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.
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.
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.
winnie the pooh
Oh Bother
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.
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).
