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I spent a couple of years in SE Asia, and worked in Cambodia, and my comment is based on that experience. I had a fascinating conversation with one of my staff
by marcus_holmes 5y ago
I spent a couple of years in SE Asia, and worked in Cambodia, and my comment is based on that experience. I had a fascinating conversation with one of my staff where she explained that to criticise one's boss was absolutely taboo. Roughly equivalent to taking a dump on your boss's desk in Western culture.
There's this whole concept of "social harmony" that we don't have in the West. And partly it revolves around respecting your place in a very strict social hierarchy. Criticising those above you in the hierarchy is "disharmonious" and not accepted.
I'm fascinated if you know this is different in China? I haven't been to China (yet). But my impression from the contact with the Chinese I have had is that (at least in this respect) the cultures are very similar.
- onethought 5y agoI think there are crossovers. There are party elites. There are also a huge number of private enterprise that are not politically involved at all. They are there to make money, or impact. You are right about the social harmony aspect, but the younger generations interpret that as “don’t interfere with gov” … they won’t publically criticise or do any kind of political activism. But that still leaves a whole lot of things they do do.
- marcus_holmes 5y agoyeah, same in Cambodia. Most people I talked to didn't really seem to care about the politics, and are much more interested in making money. As long as the government let them do that relatively unrestricted, then they observed social harmony and kept out of politics.