Inspired by the recent c/AskLemmy question about Myanmar.
As a PRC-born ethnic Han-Chinese person who currently is a US Citizen and reside in the US, I’m curious on what people think of my former country.
Horrific dictatorship that commits atrocities.
People that have been subjugated and oppressed and have little to no value as humans to the CCP.
Became a world power by exploiting the working class.
Beautiful country and amazing history.
Sounds like you’re describing the US, except the amazing history part.
I always think about visiting due to the amazing natural and historical areas but simultaneously, how much I don’t want to visit due to other issues.
Same with a lot of countries.
I yearn for the day when the world rid itself of all states, they are the source of evil.
Rice field to magalopolis in a generation. Absolutely wild speed of seismic change.
Edit: megalopolis
winnie the pooh
Oh Bother
Very interesting history and culture, plastered over with bland authoritarian turbo-capitalism that disguises itself as communism.
Their authoritarian form of government which is definitely making me not want to ever visit China.
I am sure China is otherwise a wonderful country, I don’t have a negative opinion of Taiwan at all, but the PRC needs their Gorbachev to come to power and liberate them.
Gorbachev did not exactly liberate them, not the Russian SFSR part of it… gestures at putin
Rude, impolite and loud people. But not all Chinese people are like that. But the ones that are stand out the most.
Rude, impolite and loud people.
Bruh…
Did you meet a rich / middle-class tourist that acts entitled? Because like… that’s not really the reality. Most ethnic Chinese people actually act very polite in front of other people (at least that’s the case with my parents and relatives), since this is a “face” thing. Its behind closed doors that they start to drop the act and just be like: “Why are you so fat” (my mom literally said that to me lol). But like… Rude? In Public? 🤔
Cut you in the line like you dont exist. Try to force their way in the queue. Shout to their friends right next to your ears. Bump their luggage in your knee/feet/ankle. Stop in the middle of the road or in front of the elevators. Clip nails in public transport. Burp and fart in restaurant without a word. Drop trash on the floor. Spit in the street… you name it, I’ve seen it all.
And again, like all generalities, it doesn’t make much sense. I know not all Chinese people are like that. Especially your mom lol.
Cut you in the line like you dont exist. Try to force their way in the queue.
I’ve spent a lot of time in NYC and Philly Chinatown areas and almost never see this. I think the one time that someone tried everyone else in line (including ethnic Chinese people) called them out for it and they just went to the back of the line.
Stop in the middle of the road or in front of the elevators.
To be fair, I was in highschool (in the US) and kids of every ethnicity would also stand in the middle of the hallway usually in their little groups and chatting and blocking everyone from getting to their classes on time.
Burp and fart in restaurant without a word.
They don’t want to ackowledge it because it “loses face”.
Drop trash on the floor.
Not unique to Chinese people.
Go to any major city and you see this a lot.
Spit in the street
Oh yea this is annoying. I have someone who live on my block who is a first-generation immigrant, i’m not sure if from Mainland China or Taiwan or HK, but either way, they keep spitting like every day… Ugh 🤮
But I also see this from both white people and black people, not exactly a unique trait.
- Interesting mythology and past.
- Technologically advancing.
- Many ethical issues against people by the Government.
- They are very into the illusion of being a paradise.
- If you are a person not from there, it can be a potentially traumatizing experience, depending on what parts of the country you go to.
If you are a person not from there, it can be a potentially traumatizing experience, depending on what parts of the country you go to.
Actually, foreigners (white foreigner to be precise) such as Youtubers Serpentza and Laowhy86 managed to go around China and make videos critical of the CCP and they didn’t end up in prison or anything. But if a Chinese person attempted the same thing, they’d probably get jailed. I feel like there a sort of “foreigner privilage” that basically the CCP doesn’t want to get involved in a diplomatic incident, but is otherwise happy to punish their own citizens (since there wouldn’t be any diplomatic incidents).
I didn’t even mean trauma from the gov’t, which is a whole different level, but trauma from its own people. My wife traveled to China for work and it was not great for her.
Culture shock from going to an advanced society?
Not seeing mass homeless and junkies in the streets, working public transport, etc can be a bit much.You obviously know I meant the opposite. Not all of China is advanced. There were indeed homeless people and likely junkies. You can go into my post history if you want to see the longer story.
Congratulations, you’ve discovered sarcasm. (see what I did here?)
China has lifted 800mln out of poverty. 3,3% under the poverty line (for now). The US banana republic has11.1%.
China is the nr 1 in homeownership in theworld BTW at 96% And not even beginning about the junkie comparison.Your post history just shows your Sinophobia in another comment under this posts and then I have to scroll back to see your ‘expertise’ comes from…second hand stories from a 2 week trip your wife took once.
And that expleinss she’s butthurt bcs they don’t have a groteskly obese population like the US and they ridiculed her for it.
I guess it’s a more original reason for badmouthing them than the normal envy the US has for losing hard to them economically.
So LOL, copeThank you for teaching me sarcasm, I am in your debt. I’m also not an expert, and she’s not obese since she’s a personal trainer. You also forgot that she had a friend who also lived in the city she visited, for years might I add. It’s not just her experience. I also don’t think anyone was putting into question how fucked up the US is, because it most definitely is. The OP was asking a specific question and I answered it.
Unfortunately, it’s trump squinting his eyes, and saying “China!” with a pause and a scowl. Rent free in my brain.
Second thing I guess is some bullshit where they were cracking down on Ramadan in a news article.
Third I suppose is the rich history and cultural tradition.
Order. Conformity. Mystery. Impenetrable language. Impossible writing. Eating anything that moves. Mindless nationalism. People who don’t talk or even care about politics. Depressed single young people obsessed with shopping. Security cameras. Police. Airport-sized train stations. Electric scooters. Electric cars. Utopian-dystopian sci-fi.
Yes, I have been there multiple times.
PS: to be clear, I was very, very impressed by those trains and especially by the electrification of city transport. In Shenzhen the air is now cleaner than any big city in the West and with all the greenery and silence it really does have a utopian feel. The progress there is genuine, it’s amazing, it deserves lots and lots of credit.
Impossible writing.
Native Chinese speakers often forget how to write after they finish school. Especially exacerbated by technology. All you need to known is Pinyin.
Eating anything that moves.
My grandmother told me a joke, roughly translates to: “anything with 4 legs and with the back facing the sky, with the exception of a table, is food”. I mean… there were famines, so you can’t judge with western lens. You gotta eat whatever to survive.
People who don’t talk or even care about politics.
Its honestly the same with Americans. (to a lesser extent)
When I was in Highschool (in the US). Nobody in my classes seemed to be interested in voting. 🤦♂️
Depressed single young people obsessed with shopping.
Huh? I mean, I left when I was a kid so idk what this is, I never heard of this “obsessed with shopping” thing.
Better than USA.
Not exactly.
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Hukou issues -essentially a caste system. I was from a rural Hukou, I’m essentially “foreign” to the place I was born in (Guangzhou).
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Job Competition -Too many people. It may or may not be a political issue, but its definitely a geographical one. 1.4 Billion people means its very difficult to get a job. That the reason why my parents, along with me and my older brother, immigrated to the US.
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Food safety was a huge issue. At least pre-2025, the US had a much better enforcement of food safety policies.
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A person of the majority racial group living in the US (non-hispanic white people), still have an easier life than a person of the majority racial group in PRC (Han-Chinese) living in China. Of course, the “benefit” of China is, most people are Han-Chinese so there is not much racial discrimination issues, but the Hukou is still a problem.
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Emergency room care have to be pre-paid. Unlike the US, where the law requires hospitals to treat you in an emergency, in China you have to pre-pay before you receive care, even if its an emergency.
Things could change tho. If the US continues its fascism spiral, it could end up worse than China in the future.
Exactly. We don’t know what the USA is right now so the devil you know is always better.
Oh trust me, I know the devil.
If I go back to China (which I no longer have citizenship in btw) I would immediately get arrested and jailed for anti-CCP speech while in the US.
So my choices is stay in the US (which I do have Citizenship in) and possibly get arrested sometime in the future.
Or attempt to claim jus sanguinis in PRC, which probably wouldn’t work. And I would guaranteed to just end up in prison.
The truth is, neither the USA nor PRC is some kind of safe haven. The EU is the only remaining safe area left in the world.
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Massive cities with LED buildings, beautiful mountains with paved hiking trails all the way to the top and gondolas to get down, Long queues that are still orderly and move quickly, families eating large meals outside, friendly and very curious people.
I’ve spent a lot of time there. Compared to the west the cost of living is super cheap especially for all the options and amenities you get. Even in the hippest part of Chongqing I could rent an apartment 2x the size of my house for half the mortgage. If the US is headed towards a permanent authoritarian regime I would trade life here for over there. At least their dictator appreciates science and education.
I would trade life here for over there.
If you are white… maybe
Otherwise… it isn’t that pleasant…
The first thing I think of is “propaganda” but you might not expect why. I grew up in the western world, hearing constantly that China was basically the epitome of evil. Their government is evil, their people are evil, the very land they walk on is evil, everything they’ve ever done has been evil. In history we only learned about their crises and the times they caused problems for the western world.
Unlike my peers, however, this made me curious. Why are you telling me so constantly that they must be evil? Can’t there be good people there doing their best just like we are? And then things started getting weird in the western world. Then they got worrying. Then they started really taking their masks off and I realized “ohhhh you were projecting the whole time weren’t you?”
I still don’t know much about China. I don’t know what your culture is really like, how the people actually treat each other. I don’t know basically anything about you. I’d love to learn though, if you’re willing to teach.
Their government is evil
I mean… its not entirely false. . I mean, the CCP through the one child policy did try to terminate me, since I was the second pregnancy that my mother had (she already gave birth to my older brother), so they did try to find my mother to force an abortion against her will. Then after I was born, I guess the since I already exist, its too difficult to justify killing someone who was already born, so they just let me live. My parents had to pay like somewhete like ¥10,000 to ¥20,000 (in Renminbi currency) in order for me to get legal documents, which was a lot of money at the time. So yea fuck the CCP.
But to put in in perspective, it isn’t nearly as bad as North Korea, where they totally ban people from leaving.
their people are evil
Yea this is total BS. There’s nothing in the DNA of ethnic Chinese that make us “evil”.
Unlike my peers, however, this made me curious. Why are you telling me so constantly that they must be evil?
Like, don’t think this is just a western thing.
Nationalism is a thing in every country.
In China, they teach people why Japan is evil and all Japanese people are monsters… and I’m like… “all of them?” 🤔
Then it got weirder when the US was also portrayed as evil… I mean, don’t get me wrong, the US has done a lot of evil things. But its was also the US that aided China aginst the japanese invasion of China. Although controvertial, it was the US who nuked japan and that immediately stopped the war and save a lot of Chinese people.
So yea I get it, every country want to portray others as evil. Its not unique to the west.
But remember one thing:
Governments =/= The people whom they rule over
You can dislike a government without hating the people too
I still don’t know much about China. I don’t know what your culture is really like
I mean, tbh, I immigrated to the US as a kid, so I don’t know much either.
I don’t know basically anything about you. I’d love to learn though, if you’re willing to teach.
I mean… do you have any specific questions to ask?
Having two child rule is evil? Why? Rules makes a society, its your mom that try to break the rules? You know why they try to have 1 child policy right?
Sure they can be evil, but 1 child rule isnt evil. Imagine if 1st world countries suddenly started getting 5-10 childs everyone, everyone taking sueside cus no jobs and heavy competition on school.
The government shouldn’t have control over this. This is no different from nazi eugenics.
Hmm, there are way to many people in China, how would you regulate it?
I think you’re quite a few decades out of date with that opinion. The Chinese government is very worried about population decline now.
Ye sure, but that was not my point
I worry that your point is even worse than I thought.
Uyghur people in concentration camps while tourists invade their homes
There are vanishingly few tourists in Xinjiang. Indeed they won’t even give you a visa if you say you’re going there.
Such an enormous country. Old people doing tai chi in a park. Little kids earning red stars at school. Government trying to control the population too tightly, yet somehow also lacking basic safety regulations. Good food.
