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.
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.
The sets of fancy expensive-looking porcelain plates and cups my older relatives all had on display in a glass-fronted cabinet for use on some theoretical special occasion, but no occasion was ever actually special enough to allow anyone to use it.
Chinese food, which i love.
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.
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.
A country and its flag. They sort of come up simultaneously in my head.
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.
I like the idea that these were your first impressions of China, as in you stepped off a plane, had one look around and thought “Wow, this place seems like a ruthlessly effective technocracy that has achieved very impressive outcomes for its citizens but it’s certainly a cultural-slash-societal system I never want to live in.”
I’ve been reading some terrible books because I enjoy listening to 372 pages we’ll never get back.
That reads exactly like a line in a few of those books.
University graduates
You forgot the Gaokao that’s 10x harder than the US SAT/ACT 💀
Tofu Dreg.
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.
Better than USA.
Not exactly.
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Hukou issues -essentially a caste system. I was from a rural Hukou, I’m essentially “foreign” to the place I was born in (Guangzhou).
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Job Competition -Too many people. It may or may not be a political issue, but its definitely a geographical one. 1.4 Billion people means its very difficult to get a job. That the reason why my parents, along with me and my older brother, immigrated to the US.
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Food safety was a huge issue. At least pre-2025, the US had a much better enforcement of food safety policies.
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A person of the majority racial group living in the US (non-hispanic white people), still have an easier life than a person of the majority racial group in PRC (Han-Chinese) living in China. Of course, the “benefit” of China is, most people are Han-Chinese so there is not much racial discrimination issues, but the Hukou is still a problem.
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Emergency room care have to be pre-paid. Unlike the US, where the law requires hospitals to treat you in an emergency, in China you have to pre-pay before you receive care, even if its an emergency.
Things could change tho. If the US continues its fascism spiral, it could end up worse than China in the future.
Exactly. We don’t know what the USA is right now so the devil you know is always better.
Oh trust me, I know the devil.
If I go back to China (which I no longer have citizenship in btw) I would immediately get arrested and jailed for anti-CCP speech while in the US.
So my choices is stay in the US (which I do have Citizenship in) and possibly get arrested sometime in the future.
Or attempt to claim jus sanguinis in PRC, which probably wouldn’t work. And I would guaranteed to just end up in prison.
The truth is, neither the USA nor PRC is some kind of safe haven. The EU is the only remaining safe area left in the world.
Im sorry, did you or did you not ask people to tell you what they thought of china? You don’t seem very accepting of what other people say if you don’t agree.
You’re happy in the USA? Good for you. Let’s see for how long. Good luck.
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Useless plastic shit
That piano riff. You know the one.
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.
winnie the pooh
Oh Bother
Thiefs, low quality, dictatorship, murders, will probably try to fuck up my life in the future.
Dude that is the USA. They do have knife guys occasionally but nothing is as terrifying as being a US grade student with an active shooter warning on campus. Besides Japan I’ve never felt safer that over there.
Do you folk have any other talking points than “but USA bad”? This question is not about USA, it’s about fucking China.
You sure nothing’s as terrifying? I think being an Uyghur in a Chinese concentration camp might be even worse.
Well I can’t speak from a Chinese/Uyghur perspective, only from what I know and have seen. I doubt you will find many Chinese residents that would say China is more dangerous than the US. A more divided opinion here for sure. The data proves it, in total murders and per capita. I’ve been all over their cities at all times of night and would not do that here, especially in the city I live in now. The things you are saying that is bad about China I think is worse here. I don’t think any Chinese resident is worried about getting shot while driving down the highway and I’ve lived thru those periods here, in the places it was happening. Just doing a direct comparison. If you’ve visited China I would find it hard to believe you would find it more dangerous.
No, it probably isn’t more dangerous in the direct sense. But it’s more dangerous in the subtler ways. Look, I’m from a country where we had the Soviet bland of dictatorship disguised as communism and let me tell you it’s very similar to the Chinese bland.
You have to censor your opinions because you might end up in prison for saying the wrong thing to the wrong people. And the worst thing, you don’t know what you’re missing because the government and its secret police tries really hard to make sure you don’t know how much better it is.
I believe that you had a superb time as a tourist in China, after all they only show you the good parts as a tourist. You’re simply not allowed anywhere that might shed light on their propaganda.
I’m not saying US is some kind of utopia or whatever, but pretending China is a good country to live in is crazy and dangerous.
I lived there for 2 years. I’m familiar with the propaganda. It was easy for me to ignore since I wasn’t going to be a permanent resident.
I see the same propaganda here. its gotten us in multiple unwinnable wars and is now stripping away our democracy. It’s why we have terrible, expensive healthcare and why gun related deaths are the #1 killer of children. Neither place is utopia. But now I get to worry about my country deporting naturalized citizens which is a thing I never thought I needed to worry about.
