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One interesting part of living in China has been the different sets of orthodoxies and heresies people have. Things that are unspeakable in the US are conventio
by scarmig 6y ago
One interesting part of living in China has been the different sets of orthodoxies and heresies people have. Things that are unspeakable in the US are conventional wisdom here, and things that are unspeakable in China are conventional wisdom in the US.
Of course, the conventional wisdom in the US as it exists among upper-middle class, college-educated white folk in 2020 is exactly right about everything, but it's interesting to see just how wrong people in a different society can be without even realizing it.
- Invictus0 6y agoI'm curious, can you give some examples of Chinese conventional wisdom that are unspeakable in the US?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- celeritascelery 6y ago> can you give some examples ... that are unspeakable? There is a reason they are called unspeakable.
- peacefulhat 6y agoTalking with Chinese expats in America, one that really sticks out for me is: Despite massive economic backslide under Mao, China would not have industrialized without him. I've heard people who are otherwise very critical of Mao say this, seems ubiquitous. The American perspective of course is that Mao was only a negative and stunted Chinese growth. I think the idea is that land owners were overly conservative with capital investment and Taiwanese/Hong Kong growth is explained by foreign investment that Republican China would not have received. And not as ubiquitous but several have said that the Japanese military is a major threat to China, which seems absurd. Haven't gotten a real justification for this other than "they make good technology", like they're secretly developing a Gundam.
- scarmig 6y agoInterestingly, the people I've spoken to here are perfectly happy to criticize the Cultural Revolution. My impression is that saying anything negative about Mao in his later life would be fine, so long as you couched your denunciation in a way that didn't implicate the contemporary CCP. I suspect that an impassioned defense of the Red Guard would get more blow back here than in the USA, actually, based on my friends' opinions.
- carapace 6y ago"Round up the Uighurs".
- philwelch 6y agoIs there any American conventional wisdom that’s unspeakable in China that isn’t directly related to the Chinese system of government?
- 082349872349872 6y agoConventional wisdom: total fertility rate must be {above,below} replacement to ensure well-being of future generations.