Ask Lemmy

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.

I think of China as a country that pretends to be communist while making cheap products that vary in quality. I also think of the nice people that live there though.

A country and its flag. They sort of come up simultaneously in my head.

Rude, impolite and loud people. But not all Chinese people are like that. But the ones that are stand out the most.

Rice field to magalopolis in a generation. Absolutely wild speed of seismic change.

People I don't know enough about.

a plate

Useless plastic shit

Chinese food, which i love.

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.

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.

Very interesting history and culture, plastered over with bland authoritarian turbo-capitalism that disguises itself as communism.

Uyghur people in concentration camps while tourists invade their homes

winnie the pooh

That piano riff. You know the one.

The internet has really fucked my brain, because the first thing that comes up in my head is an old meme of The Orange One (back when he hadn't been president yet, and so was funny instead of scary) saying "CHINA CHINA CHINA CHINA CHINA" (sorry)

AFTER that -- Disney's Mulan, and all the orientalist aesthetics that come with it (sorry²)

And AFTER that -- Years of internet discourse trying to convince me that a growth in Chinese international power would be worse than the US holding that position alone, which I find EXTREMELY hard to believe as a third world citizen whose home nation has been fucked in the butthole by the Americans like seven different times in lived memory (NOT sorry)

Then AFTER that -- The stories told by my one friend who lived there for a few months. To be honest they made China seem like a pretty cool place to live in. Or at the very least, a fun experience as an exchange student.

And AFTER all that -- Bootleg video games. They are interesting!

Authortarianism and censorship to the point where I can never return to my former homeland until that changes for the better. No worker's rights. Human rights issues in the north and west in areas that weren't part of China historically.

Possible conflict with Taiwan (if that happens than I'd be sent to the camps to die by orange cheeto, unless I leave).

1.4 billion people & had the One Child policy for the longest time.

Lots of enviornmental problems, air pollution (and apparently much of the country has really really hot heat indices in the summer, avg high of 40C and low of 30C already.... no thanks).

Really difficult language to learn (tried to learn it back when I was in school, couldn't really and basically forgot it all).

A ruthlessly effective technocracy that has achieved very impressive outcomes for their citizens¹ while also being a cultural / societal system I never want to live in. For some reason super obsessed with outside appearances.

1:

From 1995 to 2025:

• GDP/c: 603 to 13973
• Literacy rates: 77% to 96%
• University graduates per year: 900K to 10M
• Life expectancy: 33 to 77
• Railway km: 54616 to 160000 (50000 high speed)
• Urbanization rate: 29% to 67%

etc.

Wing Chun Kung Fu.

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.

Absolutely fascinated by Chinese culture and mythology. I’m a cdrama fan especially costume and cultivation themes. I am currently taking a Mandarin course so I can read, write, and better understand the language. I hope to travel to China soon if the orange clown in the White House doesn’t ruin my plans. I even homebrewed a cultivation ttrpg based on Investiture of The Gods that my friends are playing through right now. They love it! For context I’m not an Asian person - just a neurodivergent person with a deep interest.

Edit: sorry didn’t recognize your lol username, you’ve probably seen me bloviate on my xianxia addiction before.

Technology city of Shenzhen, mountain range, great wall, Mulan, winnie the pooh, three kingdom, wuxia story, and mala peppercorn.

Ohh and it's my ancestral land.

Overall amazing history and culture. Government is authoritarian worse than the current US. The Chinese people are smart and kind and very innovative overall. But among billions there is also a lot of fraud and copying.

My stance is kind of 50/50 with China.

For one, they're going to flame out even faster than America did. As time moves forward great powers last less and less time. America only held the crown for 80 years. Chinas got its own issues, especially with the population issues.

Yes, China has a laundry list of human rights abuses. We know all of them, I shouldn't have to list them here. China also is an aggressor country, harassing their neighbors and intimidating them for often no reason at all, and when there is a reason, it's territorial expansion. They steal IP, they steal identities and secrets (yes I know, stealing secrets is an everybody issue, and I'll get to that, but it's usually done with more class) and they gave our kids toys with lead in them. You could seriously go on for days on the bad stuff about China. The belt and road? Fuck, that's so, so bad... However

They're also leading in science and especially the environment. They've spent big money on their science, and it's paid off in spades for them and it's commendable from an international standpoint. No country on earth is fighting climate change harder than China. From advances in solar panels bringing the cost of clean energy down, and giving the ability to electrify places of the world that have never experienced it? That's pretty dope. Plus their electric car tech is blowing up so hard that it's actually kind of reasonable to tariff it, because they're so far ahead.

Now the gre(a)y, I'm an American. Half the shit that china does that's bad, was shit that we have been doing for generations. So yeah, china sucks shit. But does it suck more shit than America right now? I say no, but not by much, and mostly because a lot of the problems people try to put on China (i.e. pollution mostly) is because we facilitated that. If not them, it'd be our polluted air and water. And now, he wants to bring that manufacturing back here while deregulating pollutants AND enforcement. He saw 1990s Beijing and said "I want that for us". But basically, other than China's climate and science goals, were the same country. So the nod (barely) goes to China for being a more honorable or good country.

Complicated. Big.

A collection of a wide range of geography, languages, and peoples. Held together by a mix of national pride, iron fist, and a solid record of on the whole very good for most people improvements in life quality in living memory.

Big. Brazen. Splashy. But with an inability to face problems, and a resignation to the world as is. An almost fatalistic attitude paired with naïve or blind optimism on its dexter side.

A place filled with potential, as well as already existing food, culture, history. But hard to find much of it as modernity does a speed run towards uniformity and mass production, while historical sites are rebuilt as poured concrete facsimiles.

Thiefs, low quality, dictatorship, murders, will probably try to fuck up my life in the future.

the food, cuisine. szechuan numbing peppercorn. shenzhen tech. hongkong dresses. wing chun. samo hung.

"do not pursue lu bu"

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.