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How do they prepare food? I've seen young people live in places this size in Boston and New York, but they're usually hipstery never-at-home-anyway types who eat takeout all the time. I can't imagine the elderly living that sort of lifestyle though. Also, is this considered a unit for 1 or 2 people? Almost all of them have a bunk bed (reminds me of mainland dormitories actually) but only one person in the picture.
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Jan 31, 2013 14:39
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Yeah, there's a special brand of dumb for anything involving children. To be fair, if our species wasn't obsessed with caring for children, we probably wouldn't exist, but sometimes the obsession manifests itself in... inefficient ways
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Feb 7, 2013 03:34
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MeramJert posted:This and the kimchi guy you mentioned recently make me think that Korea is the odd east Asian country out. I've never heard anything like this in China. Even in Guangdong province, it's common for women to abstain from rice if they're trying to lose weight. China has multiple staple starches (rice, noodles, "dumplings" in all varieties, various bready things) so they can handle that concept at least
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Feb 8, 2013 19:24
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Yeah, even the highest-ranked Chinese universities aren't really all that. The educational culture is very different. It's not to say that a highly motivated student couldn't succeed or that there aren't notable scholars, but the overall environment is not particularly conducive to a rigorous educational experience.
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Feb 17, 2013 05:37
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Honestly, it kills me because I love living in Asia and I have nothing against China, but I really do think the US schools are better. I've met so many lackluster graduate students from these "top" schools that I am really leery of them and I am sure that US adcoms know this even better than a random student does. Examples of depressing conversations I've had with top ~3 universities' students: "Can you tell me about your research?" "Oh, I'm not really the academic type" "Why did you choose this major?" "I knew I could test into at a top university in this major" (it's bad enough when UNDERGRADS do it, but for grad schools in the US this would never pass muster...) "Why get a Master's in History if you don't want a PhD?" "If I get a PhD no men will want to marry me. My boyfriend has a PhD so it's perfect if I have a MA" I can only speak for social sciences, but my partner is in chemistry and he basically says the same thing -- they can't use any research results from China because plagiarism is so high and academic standards are so low that it's basically completely unreliable. It's one thing to go over for research trips or language study; it's quite another to do your entire degree over there. The fact that it's free and in China makes it tempting, but there are better ways to get international experience. Like the above poster says, if you really want the international experience, the joint programs might be a better idea. Johns Hopkins has a joint program with Nanjing University that's gotten a lot of press. I can think of a few limited exceptions... I knew a Polish girl who did a master's at NTU/TaiDa (note: not mainland China) and later went on to a top UK university. She was truly odd though, lived in Taiwan 2 years but couldn't really speak Mandarin and her English wasn't all that hot either. I also don't know if other fields might have some more potential? Chinese literature maybe? hitension fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Feb 18, 2013 |
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Feb 18, 2013 04:13
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I think the percentage of Chinese people who are genuinely interested in socialism/communism is probably about the same as in the US, maybe slightly higher. It does seem baffling that they still teach it so extensively, even though for the average worker it should be pretty obvious they're in the "rich wealthy capitalist overlords oppressing poor labor" phase of things. Why even teach it?
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Mar 1, 2013 14:15
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whatever7 posted:When you use "corruption level" to measure the Chinese system, it look really bad. I think what it really is, its "say one thing and do another thing", or "unspoken rules of game you have to follow". This is entirely derived from Confucianism, an Chinese original concept. It would be nice if there is a similar word to corruption but more neutral to describe the Chinese system. I think the rules of the game is still fair to vast majority to the participating players, you just don't get a manual of the game when you start playing. There need to be a game theory study on Guanxi. Uhh no there's a Chinese term for it and Chinese people use it all the time to complain about the same thing:腐敗 "You don't understand our unique culture" should be the Godwin's law of internet arguments about China, or anywhere in Asia really. Humans are humans
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Mar 1, 2013 19:47
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Peven Stan posted:Yeah no, there is no reverse racism going on here noted expat ReindeerF. Also where the hell outside of Hong Kong are you going to find journalists of European descent in China? The burden rests on America precisely because this country is ostensibly a multiracial and multilingual nation. I dunno about NY Times but Reuters' Beijing head is a Chinese-Filipino American at least... I don't know a lot about journalism but in academia at least, you see a similar trend of old white guys but the up and comers are much, much more diverse in terms of gender, ethncity, national origin etc.
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Mar 4, 2013 20:43
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Man I love tiny apartments but that video gives me claustrophobia every time. Where is the shower?!
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Mar 6, 2013 15:25
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This is debatable but I see no real signs that the British or other European powers or Japan destroyed Chinese culture. They were mean to China, yeah, but they didn't cause massive social upheaval within Chinese society. Read more on the Cultural Revolution. It's definitely not just buildings and stuff. That said, I think some parts of Chinese culture are pretty salient and even the mighty Mao couldn't topple them. It blows my mind to think there was a brief point in Chinese history where education was not valued.
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Mar 7, 2013 13:57
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That's an impossible question because countries (and even parts of countries) are not homogenous groups. What percent of any country would break off, given the opportunity? Catalonia? Quebec? Texas?
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Mar 8, 2013 02:28
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The thing is, with any of these tragedies where millions of people have died, it's inherently difficult to measure the number of deaths: -The government in question almost certainly wants to cover up as many deaths as possible (whether it's Mao or some small local leader doesn't really matter, their incentive is the same) -Conversely, authors looking for a big scandal to write on and those who politically oppose the regime have an incentive to revise their figures up as high as possible Ultimately although precise figures would be nice, it's hard to fathom the difference between 30 million and 40 million deaths anyway. With numbers that large, you don't really get a feel for what that means besides "lots of people died and that was bad". I find it helpful to talk to people who went through it (if they're even willing to do so) or perhaps read a book. I liked "Colors of the Mountain" by Da Chen... although that book is a little too perfect, so I don't think it's 100% factual either.
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Mar 13, 2013 14:11
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Wall Street Journal has a nifty infographic showing how overpriced Hong Kong is: Sorry Hong Kong, you're pretty great but nowhere near NYC yet double the price... not that I would want mainland Chinese speculatin' on NYC either. Also, Sydney is a fine dining desert. First world problems.
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Mar 17, 2013 02:30
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^ Privatize what? Plenty of things are privatized in China... most people go the other way and mistakenly assume "China is capitalist now" without realizing just how much stuff is run by the gov't or a result of public-private "partnerships". Party name? The Communist Party doesn't mean they have to strictly be literal Marxist style Communists. I will admit the tension between ideology and reality is pretty fascinating. McGregor's book "The Party" talks a lot about that kind of issue in general -- like how the Communist Party actively recruits business leaders because useful. They're not going to change the name unless the entire Party collapses which, while a wet dream of many China scholars, doesn't appear to be happening imminently. Arkane posted:China getting some great publicity from the New York Times correspondent. On the plus side, this thread was just having a discussion about the lack of Asian-American journalists in American news outlets and also the uselessness of non-ethnic Chinese journalists in China. Equal opportunity uselessness! The restaurant sanitation ranking just reminds me of the time I met a girl who bragged about her 公務員(public servant) boyfriend who worked as a food inspector, i.e. the guy assigning smiley faces. "Oh.. I'm not dating him just because he's a public servant though, I'm not that shallow." The idea that a V Presumably that, although the PC answer is "it's stable" hitension fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Mar 18, 2013 |
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Mar 18, 2013 02:12
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I don't know the details of how many ultrasounds women are required to have but the general tone of the article is right. If you go to China you can instantly understand why they instituted the policy. Unbelievable amounts of people everywhere. 1 million is a huge city in America; it's a tiny city in China. Keep in mind people were urged to have as many children as possible in the past and culturally it is desirable to have a big family (same with most traditional cultures around the world prior to industrialization, since they can help out around the farms). However a combination of the following changes to the one-child policy make it less severe: -Rural residents are allowed up to 2 -Members of ethnic minority groups are allowed up to 2 (and many who are 1/2 ethnic minority will legally classify themselves as minorities to take advantage of such options, further increasing the size of this group) -As the article states, you can have additional children and just pay fines, which many urban residents are able to afford. So as the article states, the only people really getting squeezed are middle class urban families. As Japan, Hong Kong, Europe and the States would all indicate, this category of people tend to have a low birth rate anyway. It is totally fascinating to see all the impacts of the one child policy though. I also like Singapore, where they went from "Stop at Two" to "Have Three or More!" in the span of like 15 years. I don't think governments are very good at figuring out how to get the size of population they want. V Believe you are right in that it's not a recent change for minorities, I was just kind of word vomiting since I have a million thoughts about that policy. VV "Computer parts" however, I'm pretty sure either you or your girlfriend or both misunderstood the law. If that were the case, then there wouldn't be such a severe gender imbalance in the countryside because there would be no female infanticide (since you know you'll get a son sooner or later) hitension fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Mar 22, 2013 |
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Mar 21, 2013 23:59
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I've met Chinese people who were rural migrants with about 0 guanxi who got passports, so it must not be THAT hard. Actually Communist party members do have to apply to go abroad, or somehow record that they are going abroad, but I don't know too much about the inner workings of that. The US State Department likes US citizens to register their residence abroad, but it's not required. China seems to have a non-optional version of that. Lots of countries do though. Extremely difficult for Chinese to get a visitor visa to the USA if they don't have strong connections to China. The US assumes everyone wants to immigrate there. So if you are a young person, unmarried, no real estate, no children, it will be hard to get a tourist visa.
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Apr 10, 2013 12:50
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Yeah somehow I highly doubt they would tell you detailed statistics related to their work.
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Apr 10, 2013 16:15
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flatbus posted:It's been super-long since I applied for a travel document of any sort, but I could have sworn Shanghai served the populous coastal parts of Zhejiang as well. 
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Apr 10, 2013 16:34
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To be honest though, how many people in a Western guy - Chinese girl relationship are serious about settling down in China? I realize Pro-PRC Laowai is a different case, but by most Western standards eventually settling down in the USA is probably the goal. In those circumstances the policy is quite reasonable. ...Until you get into complex ideas of "what is a nationality, really, anyway?" and "Doesn't everyone have the same human right to live wherever they please", but the adjudicator isn't making immigration policy, just enforcing it.
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Apr 11, 2013 00:35
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There are some major disadvantages to PRC citizenship though. A US citizen can travel visa-free (or visa on arrival) to 166 countries. For China it's more like 30 (and not so much the "good ones"). I know Chinese citizens studying in the USA can't even hop over the border to Canada to see Niagara falls without a visa. Don't get me wrong, I love China. But I would not want a PRC citizenship.
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Apr 11, 2013 13:50
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Why would you voluntarily choose to send your kids to school in China  I mean we're veering into personal life decisions which is not really what this thread is for, but in general I think the system which produces adults that are creative/assertive and somewhat worse at math is better than the other way around. Gaokao (and the similar systems they have in Korea, Japan, etc) just seems to ruin childhoods somehow. Not to mention whatever teasing your child would get for looking different.
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Apr 12, 2013 00:11
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Reception of half black, half Chinese in China: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120311417 (There's the tacky China Smack article if you want to go search for that too) Anyway, I really feel like to "get ahead" in China as a Chinese citizen it's all about becoming a Party member. I'm not even sure if half Chinese people qualify for this. The other problem is once you are a Communist Party member, it becomes harder to immigrate to the USA. Basically if you're looking at just the USA and China, what is considered desirable in one society is undesirable in the other and vice versa. If you have to hedge your bets with just one country, despite the fear-mongering I think the USA is still a safer bet than China.
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Apr 13, 2013 15:34
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If there are any, they'd have to be super recent. China didn't really have companies besides SOEs in 1950s-1980s (time period based on the Westerners in Thailand you linked) and for quite a long time after that firms had to be joint ventures with at least 50% Chinese ownership/involvement. Now a wholly foreign owned firm is OK but it's still kind of a mess to navigate the Chinese system on your own.It's only recently that I've heard of Chinese brands having any influence outside of China in general (Haier? Lenovo?) so a foreign owned firm within China seems even less likely. Maybe I am overlooking something? e: VVV I love when white people use 白 in their Chinese names 
hitension fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Apr 14, 2013 |
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Apr 14, 2013 03:54
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Teddybear posted:I'm curious how China's media is covering the Boston attack; it was announced today that one of the three killed was a Chinese national studying at BU, and I've been hearing conflicting reports about what SCMP and Xinhua have been reporting. She was. It is known within the Chinese community at BU who it is but the family has requested that her information not be publicly released. Xinhua published an article on her and then promptly withdrew it. If you don't know who it is, you don't know her anyway so best to not go prying for now and just respect the grieving family's wishes. V Well that is a needless thing. :/ edit: The victim's name and information are public information now. Her family was being harassed by media in China, truly terrible. NHK snooping around campus today. What a mess. hitension fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Apr 17, 2013 |
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Apr 17, 2013 15:10
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^ Sounds like she's just a bad student...
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Apr 22, 2013 23:42
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Deceitful Penguin This is really out of the scope of the thread, but I'm still not clear on Icelandic naming conventions after reading Wikipedia. The proper way to refer to the PM of Iceland is just "Jóhanna" with no title? Are there many unique given names in Iceland? It seems like it could get very confusing using only first names. I've seen Chinese newspapers call Secretary of State Clinton as "希拉里" (Hillary) many times. I do find it pretty offensive but it occurred to me that calling her just Clinton would confuse Chinese people more and there's a limit to how much the average newspaper reader is going to learn just to read an article...
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Apr 24, 2013 17:08
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I've actually seen that last one circulating around my Facebook. The case was "mystically closed", eh? ... I guess petitioning in large numbers must be pretty exciting for Chinese, who are only allowed to petition in groups of no more than 3 or 4. Tofu is totally umami though. The petitions definitely just increase the illusion of openness/government accountability without bringing substantial changes, but I guess there are some good things. For example, it can draw out people with crazy ideas and explain to them why they're wrong all at once: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-request-obama-be-impeached-following-reasons/cpk4V6zK and response https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/short-answer-no-keep-reading
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May 8, 2013 13:57
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What is the deal with people being negative in commencement ceremonies? It's so tacky. He could have expressed the same sentiments without the negative side and it would have come across stronger. If Chinese people ask, I will defend democracy and freedom of speech to the death, flawed as it may be. But don't go around all "NYAH NYAH WE CAN POST ON FACEBOOK AND YOU~OU CA~AN'T"  American food IS pretty bland though. I do like myself a bland macaroni and cheese and a bland meatloaf as much as anyone, but there's no denying it's bland. Japanese food is pretty bland (mild?) too. Chinese food seems to go to all kinds of extremes: one place is ridiculously salty, another ridiculously spicy etc. There should be a chart of "How delicious is something", with America and Japan being one large normal distribution around the center, and China a bimodal distribution of "best thing ever" and "inedible".
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May 23, 2013 13:16
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I think the bigger question is, why would an unemployed factory worker own a Honda?
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May 28, 2013 12:44
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Shaoxing is awesome! Aside from the cooking wine (which as Grand Fromage noted is actually famous famous and not just "stop trying to make your 特产 happen, it's never going to happen" famous), they have museums for Lu Xun and Qiu Jin, two of the coolest Chinese people ever. Qiu Jin, the woman knight of Mirror Lake. Qiu Jin was a women's rights activist. In Qing era China. Let that sink in for a moment. When she was young her parents married her off to some guy, but she just ditched him and went to study abroad in Japan by herself. In Japan she started wearing men's suits and took up martial arts and swordfighting   After Qiu Jin came back to China she became head of a military school, founded the first women's newspaper in China, and plotted an uprising against the Qing. She also wrote a ton of poems like this one (shamelessly ripped from Wikipedia) quote:漫云女子不英雄， Qiu Jin fought really hard for women's literacy and the right to choose their own spouse and ending footbinding. Keeping in mind this was around 1900 and women's rights didn't become a "thing" even in the West for another 50-60+ years... some people are so ahead of their own time it just blows my mind Eventually her plotting caught up to her and she was arrested. When the authorities beat her up and tried to make her confess, she refused to confess because she is a badass. She wrote in place of a confession: "“秋風秋雨愁煞人" (something like "the autumn wind and autumn rain worry me to death"  also a pun on her last name) So then she was beheaded at the age of 31 and never lived to see the Xinhai Revolution  .
hitension fucked around with this message at 00:14 on May 30, 2013 |
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May 29, 2013 23:59
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Man there is a lot I could say about women's rights but in terms of individuals I suppose that is pretty fair. I like to go ahead with my hyperbole sometimes. Qiu Jin's story is certainly more exciting/dramatic than any others I can think of ... Also the quote is basically a poem/creative writing so it is open to interpretation  It's not like Qiu Jin made a footnote like "note: here the author uses a literary allusion" I never heard the sex thing though  Qiu Jin isn't supposed to be sexy
hitension fucked around with this message at 02:13 on May 30, 2013 |
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May 30, 2013 02:02
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The economy of the Philippines is absolutely dependent on remittances http://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/remittances-and-the-philippines-economy-the-elephant-in-the-room People in the Philippines also speak English (somewhat) and that is a useful skill in the M.E.
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May 31, 2013 00:13
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Worldwide, people generally cooled off about 6/4 at some point around... 1992 or 1994, I forget which. If anything, it looks more like a recent uptick due to the global financial crisis.
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Jun 4, 2013 11:57
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caberham posted:When it comes to HK politics, you can just  The tension between the regular posters of the China area threads is almost palpable. I am eating a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
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Jun 4, 2013 23:23
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Hongers have been bitching about China before you even spoke a word of Chinese and became a corrupt government apologist.
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Arglebargle III posted:To really blow a Chinese student's mind, tell them that Canada and bunch of European countries also identify as VideoTapir posted:
Maybe they're just buddies. How's it hangin' Jinping?
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Jun 9, 2013 12:10
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Man, I wish I was Edward Wong. I'd love to get paid to do what every other expat in China does: sit around and bitch about the air quality, the corruption, and every other facet of daily Chinese life. Hard hitting journalism right there.
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Aug 7, 2013 20:43
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Mm-mm, steamed hams. Also mmm, life of Bo Guagua. Dude went to school down the street from me. If you know any spoiled 官二代(CCP officials' children) -- I.E., you go to university in the States or the UK and have any Chinese classmates at all -- then you already probably have a pretty good idea of about what their lifestyles are like. Or just GIS Bo Guagua, seems like he was pretty bad about having his picture taken at inopportune moments.  GuestBob posted:Also, I would be very surprised if the thing about academics accepting holidays from a student is true. If you ever did that in a UK university you'd be fired the moment you got back. From my understanding, he wasn't paying for teachers' trips, just classmates. I think he just really wanted to party with white people/buy friends which is kinda depressing actually. I know they post these articles so that we can gawk at the lives of the rich and privileged, but for the kids I think it just messes them up.
hitension fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 21:21
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Man, Meimei Guo is so 2011. I think it turned out she wasn't directly affiliated with the Red Cross... I am surprised every time corruption makes the news headlines in China. I mean, really? It's China. There's corruption.
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Aug 26, 2013 00:42
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Stinky tofu is so meh to me. Sure, it tastes good enough, but it's like... Hey, do you guys know it's possible to have a food that both tastes good AND smells good? What's up with people posting "gweilo" all over the place now? Have enough SCMP articles been posted that this is actually the Hong Kong thread now?
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Sep 17, 2013 04:13
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^e: this person has listed the correct thread I think Uh... what? Is your mother in law Chinese? This information was not provided. I think that kind of post is more appropriate for the LAN thread but I avoid reading that thread for a reason so eh. A book for someone in Chinese with 0 other information? There's like a million books in Chinese. Get her the translation of Jobs' life story or whatever, seems to be what Chinese people like anyway.
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Sep 23, 2013 16:40
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