China Bashing or Reality?
In writing this blog, I try to avoid bashing China, because while there are some very real disconcerting experiences that I encounter on a regular basis, and there are some major issues in this country, I don’t want to come across as a total dumb-ass.
Chinese People Fed up with China
I got to thinking about this tonight as I had dinner with one of the more senior of my Singapore colleagues alone for the first time. Usually I try to give polite responses about why living in China is good - or do my best to see the bright side of things. But after I finished my usual polite spiel, he came back with all the reasons he doesn’t like China. And like most Singaporeans of Chinese descent, he sees himself (and I see him based on this) as Chinese.
And without a doubt, many many mainland Chinese people are fed up with many aspects of China. As am I. But there is good and bad in any country, and any situation. I proceeded to talk with him about some of the reasons that China is in its current state, and how things are getting better, but there is no denying that there are many things that drive me crazy about this place. These things, unsurprisingly, are also the things that annoy many Chinese people, wherever they are from.
Cognitive Disconnect in China
I thought about using the term cognitive dissonance here, but think this is a better way of putting things. The problem with writing bad things about China is very complicated. Why? What you run into here is a result of there being soooo many people, many of whom have low education levels (and conversely many of whom have very high education levels), crammed into tight spaces. It is inevitable to see the bad sides of some Chinese people.
But people who come through this website will then take this and extrapolate it to Chinese people all over the world, which is just wrong (usually). Why? It’s like me writing about the worst things that ‘white trash’ do, and then being read by people the world over who think all Americans are like white trash.
So I end up with this cognitive disconnect (dissonance really), trying to tone down all of the crazy things I see in China to avoid coming across as a bigot. This is a problem, because it doesn’t reflect the reality of living here, right? So what would you do?
