In my mind occam's razor applies to the 'culture' of money over everything in China, if there is such a thing. I think theres a pretty simple explanation: Most

In my mind occam's razor applies to the 'culture' of money over everything in China, if there is such a thing. I think theres a pretty simple explanation: Most Chinese people have parents or grandparents who remember Mao and the great famines, or worked on or still work on rice farms in the sort of abject poverty no westerner--even a homeless one--can understand. It's difficult to be exposed to this unless you live there for a while, preferably somewhere other than Beijing or Shanghai, and work with and interact with locals regularly. The reality and nearness of the abject poverty of hundreds of millions of your countrymen is a fear that is utterly foreign in the so-called western world, but is very real in China. It is what everyone works to escape, and then works to prevent for their descendants. I don't think TFA was particularly accusatory, but there was an undercurrent of judgement there that I think is unfair. If western culture was subject to that environment with such a large population I think we'd see very similar behaviour, understandably. I also think this partly explains the tolerance to the current communist party--they have made real strides in lifting the living standards of hundreds of millions of people, and compared to still-too-near family memories of what China has been through, a little authoritarianism is a small price to pay for that. I think China will need a long track record of prosperity before any real social or political change will happen.