Smog Is Good!

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Apparently in China smog is good for its citizens:

1. It unifies the Chinese people.
2. It makes China more equal.
3. It raises citizen awareness of the cost of China’s economic development.
4. It makes people funnier.
5. It makes people more knowledgeable (of things like meteorology and the English word haze).

Spoiler

ION, the NRA reports that mass shootings are good because they help to curb excessive population growth.

 

Here in China, smog is a major health concern, especially in large cities. This is a typical feel-good story produced by the chinese media, to assuage the concerns of citizens. Usually they have a go at foreigners like myself, talking of unimpressive immigration restrictions to "halt the influx" of immigrant "white trash":
http://www.echinacities.com/news/Foreigners-in-China-Seeking-Employment-Face-Difficulties
Anti-immigration rhetoric that distracts the population from real socio-economic problems they face. Western governments should sue them for copyright violation!

At least with this smog story, they don't attack the image of foreigners in their country, which is a 'refreshing' change (pun intended).

 

coin, do they openly refer to you as "white trash" there?

 

There are a lot of smart people in China. I have to hope that at least a major portion can see this sort of propaganda for the utter BS that it is.

 

The OT has a Monty Python-ish quality to it.

 

Chinese can be smart, but they get the values of conformity hammered into their psyches from the broken education system which uses learn-by-rote and doesn't teach how to think laterally, let alone question messages of authority like news stories. I recently tried to explain to my wife how they misrepresent foreigners by saying stuff like "driving without a license", while nobody needs a license to drive an electric bike here in China. It irritated her, and she just can't wrap her head around the fact that news stories which she unquestioningly believes might be deliberately lying to make people look bad. And it's entirely normal in China to not question stories in the news. People hate the governemt, but all they know is what gets through said government's screening, so knowledge of the outside world is admittedly limited. They have a sense of nationalistic pride which they falsely see as separate from the government, and this leads many Chinese to inadvertently look down on other nationalities. An informal term for foreigner (laowai) is used by city locals with such disdain that it's now becoming derogatory. Although most Chinese will assure you it's not meant to offend, they simply don't understand that it is derogatory now. Have a look at this blog for an entertaining summary on the subject of Chinese self-perception, but prepare to have your illusions shattered about China's mystery:
http://space.echinacities.com/239770/blog/detail/818

 

Interesting read, that. It would explain somewhat the attitude of many exchange students that I saw at university. They almost always stick together, only talking to other chinese exchange students and you'd only see them at college, pretty much nowhere else. The few exceptions that I saw who were trying to integrate with the other students, were the ones that were trying to immigrate over to here.

They seem, by and large, rather insular.

Coin, do you get asked a lot to be taken on a picture with/by schoolgirls? It was funny at first, but by the fifth time on the same day I go to the No Thanks modus. And that was in Seoul were there are lots of foreigners staying/working/visiting.

 

I went to South Korea for a few weeks while in college, and was basically treated like a celebrity simply because I was American. People wanted pictures. They wanted to talk to me. Some girls wanted me to kiss them, and a couple even wanted to know my hotel room number. One crazy lady desperately wanted to buy me some milk, and was practically dragging me into a restaurant with her. I basically had to run away from her. It was an utterly bizarre moment that I'll never forget.

A very different culture than what Coin is describing in China. The blog was eye opening, and disturbing.

 

It was a lot worse for you, I see. I was there only for a few days, but at least together with my girlfriend which would keep them at bay a little, I suppose.

I suspect it's the same in China and Japan, though. I know my sister went to China and was constantly asked for pictures - for the Chinese, she was the attraction, not the great wall. She's average height and blond (as am I), but average height for us is toweringly tall for them, I suppose. And blondness is something utterly alien to them.

Aside from that, some of the things described in the article about Chinese is just plain human nature as well. The amount of self-delusion people are capable of is always mind-boggling to me. Just look at those creatonists and the amount of logic gymnastics they are capable of just to justify some stories in a book. The Chinese take it to a national level, true, and are assisted by an education system that cultivates the unquestioning acceptation of given facts.

 

There are instances like that in Asian nations that retained a degree of homogeneity.

Which is not that unusual if one considers history and how long countries like Japan; Korea; China have been closed off to foreigners.

From that perspective both spectrum arise and if one considers the impact Confucianism had on those cultures and the resulting national common identifier -it could easily derail this thread and turn into an Abstract for a research paper.

A story from me:

While Co. working with a Japanese company here in Germany I had the opportunity to get to know a few interesting people.
In my two week stay there, one particular Guy was hell-bent in enlightening me (in broken German) on the matters of 'Nihonjinron' and why the Japanese people are not like other 'common people'.

The fact that at one point I had to take off my glasses to pinch the bridge of my nose, was tell enough that someone sensible acted and took him away to give me some breathing room.

 

Admittedly, it wasn't all bad. There are some beautiful girls in Korea, and I was single at the time. I didn't mind all of the attention. Some of it I obviously could have done without.

 

Without Milk you mean!


Didn't Mom tell you milk does a body good?

 

It wasn't the milk that bothered me as much as the strings that most certainly would have been attached.

And why milk, of all things, I'll never know....

 

Here's a story that got blown out of proportion in the Chinese news. The link describes most of how the greedy granny tries to milk a foreigner for cash, and he loses his cool. At first he was supported by eyewitnesses who confirmed he didn't hurt her. But later the video (1st one) of him swearing in Chinese at the granny made him lose all sympathy, and then he was condemned by the all-powerful voice of Chinese 'netizens'.

And surprise surprise, another video (2nd one in the link) pops up 'proving' that in fact he did cause the crash! If the media is to be believed, he was driving a motorbike without license, working without visa, and he and his father were both arrested and expelled from the country already. But I think (at least I hope) that the reported consequences were just lies meant to gratify the angry netizens who were out to get him.

The really jawdropping part of the story? LOOK at the 2nd embedded video in the link. Is that the same foreigner on the bike crashing into the granny? Especially look at the moment of impact: I swear I see 3 people on that motorbike. 2 adults and a little child in white, hugging a parent but being thrown forward at impact. Imagine: 1.3 billion people, a great deal of which are pro-active netizens, but nobody notices that this video is fake; it's just footage from another crash used to make the guy look guilty.

And look, state controlled media also went along with the idiocy. They probably figured, if netizens didn't care to look at the video carefully, they can easily broadcast it on TV too! I could whine about lack of cultural sensitivity, poor journalistic standards, dangerous demonization of non-nationals and so on, but what's the point? I should be very careful on the streets here, but my Chinese wife and child probably give me more protection than these guys had.

lao wai la ji. White trash. But not in your face. Americans bear the brunt, but we all face prejudices.
They're eager to look down on foreign influx of job seekers due to western unemployment, who in their opinion, couldn't find a job back home. Americans have a reputation of being opportunistic serial daters who constantly think and talk vulgarly about women. I recently drank a beer with 3 Americans, and I'd have to say they didn't disprove the stereotype.

Oh, all types are eager to get their picture taken with me. If i travel, I encounter more of them. Nowadays I stick around my home and work areas, and it doesn't happen so much anymore. My wife takes offense, because I'm not a zoo animal, and she doesn't trust the attractive girls who approach me either.

 

Irrespective of whether or not he did clip the woman in the second video, wasn't it his right of way?

 

i dont think so. in the fake video, the motorcycle crashes into a pedestrian crossing the road with others. there was probably green light for pedestrians. back in holland, it still wouldnt look good for the driver of a larger vehicle. even with right of way, youd be considered equally at fault for not stopping on time.

 

If you look, a car first turns left and hesitates because of pedestrians on the road, people are known to take the pi$$ over there and cross expecting the driver to yield, in the Uk atleast, you take your life in your hands, it is illegal to cross a road if you do not have the right to do so (and in america I believe it is called jaywalking?).

 

perhaps youre right. but this behaviour happens with pedestrians anywhere. in china, cars are also known to throw their weight into the right of way equation. getting a license is too easy, like with many diplomas you just need to bribe the school.

 

What a wonderful place.