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The Chinese have a mob mentality. They themselves don't even know what they are rioting about, most the time. The internet is learning that it is about an accid

The Chinese have a mob mentality. They themselves don't even know what they are rioting about, most the time. The internet is learning that it is about an accident in between a guard and a worker at 10pm. Trust me, the internet is learning this fact before a majority of the rioters are. If you can really call them rioters, as it is more like a 2000 man parade with about 5 people actually rioting (see the video). No one is in uniform so it is safe to assume these are off shift workers. The last riot at Foxconn started with a dispute in between a worker and a local restaurant owner. Ended with a 1000 man riot. Nothing to do with Foxconn worker rights. Such riots can't be equivocated with workers flighting for greater rights. They aren't. They want more money. Most the disputes are about broken promises of overtime work, as the workers make their best money from overtime. The workers don't live anywhere near the factories. They just work there for a few years to take money back to the villages where their families and friends live. They want money to improve families living conditions, not the factory that they don't give a damn about. They would trade factory conditions for more money almost any time, as the factory conditions are just temporary for them. They want to reach their goal of saving $X, go home, and enjoy their lives with their family and friends. What I am saying is not universal in China. The Chinese government controls migration and in some locations factories can only employ local people. In such factories labour costs are much higher and workers do receive much better working conditions. This story is not about such a factory.

ktizo 14y ago
So, you are saying the Chinese have a mob mentality, and that these people don't know what they are rioting about, are not actually rioting at all and are not all acting the same. I am trying to work out whether you are more of a bigot than an imbecile or vice-versa. At the moment I wouldn't be willing to bet either way.
- shimon_e 14y ago
  Hahaha... You should look at the anti-Japan riots videos from the past month. My not so clear point was that the Chinese riots have a lot less hooligans. When one talks of Chinese riots one should not imagine they are behaving like football hooligans. See this for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKnuILXFVZI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKnuILXFVZI and the article's video. You'll get what I mean.
  - ktizo 14y ago
    You'll get what I mean. Oh, don't worry, I get what you mean. You may be incoherent, but you are far from subtle.
- b6 14y ago
  Having lived in China for two years, I think it's accurate to say that some, maybe even most, Chinese people have a mob mentality. I can't support this claim with the kind of evidence you want; there are only countless anecdotes and videos and personal experiences. For example, a foreigner in Zhengzhou in Henan was thought to have slapped a girl on a scooter. When an angry mob formed, he locked himself in his car. Video shows hundreds of angry Chinese people yelling staring at him though the car windows. When they saw a Walmart badge on his chest, they decided that he was American and started calling him "American devil". He had to be escorted to safety by local police to avoid being dragged out of the car and beaten. But only the smallest fraction of people there had actually seen the alleged incident. The "badge" on his chest was actually a Walmart brochure sticking out of his chest pocket. I contacted Walmart media relations and they were aware of the incident, but the man had no affiliation with them. That, I find, is the way it typically happens. Chinese people are already angry and resentful about something, and then something sets them off. It doesn't matter if the "something" has little to nothing to do with whatever they were angry about.
  - ktizo 14y ago
    Chinese people are already angry and resentful about something, and then something sets them off. I could reply by pointing out similar behaviour in countries all over the world, it is a common human trait, not something that is somehow peculiar to China. Out of interest, have you ever read "Orientalism" by Edward Said? As this discussion could almost be an example from it.
    - boboblong 14y ago
      "I could reply by pointing out similar behaviour in countries all over the world, it is a common human trait, not something that is somehow peculiar to China." Maybe, maybe not. I see no reason to give the privileged position of "default" to the belief that all large populations of human beings are, on average, the same as all other large populations of human beings. Women and men are inherently different. Asians and Arabs are inherently different. All groups of people are very similar to one another, yes, but there's no reason to believe that they're the same, or that they'd be the same if not for environmental factors. Why would you believe such a thing?
paulerdos 14y ago
"The Chinese have a mob mentality." Uhm, racist flag anyone? Are you really seriously accusing the Chinese of being any different than us? Would you say that someone could look at our behavior in the past decade, and say that we don't also exhibit the same jingoistic behavior?
- shimon_e 14y ago
  I don't think you are understanding me correctly. Maybe you understand mob mentality differently to I. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_mentality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_mentality Watch the video of this riot ( http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUzOTYzMzQ0.html http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUzOTYzMzQ0.html ) and tell me that it isn't clear signs of mob mentality. The pictures of the damage look bad but when you see the video it looks like a social gathering with people laughing (e.g. ~0:35) and nothing really going on, other than a handful of hooligans causing damage.
  - wictorwictor 14y ago
    What, you think Chinese people are the only assholes who have riots? Here's a bunch of mostly white Canadians having a riot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VzOUKODdZ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VzOUKODdZ4
    - shimon_e 14y ago
      No. How exactly are the videos of the Chinese and Canadian riots comparable? The most the Canadians rioters are destroying stuff. The Chinese are barely seen damaging anything.
  - nitrogen 14y ago
    It sounds like, instead of what is commonly referred to as "mob mentality" (which has a strongly negative connotation), you are suggesting that Chinese people are drawn to large crowds.
- esrauch 14y ago
  The Chinese citizens are certainly socially notably different from Western nations; it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with culture, and to assume that they are just the same as us just because biologically they are no different is silly. People are a largely a product of their upbringing; Americans 50 years ago certainly are different than Americans today. Several of my friends have spent years working in China and they all comment about how almost no one believes in individualism in the same way that the average American does; that they don't care about civil rights or liberties (or give lip service to such ideals). That really does sound "different than us" to me.

ktizo 14y ago

So, you are saying the Chinese have a mob mentality, and that these people don't know what they are rioting about, are not actually rioting at all and are not all acting the same. I am trying to work out whether you are more of a bigot than an imbecile or vice-versa. At the moment I wouldn't be willing to bet either way.

shimon_e 14y ago
Hahaha... You should look at the anti-Japan riots videos from the past month. My not so clear point was that the Chinese riots have a lot less hooligans. When one talks of Chinese riots one should not imagine they are behaving like football hooligans. See this for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKnuILXFVZI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKnuILXFVZI and the article's video. You'll get what I mean.
- ktizo 14y ago
  You'll get what I mean. Oh, don't worry, I get what you mean. You may be incoherent, but you are far from subtle.
b6 14y ago
Having lived in China for two years, I think it's accurate to say that some, maybe even most, Chinese people have a mob mentality. I can't support this claim with the kind of evidence you want; there are only countless anecdotes and videos and personal experiences. For example, a foreigner in Zhengzhou in Henan was thought to have slapped a girl on a scooter. When an angry mob formed, he locked himself in his car. Video shows hundreds of angry Chinese people yelling staring at him though the car windows. When they saw a Walmart badge on his chest, they decided that he was American and started calling him "American devil". He had to be escorted to safety by local police to avoid being dragged out of the car and beaten. But only the smallest fraction of people there had actually seen the alleged incident. The "badge" on his chest was actually a Walmart brochure sticking out of his chest pocket. I contacted Walmart media relations and they were aware of the incident, but the man had no affiliation with them. That, I find, is the way it typically happens. Chinese people are already angry and resentful about something, and then something sets them off. It doesn't matter if the "something" has little to nothing to do with whatever they were angry about.
- ktizo 14y ago
  Chinese people are already angry and resentful about something, and then something sets them off. I could reply by pointing out similar behaviour in countries all over the world, it is a common human trait, not something that is somehow peculiar to China. Out of interest, have you ever read "Orientalism" by Edward Said? As this discussion could almost be an example from it.
  - boboblong 14y ago
    "I could reply by pointing out similar behaviour in countries all over the world, it is a common human trait, not something that is somehow peculiar to China." Maybe, maybe not. I see no reason to give the privileged position of "default" to the belief that all large populations of human beings are, on average, the same as all other large populations of human beings. Women and men are inherently different. Asians and Arabs are inherently different. All groups of people are very similar to one another, yes, but there's no reason to believe that they're the same, or that they'd be the same if not for environmental factors. Why would you believe such a thing?

paulerdos 14y ago

"The Chinese have a mob mentality." Uhm, racist flag anyone? Are you really seriously accusing the Chinese of being any different than us? Would you say that someone could look at our behavior in the past decade, and say that we don't also exhibit the same jingoistic behavior?

shimon_e 14y ago
I don't think you are understanding me correctly. Maybe you understand mob mentality differently to I. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_mentality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_mentality Watch the video of this riot ( http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUzOTYzMzQ0.html http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUzOTYzMzQ0.html ) and tell me that it isn't clear signs of mob mentality. The pictures of the damage look bad but when you see the video it looks like a social gathering with people laughing (e.g. ~0:35) and nothing really going on, other than a handful of hooligans causing damage.
- wictorwictor 14y ago
  What, you think Chinese people are the only assholes who have riots? Here's a bunch of mostly white Canadians having a riot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VzOUKODdZ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VzOUKODdZ4
  - shimon_e 14y ago
    No. How exactly are the videos of the Chinese and Canadian riots comparable? The most the Canadians rioters are destroying stuff. The Chinese are barely seen damaging anything.
- nitrogen 14y ago
  It sounds like, instead of what is commonly referred to as "mob mentality" (which has a strongly negative connotation), you are suggesting that Chinese people are drawn to large crowds.
esrauch 14y ago
The Chinese citizens are certainly socially notably different from Western nations; it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with culture, and to assume that they are just the same as us just because biologically they are no different is silly. People are a largely a product of their upbringing; Americans 50 years ago certainly are different than Americans today. Several of my friends have spent years working in China and they all comment about how almost no one believes in individualism in the same way that the average American does; that they don't care about civil rights or liberties (or give lip service to such ideals). That really does sound "different than us" to me.