Ok, I am having a hard time understanding what this CNN commentator said. The (American) Chinese press is reporting that he basically called all Chinese thugs. No, according to this article, he only call the People’s Republic of China’s leaders thugs and he called Chinese products “junk”.
Chinese leaders are “thugs”. A generalization but one that is true. Personally although I think they became power-hungry and did some stupid things, I believe that many in the post-revolution leadership had the intention of helping the people. Some of the shit that went down was horrendous and stupid but I believe that there was at least some idealism. This current crop of Chinese leaders is nothing but a group of mafia thugs. They use their positions to line their coffers with money FULL STOP. Nowadays, in China you have a mixture of the worst features of laissez-faire capitalism mixed with a political group you can’t get rid of using democratic means.
Chinese producsts are “junk”. Another generalization but there is a lot of truth to it.
Right or wrong, I don’t see this guys remarks as being racist…unless there is something else that he said of which I am not aware.
I’ll hijack your thread if you don’t mind, entheogens.
I approached a Chinese colleague on coffee break today, and asked him what he thinks about the whole Tibet debacle. He cracked a smile and told me how the Chinese burnt a French flag in protest, but it was upside down making it, effectively, a Dutch flag. Then he went on explaining all the security measures the government was implementing to contain the palpable sentiment of an anti-Chinese West and growing nationalism. He then started to describe to me the gruesome violence in Tibet and how innocents were targeted by the protesters. Hospitals and banks were attacked. He said that he doesn’t understand why they don’t go after police stations or military only. To him, the rioters were deliberately targeting innocents while all the Chinese were doing is try to provide a climate of security and stop the terrorists. The Han, Hui and other ethnic minorities were the prime target according to every account I’ve read in the press.
And that’s where I had a swooping deja vu. Except, you know, Tibetans are actually targetting Chinese civilians in terrorist attacks and the countries are adjacent.
To make sure nobody here twists my position on the matter: FREE TIBET!
The People’s Republic of China is an Oligarchy. Rule of the few over the many. And Italia got it’s “mafia” from China, thanks to Marco Polo. China was the original.
[quote]kroby wrote:
Chinese products are not junk. They are cheap.
[/quote]
My experience is that they are mostly junk. I work with them on some technology products and there is little to no
quality control.
Even when you adjust for the cost of living, etc, Chinese workers get paid shit. Yep, the products are cheap and you get what you pay for.
[quote]
The People’s Republic of China is an Oligarchy. Rule of the few over the many. And Italia got it’s “mafia” from China, thanks to Marco Polo. China was the original.[/quote]
I don’t know about that. “Mafia” is just a name and organized groups of thugs can take root in many places without having to trace it to an original source: Sicily or Shanghai.
[quote]kroby wrote:
Chinese products are not junk. They are cheap.
The People’s Republic of China is an Oligarchy. Rule of the few over the many. And Italia got it’s “mafia” from China, thanks to Marco Polo. China was the original.[/quote]
Chinese products are junk.
The lead paint toy recalls? The dog food that killed dogs? The toothpastes made with anti-freeze?
[quote]lixy wrote:
To make sure nobody here twists my position on the matter: FREE TIBET![/quote]
Just yesterday I was having brunch with several Chinese who were decrying CNN, asking how a CNN reporter could make such a gross generalization about a people. Literally, in the next sentence the same people were telling me how lazy Tibetans are, comparing them to native Hawaiians. Talk about your gross generalizations!
The tibetan situation is complicated. As I have said before, it must be taken into account that the Chinese have ruled Tibet for hundreds of years and that the Communist government has actually done some good there by destroying serfdom and slavery (all condoned by his HIGHNESS the Dalai Lama). They also built an infrastructure in Tibet, whereas before there was virtually none at all before. On the other hand, that does not justify some of the atrocious actions taken by the Chinese there. I just think there needs to be more balance.
[quote]tGunslinger wrote:
Chinese products are junk.
The lead paint toy recalls? The dog food that killed dogs? The toothpastes made with anti-freeze?
Chinese products are junk.[/quote]
Last time I was in China, I had to take this Ski-lift like transport up a mountain. It was very flimsy, not enclosed, and at times, I was 200 feet above the ground.
Imagine my fear as the memory of all the quality control issues I have experienced with Chinese technology flowed through my mind.
The question came to me: “When was the last time this damn thing got inspected and, if it has been inspected, how damn much did they pay to bribe the inspector?” The person who was with me, said I was turning blue with fear. I believe them. Hell, I’m scared now just thinking about it.
[quote]Franck wrote:
kroby wrote:
Chinese products are not junk. They are cheap.
Wrong. Chinese products are cheap junk…lots of french fashionable products are expensive junk…
[/quote]
Like what? Oh, every country produces some junk and not everything that comes from China is junk (just a lot of it). Most French products are of high quality.
Of course, things French have always had a reputation for style and some people put a French name to things and hike the price.
I don’t see many French products in Wal-Mart, which is your one-stop shop for junk in the US.
China is not a Western Country. People are not viewed as individuals and are expendable. It’s not a monolithic society but human life is valued differently.
[quote]hedo wrote:
China is not a Western Country. People are not viewed as individuals and are expendable. It’s not a monolithic society but human life is valued differently.[/quote]
I am not sure how this fits in with our discussion but I agree with you on one point, individualism as we understand it in the west does not exist in China or Asia.
Now a lot of us here in the West have gotten pressure from our parents to do this occupation or study that major. Still, there is a strong notion of “I am going to do my own thing”. This didn’t start in the 60s, it started in the Renaissance. The famous mythologist Joseph Campbell has cited the arthurian Knights of the Roundtable as indicative of this VERY western mentality. The knights "who on setting out, thought that it would be ignoble to travel in a group, each took their own turning into the forest “where he saw the forest was the thickest and there was no way or path…”
Chinese parents decide what the children will do and Chinese defer to the family patriarch, the group and social custom. This isn’t anything racial, this is cultural. As I am fond of saying, the Chinese never really had a REAL “cultural revolution”, like we had in the sixties. Hell, they never have even had the Renaissance and the blossoming of the individual that occured in that epoch.
Now as far as Chinese feeling that life is expendable, I don’t agree with you there. The Chinese family is a paragon of what the right-wing family values people talk about. Chinese parents love their children (to the point of suffocation) and other family members as much as anyone.