> While on my most recent flight to Beijing, I sat next to an chatty elderly Chinese woman. We started discussing the topic, and she said that Chinese society l

> While on my most recent flight to Beijing, I sat next to an chatty elderly Chinese woman. We started discussing the topic, and she said that Chinese society lacks su zhi 素质, which translates roughly to manners or etiquette. Before the Cultural Revolution, she explained, Chinese society was guided by the moral lessons of Confucianism, with its emphasis on being a gentleman, respecting one’s elders, and obeying one’s leaders. But during the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong put Confucian principles on its head, pitting the Red Guard youth against their parents, the less educated against the educated elite. This chaos tore the social fabric and transformed the society into a survivalist one, a dog-eat-dog world, the vestiges of which are still felt today. > When Deng Xiaoping implemented the Reform and Opening Up policy in 1978, capitalism was added to the mix of the survivalist culture; in order to get rich, you had to compete fiercely, fend for yourself and take care of your own with no regard for rules. This would also explain the rampant corruption among government officials, who use their position to amass wealth for themselves and their family. And nowadays, a third phenomenon has also added itself to the dangerous cocktail of selfishness and competition: the digital age. Many Chinese young people spend the majority of their days glued to WeChat, or taking selfies everywhere, or shopping at the ubiquitous malls around the country. This “me” culture is certainly not unique to China; indeed, we see the same thing happening to the youth in New York to Buenos Aires to London to Brussels to Moscow. But in China it exacerbates the already self-centeredness brought on by the cruelty of the cultural revolution and the competitiveness of capitalism with Chinese characteristics. > In other words, China doesn’t just lack common etiquette and basic manners; it lacks a moral compass altogether. https://thediplomat.com/2016/09/chinas-quest-for-a-moral-compass/ https://thediplomat.com/2016/09/chinas-quest-for-a-moral-com...