so, what exactly you think is wrong with the statement ?
China’s absolutely wonderful. It used to be a one-party state but has now upgraded itself to a full-on dictatorship. It also uses its military power to bully and threaten democracies. Its leader is so insecure he bans Winnie the Pooh. I agree with you that it’s difficult not to respect such a society.
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despite that, which i fully agree on. i’d really be curious to know what china has to offer excluding the politics. @Chenshuren maybe you could give me more insights?
Off the top of my head, something that applies to any country - not just China - is that if you go there with an open mind and make connections with people you will understand what the place means a lot more than if you go in with a negative attitude and preconceived ideas.
You - or ‘one’- cant just write of China because you see from your perspective that society there has some flaws, that’s like writing off Europe or North America for not being perfect.
My two cents.
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To quote Nathan Law, the youngest legislator in HK(now disqualified). We dont hate china because we dont know it, we hate it because we know it.
I moved to HK 2008, and had a generally pretty positive view on China up until some time around 2014.
Having been in these parts of the world for about 10 years now, I think I got a pretty accurate view on what China is all about.
so much is off the mark here.
taiwanese are no more rude than before. they never opened doors 2 years ago either. even old people. the service here is generally pretty good. a world of difference to china. in taiwan i have twice now saw people try to que jump infront of me. the staff served me first. in china you would just lose your spot. this shows the levels imo.
rent is way more in shanghai and beijing. and it keeps getting higher. my buddy in beijing has to pay more every year. while my place stays the same. chinese buildings are pretty shoddy too. even the old buildings here are pretty good quality compared.
i’m really not sure how you came to the conclusion that taiwanese are capable of less independent thought than chinese. i would say the fact that 95% of people are successfully brainwashed and don’t have an independent thought of their own to question the govts propaganda and lies. look at taiwanese are just ahead on this, its a more socially developed country. i mean i’ve also worked there, in a creative area and saw nothing but unoriginal ideas and copying, so theres that too.
china does have more international food i would definitely give it that. but more international food doesn’t mean better food quality over all. it means more international food… as for overall food quality my stomach has taken much less beatings in taiwan than in china.
china has the phone money thing sure, but thats it. other things are more convenient in taiwan. things are close together. you can usually find everything you need in a ten minute radius. even better if you have a bike.
That’s your accurate view is it. Best of luck with that.
yea i agree with this. i had a very positive view of china at first, i lived there before i even heard of taiwan.
You are kind of taking things out of context.
The point was that I dont dislike china due to not being familiar with what it is, but actually I dislike it due to the opposite reason.
Furthermore, instead making emotional insinuations about other users, why not just argue your case instead. So far you only highlighted that I used to word “hate” and implied everyone who has a negative view of china dont have an open mind.
“The reason I hate/dislike - insert country, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion here - is …”
Like I said, best of luck with that
Same it would take a lot of money and knowing it’s a temporary thing to live there. I was there for a couple months for school in Beijing, Chengdu and scishuan. One minute you’re living in a first world country and next you encounter 3rd world problems and 3rd world people. It’s hard to get used to. Most cities in China you have nice main roads with new tall buildings that make you feel like omg China is so developed. Walk one alley way down and you see a huge garbage pile they burn when it gets too big, dirt roads, small huts and people defecating on the street. That’s pretty much how China is as a whole. Artificially made to look good on the surface.
Not to mention the government can rain hell on you and lock you up if they are pissed at you for some bs charges anytime. And nothing you can do can help.
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Go in with an open mind ?
Are you flipping kidding me? They would beat us and probably put us in jail if we talked about Taiwan being independent and promoting democracy there.
Significant parts of the country are in ‘lock-down’ and a total police state , if you are Tibetan or Xinjiang ethnic group you are scewed, they won’t even allow them to keep religious books at home or hold a passport or even travel to the next province !
You can’t even speak your mind there there is no ‘open mind’ for locals or foreigners, top to bottom, rich or poor . That’s horrible.
Hence Vote President for Life
2958 Yes
2 No
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Exactly @Brianjones. Even mentioning Taiwanese, Tibetan independence can be a criminal offense in China. They will lock you up and send you to re-education camps for it.
I read an article that they even are forcing uigher women to marry Han Chinese for “ethic washing” and if you speak any other major non mandarin language, CCP having been toying with the idea of banning it like Cantonese. Not to mention forget about religious freedom or any basic human rights.
It’s so bad even the tycoons aren’t safe lol. They regularly disappear for months on end.
Honestly I think it has a lot of parallels with Germany before WWII and that does worry me a lot. Especially when you see what they are doing in the South China Sea.
There is no civil society in China to speak of so everything is dependent on the whims of the key leaders at the top . With the total police state supported by technological advances there is little chance of this changing soon. Quite pessimistic view I know.
As for living there I’m sure we could for a couple of years , I would do it for good money or starting a business that’s about it. I noticed as well like Andrew at it has some nice areas and then places that are rough as hell beside them. Also a fair number of people with very rough manners and hygiene. I don’t like Beijing because of its massive thoroughfares , traffic , size and cold and pollution , I cannot get a good handle on that city at all although I have been there many times. Also the so called foreign areas or live music bars were a sore disappointment . People are gruff. The subway has security gates everywhere and not so nice like Taipei. I do appreciate the remaining historical stuff and the canals though.
China is pretty safe as long as you steer clear of the politics and free expression. Which is a big compromise .
Just not a nice country to live in long term in my view.
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"if you go there with an open mind and make connections with people you will understand what the place means a lot more than if you go in with a negative attitude and preconceived ideas."
I wonder if in the 1940s someone said these same words to Jews about Germany. “Come on, it’s not THAT bad, don’t be a bigot…give it a try, you may actually like it if you put the effort of understanding their culture!”
China not bad As long as long as you don’t fall into the following category of people. You can have a pretty good life and make money if you are not a ethic minority, if you don’t following any religion, if you speak putonghua and not the other languages, if you don’t live in places like xian, if you don’t care about freedom of speech, right to fair trial, or basically any other basic civil or human rights and willing to tow the party line without question.
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I’ve been watching 'Hitlers Crcle of Evil ’ on Netflix and it goes through the rise of the Nazis and how they gradually removed civil freedoms from the Jews and then made them outsiders and then implemented genocide. They did this through the use of propaganda and steady changes to the law over a period of about 8 years, they knew it would not be accepted overnight. Once they got majority rule they used their police state (SS, Gestapo) and Goebells control of the media including entertainment industry to completely crush all opposition and it was game over. They also used the latest tech of the day such as TV and radio and telephone exchanges to make themselves more popular and to spy on the population
On the other side the improved economy and the reclamation of ‘greater German’ areas made them popular . The allies just twiddled their thumbs giving the signal for Germany to keep pushing the envelope until war occurred.
Now there is no civil society in China to stop any extreme policies being implemented and also no free media. It is just dependent on the whims of President Xi. It does have quite a few parallels with that time but it seems power is even more concentrated in China.
I’m not saying Xi has the same extremist positions as the Nazis but certainly his level of control of all aspects of the country are similar or even more so than Nazis back then.
(Mods, maybe the Chinese politics thing should be hived off into a different thread … and of course I’m contributing to it here!)
Disturbing article this week in The Economist about state control in Xinjiang. Scary totalitarian stuff.
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The ones with the negative prejudices were the nazis, not the Jews
I don’t have the same ‘them and us’ as you do