I’ve only spent one winter here in Taipei, but I tend to agree with him on that. It never actually gets cold, just cool, and at least it’s not oppressively hot. The bigger difference for me is that year round in Singapore you can go outside and exercise in the morning (8-10am) and it isn’t oppressively hot yet. Because Taiwan keeps a weird time system, it’s already sweltering hot by 8am, especially in the extended summer. Also, because of the weird time system, the sun goes down so early that outside exercise after work is very hard here for most of the year, whereas it is pretty easy in Singapore.
This may be out of date, but when I was there the locals would speak Shanghainese and look down upon anyone who couldn’t. Only in the professional class did locals speak Chinese amongst themselves, and even then it wasn’t always the case. At the place I worked the team spoke exclusively in Shanghainese, even though one was from Ningbo (the languages are close enough).
There are plenty of stories about where China is advancing. China’s development of technology to surveil and oppress continues to be well publicized. I’m sure China would prefer that it’s totalitarian innovation be presented as something other than what it is but that’s not happening now.
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Relatively less than before. its really hard to find decent English resources on what is happening in China.
Yes the negative stuff is very well publicized, which was my point, its hard to get the full picture these days.
Also China’s dystopia is more Brave New World than 1984. People are subdued with convenience and cool tech and endless cat videos. There is also the 1984 side, but China is a big complicated place
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That’s largely by China’s design.
Not if you’re an ethnic or religious minority, criticize the government, or really like Winnie the Pooh.
What are you trying to express? I am confused! that the China government is bad? well I agree with that
No its not. There is little market for positive stories on China, I have to rely mainly on Chinese sources. Its not by the government design, I know you felt edgy writing that, but it makes no sense.
Wow dude, you really have all the inside scoops. Also using Winnie the Pooh as well. Kaching!
One of the top top travel destinations for singaporeans is Taiwan , they love it like Taiwanese love
To visit Japan
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And you still give zero examples. xiao mi is doing nothing out of the ordinary. Their products are ok. I would say they are decent enough to buy thats about it.
Face recognition tech and e commerce are used as by the ccp tools of oppression. I’m supposed to be impressed by that? Ok i will give them that, china are world leaders in oppression. bravo!
Racist? Well first and foremost, the country of china is not a race. Secondly, chinese people have told me the exact same thing. Its not a secret. And thirdly, low creativity is a product of heavy brainwashing and censorship. It shouldn’t be any surprise.
China is a difficult place for foreigners of all types, and even for minorities in China, to thrive long-term.
Xenophobic, nationalistic, Chinese are not used to dealing with different cultures, open work rights don’t exist and becoming a permanent resident or citizen is really really difficult etc. Rule of law is a figleaf.
But the biggest problem is simply the Chinese language , it acts as a massive barrier to foreigners participating in the internal market in China.
The second biggest problem for foreigners now is that they don’t have regional business activities running out of China, for obvious reasons , and therefore opportunities can be limited. Of course for foreigners working in education I think there are still vast opportunities there , if one wants to pursue that. But for non Chinese /ethnic Chinese profs…Nah.
Now there may be opportunities for non Chinese to work in Chinese companies but they need to have good Chinese to work in China . But how many foreigners really want to work in China for a Chinese companies ?Maybe their subsidiaries overseas are fine.
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A lot live in Shanghai, like living in Shanghai and want to live in Shanghai
Its not just that, China has really changed. They are more advanced in a lot of areas and the growth opportunities are no longer in the top-tiers, where consumers have studied abroad and are vaguely similar to the West. Now you have a lot of money in the 3rd and 4th tiers and an expat has no idea how to deal with that situation.
The issue isnt really xenophobia or any of that, its that foreigners have less value than before. This is what I am seeing in my field now
I didnt say Xiaomi。 I said 有品, thats there new products platform and its not their own products.
yes but its untrue. It sounds like the same shit ive heard from expats talking about Taiwanese and Chinese for decades
This is why I dont like to have these conversations. The CCP is detestable, but i notice that a lot of people dont want to take an iota of neutrality when discussing innovation or anything good in China.
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That’s gotta be pretty out of date. only 22% of native shanghainese people speak shanghainese according to google. I have no idea if that’s including the migrants, if not the percent would be even lower. Right now foreigners are getting looked down on for just being foreigners, don’t forget chinese actually think this is a foreign virus. although i’m sure its not as bad in shanghai, the foreigner stronghold.
not only that, the whole of china is under beijing time, Taiwans time zone is a hold over from china i would assume, does anyone actually know the real history of it?
In some fields of course I agree. Local retail , gaming, apps, all that stuff .
And China doesn’t exactly lack educated grads. But the Chinese language barrier is very formidable. And foreigners are at a massive disadvantage in trying to move and make it in China legally. It’s one of the most difficult countries in the world to immigrate to as a permanent resident or to become a citizen. Not that I ever would want to be a citizen 
.
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Feel free to share something innovative. tools of oppression not included please.
Mobile phones should be a good example. China has been manufacturing them for years, stealing the blueprints and making their own versions which are decent… But nothing is on the level of apple, samsung, google phone, HTC, LG ect.
Listen I can only go with my own personal experience. I’ve worked in china, in a creative field and seen it with my own eyes. I’ve travelled to china in recent years and been forced to use their subpar apps and technology such as baidu maps. Even the metro ticket machines technology is fucking awful.
I’ve lived in taiwan and seen taiwanese innovate already in the short time i’ve been there. Gogoro and the scooter sharing apps have blown me away.
i will be happy to give China props when they deserve it, there’s a pretty good looking monkey king game recently announced, i totally give them props for that it looks very well done so far.
Huawei surely are. Huawei are very popular in Europe. Bunch of other locals ones.
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That study was for children. I suspect things have moved away from my experience (ending in the mid oughts), but I know that when we go back to Shanghai my wife speaks to everyone in Shanghainese.
Baidu is incredibly bad…I don’t think anyone can disagree with that.
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They are definitely more of a budget alternative… not up to par imo.
But you can travel visa-free to Iran and Belarus!
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