5 ms·

Half joke/half serious: 1. Food(any objection?) 2. Public transportation: high speed rail road 3. Huge and fancy malls: USA is behind believe it or not 4. E

Half joke/half serious: 1. Food(any objection?) 2. Public transportation: high speed rail road 3. Huge and fancy malls: USA is behind believe it or not 4. E-payment & WeChat: Chinese people think differently. 5. Food delivery and all kinds of half-day delivery 6. Free of Racism: invisible ceiling 7. Cultural recreational activities that you don’t understand 8. Crowded.

paulnechifor 6y ago
Nice to know that the Uyghur genocide is racism-free.
- yumraj 6y ago
  And Tibetan subjugation.
jdm2212 6y ago
China's great if you have a decent amount of money -- labor's cheap, so all sorts of stuff (food prep, transportation, delivery services) that's heavy on labor is dirt cheap in China even if it's unaffordable in the West. But racism... speaking as a rich white guy who was treated as nicely as you'd generally expect, even I could tell it wouldn't be fun to be an ethnic minority there. Chinese ethnic minorities visiting Beijing are themselves something of a tourist attraction; tour guides leading Westerners around point and stare and talk about those minorities sort of the way you'd point and stare and talk about a wild animal you found roaming the streets. Thing is, 95+ percent of China is a single (self-identified) ethnic group so there are just fewer encounters with minorities.
- Dahoon 6y ago
  >China's great if you have a decent amount of money Besides Scandinavian countries where the social security net is amazing comparably, isn't that the same in most of the world? I'm not sure being poor in China is worse than elsewhere?
  - jdm2212 6y ago
    In most of the developed world, even poor people's labor is expensive enough that it's rarely affordable to just pay someone else to do something for you exclusively (e.g., private chef, private driver). In China, to say nothing of India, that's another story. There, you have professional class types making Western salaries but also a billion-odd people living on dollars a day which allows an aristocratic lifestyle that would be unimaginable in the developed world.
- jcranmer 6y ago
  > Chinese ethnic minorities visiting Beijing are themselves something of a tourist attraction; tour guides leading Westerners around point and stare and talk about those minorities sort of the way you'd point and stare and talk about a wild animal you found roaming the streets. On a related note, in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China saw fit to have the flag be brought in by 56 children wearing the traditional costumes of the 56 officially-recognized ethnic groups in China. They were all Han.
  - gruez 6y ago
    >They were all Han. dumb question: is it possible to tell?
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - whoevercares 6y ago
      Err it’s easy to tell a Han from Uyghur, Chinese Kazakhs and many others closer to Russian and Middle-East origins.
    - thu2111 6y ago
      Yes. Here's a picture of the what the Uighurs look like. The ones currently thrown in concentration camps and into forced labour: https://muslimmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/uyghur.jpg https://muslimmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/uyghur.jpg With Tibetans it's harder to tell for western eyes, but they look a bit more like native Americans do/did: http://162757811.blogspot.com/2015/06/stop-genocide-tibetan-people.html http://162757811.blogspot.com/2015/06/stop-genocide-tibetan-...
- fraudsyndrome 6y ago
  But you were an ethnic minority too when you were in China right? I never understood this line of thinking though - the way you describe it sounds like it was out of pure curiosity rather than racism. It's interesting seeing the difference of how people define racism based on who they are and where they grew up. For example - racism in Australia can be seen through racial slurs and physical violence from the moment they start interacting with others (preschool) up to adulthood. Or it can come in many subvert forms in the professional workspace. Contrast this to where I hear of racial minorities coming into Asia who for the most part get treated at best above everyone and at worst out of curiosity (e.g. staring)
  - jdm2212 6y ago
    I wasn't a local ethnic minority, which makes all the difference. And "curiosity" doesn't quite explain it. It's curiosity plus lack of respect. Local political bosses are undoubtedly subjects of similar curiosity, but everyone respects (and/or fears) them enough to be courteous.
haram_masala 6y ago
As a (former?) frequent traveller, I can tell you this is first time I've ever heard China described as "free of racism."
- blaser-waffle 6y ago
  Yeah in my experience Asia is racist as shit -- and they're willing to blunt about it. But it's usually in a different language and doesn't involve the standard White-vs.-Non-White narrative, so it doesn't show up in the global discourse.
- magicnubs 6y ago
  We were talking about what Chinese emigrants can get inside China, so they probably mean that Chinese nationals (usually) wouldn't be subject to racism themselves.
gruez 6y ago
>6. Free of Racism: invisible ceiling maybe if you're chinese.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
oneweekwonder 6y ago
> 2. Public transportation: high speed rail road Heh, it is easy to do high speed rail roads if you don't value human life. [0] [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/25/chinese-rail-crash-cover-up-claims https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/25/chinese-rail-c...
- lostmsu 6y ago
  To be fair, in US trains fail similarly at relatively very low speeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Washington_train_derailment#Casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Washington_train_derailme...
jobigoud 6y ago
> Food(any objection?) I've only been to China once (Guanzhou), but it was very hard to find vegetarian food. Everything everywhere seems to have duck or pork in it. The variety is definitely lacking compared to Europe or North America.

paulnechifor 6y ago

Nice to know that the Uyghur genocide is racism-free.

yumraj 6y ago
And Tibetan subjugation.

jdm2212 6y ago

China's great if you have a decent amount of money -- labor's cheap, so all sorts of stuff (food prep, transportation, delivery services) that's heavy on labor is dirt cheap in China even if it's unaffordable in the West. But racism... speaking as a rich white guy who was treated as nicely as you'd generally expect, even I could tell it wouldn't be fun to be an ethnic minority there. Chinese ethnic minorities visiting Beijing are themselves something of a tourist attraction; tour guides leading Westerners around point and stare and talk about those minorities sort of the way you'd point and stare and talk about a wild animal you found roaming the streets. Thing is, 95+ percent of China is a single (self-identified) ethnic group so there are just fewer encounters with minorities.

Dahoon 6y ago
>China's great if you have a decent amount of money Besides Scandinavian countries where the social security net is amazing comparably, isn't that the same in most of the world? I'm not sure being poor in China is worse than elsewhere?
- jdm2212 6y ago
  In most of the developed world, even poor people's labor is expensive enough that it's rarely affordable to just pay someone else to do something for you exclusively (e.g., private chef, private driver). In China, to say nothing of India, that's another story. There, you have professional class types making Western salaries but also a billion-odd people living on dollars a day which allows an aristocratic lifestyle that would be unimaginable in the developed world.
jcranmer 6y ago
> Chinese ethnic minorities visiting Beijing are themselves something of a tourist attraction; tour guides leading Westerners around point and stare and talk about those minorities sort of the way you'd point and stare and talk about a wild animal you found roaming the streets. On a related note, in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China saw fit to have the flag be brought in by 56 children wearing the traditional costumes of the 56 officially-recognized ethnic groups in China. They were all Han.
- gruez 6y ago
  >They were all Han. dumb question: is it possible to tell?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - whoevercares 6y ago
    Err it’s easy to tell a Han from Uyghur, Chinese Kazakhs and many others closer to Russian and Middle-East origins.
  - thu2111 6y ago
    Yes. Here's a picture of the what the Uighurs look like. The ones currently thrown in concentration camps and into forced labour: https://muslimmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/uyghur.jpg https://muslimmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/uyghur.jpg With Tibetans it's harder to tell for western eyes, but they look a bit more like native Americans do/did: http://162757811.blogspot.com/2015/06/stop-genocide-tibetan-people.html http://162757811.blogspot.com/2015/06/stop-genocide-tibetan-...
fraudsyndrome 6y ago
But you were an ethnic minority too when you were in China right? I never understood this line of thinking though - the way you describe it sounds like it was out of pure curiosity rather than racism. It's interesting seeing the difference of how people define racism based on who they are and where they grew up. For example - racism in Australia can be seen through racial slurs and physical violence from the moment they start interacting with others (preschool) up to adulthood. Or it can come in many subvert forms in the professional workspace. Contrast this to where I hear of racial minorities coming into Asia who for the most part get treated at best above everyone and at worst out of curiosity (e.g. staring)
- jdm2212 6y ago
  I wasn't a local ethnic minority, which makes all the difference. And "curiosity" doesn't quite explain it. It's curiosity plus lack of respect. Local political bosses are undoubtedly subjects of similar curiosity, but everyone respects (and/or fears) them enough to be courteous.

haram_masala 6y ago

As a (former?) frequent traveller, I can tell you this is first time I've ever heard China described as "free of racism."

blaser-waffle 6y ago
Yeah in my experience Asia is racist as shit -- and they're willing to blunt about it. But it's usually in a different language and doesn't involve the standard White-vs.-Non-White narrative, so it doesn't show up in the global discourse.
magicnubs 6y ago
We were talking about what Chinese emigrants can get inside China, so they probably mean that Chinese nationals (usually) wouldn't be subject to racism themselves.

gruez 6y ago

>6. Free of Racism: invisible ceiling maybe if you're chinese.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

oneweekwonder 6y ago

> 2. Public transportation: high speed rail road Heh, it is easy to do high speed rail roads if you don't value human life. [0] [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/25/chinese-rail-crash-cover-up-claims https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/25/chinese-rail-c...

lostmsu 6y ago
To be fair, in US trains fail similarly at relatively very low speeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Washington_train_derailment#Casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Washington_train_derailme...

jobigoud 6y ago

> Food(any objection?) I've only been to China once (Guanzhou), but it was very hard to find vegetarian food. Everything everywhere seems to have duck or pork in it. The variety is definitely lacking compared to Europe or North America.