[quote=“Elegua”]His movies are shite as are his opnions.
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No no, I’ve enjoyed every movie I’ve seen by him, that doesn’t mean that I agree with his fascist opinions.
[quote=“Ah Q”]To get back on the actual content of what this Zhang Yimou said:
At the risk of being publicly executed here, I’m going to say that I find there is some truth to this part? Of course it is a blatant generalization and simplification, but it is troublesome to get people to work hard for a common cause in the west, especially one that is not directly of individual benefit to them since they get paid no matter what. This is a product of western individualism vs. Chinese collectivism. This is an issue that will need to be addressed sooner rather than later, in the face of global power shifting.
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I’ve lived in Asia for 10 years, and I have found the opposite of what Zhang is saying. Where I lived in Sichuan, I was shocked by how lazy everyone was. No one did any work at all if they weren’t forced. Many people were at work for long hours, but did nothing. Less supervised people didn’t even stay at work for as long as they were supposed to. They had a job and were getting paid no matter what, though damn little, of course. My fellow teachers (Chinese) would complain about how long they had to work, but you’d see them at anytime at the market, at a restaurant, or just wandering around. During work time, in every type of work environment I saw except factories, people would be chatting, reading, drinking tea, or sleeping; if you interrrupted them to try to get some service, they’d be angry. You pretty well needed guanxi to get anything done - including getting clerks to serve you, buying a train ticket, getting questions answered by people whose jobs involved these activities.
Zhang was talking about an opera performance. Surely riding the performers and backstage workers like slaves is not a reasonable way to get a good performance out of them.