Your opinion on China: "Education camps" and New Silk Road (980 views, 29 replies)

Hello fellow twomovies fans:
I have been working on Chinese worldwide investments as a consultant since 2011 now and to (make it short)..these are hard times. The current events in Xinjiang and Hongkong threaten to dissolve all credits China earned in the last years.
..and are putting my "Marco Polo" attitude of "understanding cultures by trade"
on the test bench.

I found out recently that as a specialist (as so often)i know more about chinese perception of the Western World than vice versa.

So please leave anything that comes to your mind in a comment. I would be especially interested in your opinion of the Belt&Road Initiative (better known probably as "New Silk Road" to many) and the present political situation.

As always please keep it clean and safe and polite.

Oh and one more small request: just an hour ago we did the final rendering on a video about a super large New Silk Road project. As you are all experienced cineasts here i would highly appreciate your opinion on that as well.
... Thank you!

(please watch full screen for best results!)


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hmmm it seems to have swallowed the link...
here is it:

Hey Adrian!
Interesting topic.
I personally don't have any experience about big busyness and deals. I know about the stores of the Chinese that are now days quite a few in every town here. The Chinese people don't adapt in our society. Rarely speak Greek, avoiding any every day conversation with the clients or the people around them. In general they avoid asimilation with the population around them. Many times their stores makes suspicious deals. They for example accept big shipments advertised as "manequens or samples of shoes or clothes" to avoid playing taxes. For example in one shipement they get a million left shoes and on the next a million right shoes and so it happens in other ways around their busyness.
I done some forms of chinese martial arts in the past (for example wing chung) and many times tries to start a conversation with these people and they refuse. Not about martial arts , about anything like for example their names or greeting. I tried many times, in different Greek cities and twice with tourists - nothing.
... I don't have a good impression in general. Otherwise i respect their great history they have and their right to commerse. Their political system, the education they give to their population is a different story and not i think included in the thread
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Some basics about how the chinese "tick":
1. When you go to nearly any country in SOuth East Asia (like Thailand, Indonesia,Laos etc.) all tourists /travellers have one reaction in common:
" These people are soooo nice and polite. They smile all day and are extremely polite" Well...thats true.Its easy to love em all.( i wont go too deep in that lol)
2. I never ever heard someone saying that about his first trip to China.
Formal politeness (like hotels, service) is common, but it takes a lot of time to come in private contact. I have quite a few chinese friends and i did not make contact with them in China, but in Europe (university, business etc.)
3. Most chinese Tourists (as we all know) appear in groups . I think basically
that is dued to the attitude towards travelling itself. For most Chinese it is a status symbol. Showing around fotos at home is the main purpose.
actually all other countries to most Chinese are rather "Not China" than "Spain, Greece,Thailand etc."
... to be continued...
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4.Now at any airport in Asia as sure as you will find a runway you will find a group of giggling chinese girls loudly commenting on crazy Chinese apps. In away that is quite a pleasant contrast to the mostly grouchy appearence of their parents.

5. The Chinese Diaspora
In nearly any country there are "China towns". And in nearly any country locals react the same to the Chinese tendency not to interfere with locals privately (except for business). While the China towns in US and Europe
usually are rather 19th or 20th century (and rapidly increasing now), some of the ones in South East Asia are hundreds of years old e.g. Kuala Lumpur.
Many times the second generation is a cultural hybrid and more open.
In western societies the millions of chinese students tend to assimilate western culture. but dont misunderstand that. In Germany for about a 100 students there is a "supervisor" (also a student) with the authority to let those who "exaggerate" it know what the party thinks about being drunk on a party or being too involved in politicsa here. Although most students dont care.
... FUNNY FACT:THIS happened several dozens of time to me in Thailand:
(Chinese tourists there are rapidly increasing in number and look upon the Thais as merely servants.)
Ok while going out we talked about the chinese. the following answer is quite common: " Chinese like Jews in Europe. Only money in head. just like Jews. If Thai girl want marry chinese boy chinese family kill girl sometimes. really really. i saw on smartphone"

I should mention that the Thai people are not well known for their historic precision. Or any kind of precision.
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Xmas in China

Now how does the biggest mostly atheist country of the world celebrate Christmas?
Only 1% of Chinese people are christians. Yet the xmas days gained importance throughout the last decade as a selling and business opportunity.
The vast majority of people does not know that it is actually christ`s birth that is celebrated. xmas is not an official holiday in China. Christmas is associated with Santa and gifts.
But there is one exception: In Hong Kong due to British tradition Xmas is as large as Chinese New Year. It is frequently elected amongst top ten of the best places to be on xmas world wide.






FUNNY FACT: There is a unique chinese tradition at xmas. The apple.
An unusual apple giving tradition has evolved in the country. Ping in the word 'apple' (苹果 píngguǒ /ping-gwor/) sounds like the word 'peace' in Mandarin, which is used for Christmas Eve ('Peaceful Evening'), so people give and eat apples, particularly on Christmas Eve. Apples are sold with messages printed on the skin (in Chinese): 'love', love hearts, and 'peace' are popular messages.
...
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i wonder if the reporting on it is prejudiced at all because they're Asian. I dont agree with everything in China, especially as I am Cantonese and we've always had disagreements with the mainland but at the same time, we have issues with white people colonizing us and their racist views against us as well as racial prejudices from other demographics, using this reporting as propaganda. For example, I am not Japanese but I have to deal with racism against Japanese people because they assume I am Japanese. I have also been assumed to be Native American and dealt with racism against them even though I am not. So I would like to point out things I do not agree with for the Communist Party while also not having to worry about it turning into a whole prejudice against all Asian people in the western world. I've heard reporting of stating it is false while also stating the reeducation camps are true or the reporting is in the middle so I do not know if the issue is a Juicy Smooyay.

About younger chinese history
It would go far beyond the scope to start chinese history here with mystical emporer Qín Shǐhuángdì (you know his Terracotta army)
BUT to understand current China it is imperative to at least keep some points in mind. This is certainly unacceptably abridged ..but here we go
1) China is not on the raise - It is on the RE-raise
From the year 1 A.D. to 1840 (over 18 centuries) China had a share of the global GDP of 30-35 % (very constantly) This share dramatically decreased to only 8% in the time from 1840 to 1950 and then constantly was at about 10-12% till Deng Xiaopings opening policy in the 80s. Today Chinas share nearly reached 25% and is approaching "old levels again. So what looks as the birth of a new world power (western view) is only a regain of its orign position (chinese view)

2. The century of humiliation: the role of colonialism and the end of imperial rule. The way to the PRC.
When most european think of colonialism its Africa they think of, maybe India.
Not so much Asia and China.
The first leased port and bridgehead of Europe was Macao (1557)
Portugal dominated the Indian Ocean through 16th and 17th century followed by the dutch in late 17th century.
Early in the 19th century, serious internal weaknesses developed in the Qing dynasty that left China vulnerable to Western, Meiji period Japanese, and Russian imperialism. In 1839, China found itself fighting the First Opium War with Britain. China was defeated, and in 1842, signed the provisions of the Treaty of Nanking which were first of the unequal treaties signed during the Qing Dynasty. Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain, and certain ports, including Shanghai and Guangzhou, were opened to British trade and residence.
The second opium war (1856)also improved british position.
Toward the end of the 19th century, China appeared on the way to territorial dismemberment and economic vassalage. [some quotes from Wiki here]
...


The Boxing Rebellion 1899-1901 showed that big parts of China were fed up with colonial powers (and the Qing dynasty)

Last emporer Puyi abdicated in 1911 after Sun Ya-Tsen and his movement for a republic ended more than 2000 years of chinese imperial rule.

Current China has not forgotten its humiliation by the european colonial empires. In Shanghai on nearly every restaurant there was a sign "No chinese or dogs allowed". Only the Japanese are even worse remembered.

This has actually present consequences. Xi Jinping played the "colonial card" in Africa many times proposing his Belt and Road initiative."we all suffered under the white powers" - undeniably historically true.
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before going on with the serious stuff here
Some funny factsda daaaa
One the most interesting things about traveling is: ..those lil differences.
I have a huge collection of them and am always in the search for new ones.

Soo lets say you are in a loud and noisy beer bar/pub in Shanghai.
You want to order 2 more beer for you and a friend.You use the thumb and the pointing finger of your right hand to order visually... and the waiter brings you EIGHT beers later
What happened? Of course you have the great chance of getting drunk now
What happened is: Chinese counting gestures are different:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...
this means eight in China, sometimes with an additional middle finger (south China)
Of course in Europe it would mean "2"

The chinese have a quite smarter system that enables you to count to ten with ONE hand


...
I like those lil differences. They are by the way a perfect and funny start of conversation with local people everywhere!
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And another funny fact:
Traditionally, Chinese babies wear “kaidangku” (literally “open-crotch pants”) instead of diapers. However, disposable diapers sales continue to rise dramatically—around 20 to 40 percent each year.



What a great idea to reduce plastic!
Imagine your mom showing baby pics like that to your new girl/boy friend!!!