There was no value system. There was no exogenously held right or wrong, only whether you made money. With apologies to a bastardized Dostoevsky, with money as God, all is permissible. For instance, something as simple as standing in line in many places can devolve into a knife fight given the utter lack of restraint in cutting that is so common. A common one is when someone is run over by a car and pedestrians just step over the body until a family member finds the body."

arcticfox 8y ago
I interpreted his opinion as the government setting the people up to fail, as opposed to the other way around.
strayamaaate 8y ago
I think it’s fine, most Chinese people complain about these things too. Nobody likes a line-jumper, in any culture. What I think is a problem is to suggest the entire Chinese populous of being money-loving but without asking how that happened. Life is tough when you have over a billion people to feed, and no government support structures to lean on in times of need. It’s dog-eat-dog because it needs to be, not because the Chinese people like it. Regarding the not-stopping-to-help someone hit by a car; There’s pretty well known story about a bystander who tried to help, getting into deep trouble for doing so. I don’t have the link, but some creative Googling should surface the story.
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  There is an aspect that if you help someone who is hurt, you are acknowledging responsibility for the trouble that caused it even if you had nothing to do with it (e.g. guilty of murder if you happen to find the body). Chinese police can be very lazy like that, but I think the first incidence of this happened in Taiwan in the 90s.
analyst74 8y ago
I'd respect him more if he was upfront about disliking Chinese people. Also It's quite ironic that he complains about lying right after window-dressing his own statement.
fredliu 8y ago
Not sure why you are downvoted, reading the 2nd paragraph you cited (and some other parts in the article), it's definitely hard to view them as comments only against the government instead of generalizing over a people. I guess since this post is mostly a rant (?), we could afford a less coherent statements. But it does feel a bit like one of those "not being a racist, but..." moments.
throwb187 8y ago
While his kids could speak Mandarin and went to local schools, I have a feeling he was mainly in the expat bubble so had a very skewed perspective of China and the people. Also, it seems like people will give a pass to these types of generalizations if it's about Asians or Chinese people. To tell if something is "racist," I like to apply the Black/Jewish-Litmus Test. Basically replace the word Chinese with Black or Jewish and see if you find it racist. If you do, then it is when you write about Chinese people. e.g. There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in Israel... There was no exogenously held right or wrong, only whether you made money. There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in Nigeria...Lying is utterly common, but telling the truth revolutionary. There was no value system.
- alexandercrohde 8y ago
  Disagree on every level: 1. It's not racist to criticize cultures (race = genetics) 2. It's important to criticize cultures, many of them are shitty (e.g. women can't vote, light skin people can't marry dark skin people) 3. Observing other cultures and finding patterns is the definition of sociology 4. If somebody told you sociology were racist, it'd be a real shame if you let your fear of being labeled stop you from learning.

arcticfox 8y ago

I interpreted his opinion as the government setting the people up to fail, as opposed to the other way around.

strayamaaate 8y ago

I think it’s fine, most Chinese people complain about these things too. Nobody likes a line-jumper, in any culture. What I think is a problem is to suggest the entire Chinese populous of being money-loving but without asking how that happened. Life is tough when you have over a billion people to feed, and no government support structures to lean on in times of need. It’s dog-eat-dog because it needs to be, not because the Chinese people like it. Regarding the not-stopping-to-help someone hit by a car; There’s pretty well known story about a bystander who tried to help, getting into deep trouble for doing so. I don’t have the link, but some creative Googling should surface the story.

seanmcdirmid 8y ago
There is an aspect that if you help someone who is hurt, you are acknowledging responsibility for the trouble that caused it even if you had nothing to do with it (e.g. guilty of murder if you happen to find the body). Chinese police can be very lazy like that, but I think the first incidence of this happened in Taiwan in the 90s.

analyst74 8y ago

I'd respect him more if he was upfront about disliking Chinese people. Also It's quite ironic that he complains about lying right after window-dressing his own statement.

fredliu 8y ago

Not sure why you are downvoted, reading the 2nd paragraph you cited (and some other parts in the article), it's definitely hard to view them as comments only against the government instead of generalizing over a people. I guess since this post is mostly a rant (?), we could afford a less coherent statements. But it does feel a bit like one of those "not being a racist, but..." moments.

throwb187 8y ago

While his kids could speak Mandarin and went to local schools, I have a feeling he was mainly in the expat bubble so had a very skewed perspective of China and the people. Also, it seems like people will give a pass to these types of generalizations if it's about Asians or Chinese people. To tell if something is "racist," I like to apply the Black/Jewish-Litmus Test. Basically replace the word Chinese with Black or Jewish and see if you find it racist. If you do, then it is when you write about Chinese people. e.g. There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in Israel... There was no exogenously held right or wrong, only whether you made money. There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in Nigeria...Lying is utterly common, but telling the truth revolutionary. There was no value system.

alexandercrohde 8y ago
Disagree on every level: 1. It's not racist to criticize cultures (race = genetics) 2. It's important to criticize cultures, many of them are shitty (e.g. women can't vote, light skin people can't marry dark skin people) 3. Observing other cultures and finding patterns is the definition of sociology 4. If somebody told you sociology were racist, it'd be a real shame if you let your fear of being labeled stop you from learning.