A Chinese Student's Wish List For China

[Liebling:-)))]

A Chinese Student's Wish List For China

Li Yu: I think the Party will try their great effort to take the Olympics as a good opportunity to show their achievement during the past half century, but for me, I hope this could be a good chance for the world to know more about Chinese culture, Chinese people, and our real life.

After reading Mr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier ‘s insightful article Our Wish List For China, as a native Chinese, I'd like to say something about changes of our life and our "wish list" for China, which may be a bit more detailed.

First let's start with the dramatic changes these years happended in China. I still remember the failure in our bidding for 2000 Olympics in 1992. I was only a primary student at that time. Those teachers asked us --every primary student, to donate money to support our country's bidding. Most of us were willing and happy to participate in these collections, because of our intense desire to have a successful Olympics in our motherland. But as we all know, we were beaten by Sydney at last. We did feel regrettable about the failure in our first Olympics bidding at that time , but 16 years later, when a primary student become a graduate student, I realize it may be a doomed failure, for insufficient preparation. I mean lacking of a solid economic fundation, more stable and tolerant political and social policy, and a more practical diplomatic strategy. Can you imagine such a large country needs thousands of primary students to donate money in its bidding for Olympics ? But 16 years later things are totally different . China now has enough economic and financial power to hold a successful Olympics without any students' donation. Instead , old people now can have higher pension. We enjoy more diverse individual choices, and a stable life.

But it's ture that we still have many problems. Besides what have been mentioned in Mr.Frank-Walter Steinmeier's article, I'd like to say something about inefficient governce and other social problems.

One of the major problems is social inequality. For example, inequal job opportunity, inequal promotion opportunity, inequal education opportunity. I don't know wether it is also one of the major headaches in foreign countries, but these days I felt this inequality intensely. For instance, when someone, especially those government department or undertakings, are employing the employees, the most imprtant thing they keep in mind, is not wether a candidate's education background, knowledge. working experience, etc., are qualified for that position, but wether he has "GUAN XI". In English, this word means relations, here it means you just need to ask some powerful relatives or friends who know those employers to say something good for you, you will get that job, no matter how your performance is terrible in your interviews. That's insufficient governance, because those unqualified persons drive out the real excellent candidates, staying at that positions but do nothing. That means no matter how you perform well in your job interview, you will be doom to failure, because every place we tried has the certain person they want before the interview. Even when you ask them why you are eliminated because your score in the interview is much higher than that "certain person", you will get an absurd answer that after the publication of every candidate's interview sore,they called that "certain" candidate back and changed his sore, without inform anyone. That's a real case my classmate experienced yesterday. That's what they did in governmental or undertaking's employment, which has became an unwritten rule. Someone may say why not go to some agencies making a complaint , the fact is, you can try, but no quick result, or even no result at all. I think most of Chinese have been customed to this kind of things, and if things are not terrible enough they won't choose to make a complaint or go to the court, because those guys can always use "GUAN XI" to do something behind and make your effort to be futile.

Another major problem is how to improve the farmer's life standard substantially. It may also relate to the problem of social inequality. The party has focused on facilitating the development in rural areas and improving farmer's life for decades, but one of the rooted problems is the inequal social insurance systerm. I know more about Western social insurance systerm, but in China , the farmers cannot enjoy the same social insurance like people who live in the cities. That means, if you was born in a farmer's family, the only choice is to study hard to enter the universities and leave your hometown, then find a good job in cities, or you will work in your farmland all your life without any medical insurancepension and pension, the only financial support is from your childern when you are so old that cannot do farm work. As human we all will have diseases, but the price for medicines and therapy is very high compared to the income of Chinese farmers. If those farmers don't have medical insurance and any pension or other income source, one family member has terrible disease will result in the whole family 's misery poverty, no matter how much you have saved during the past years. Then how their living standard can be improved obviously if they don't have such basic insurance? That's a big problem for the Party and government , because China has so large a rural population.

What I mentioned above may focus more on the domestic probelms, because that's from our real life. I may write too long, but that're only a part of my wish list . Many people always say that China should change this , China should change that, actually I think Chinese people know what they need indeed.

Today China'll hold the Olympics opening ceremony at the Beijing National Stadium . All my family will stay at home watching this historical moment. Yes we feel proud. It's true that China's rise attracts the whole world's attention. I think the Party will try their great effort to take this opportunity to show their achievements during the past half century, but for me, I hope this could be a good chance for the world to know more about Chinese culture, and Chinese people.

Atlantic Community:Open Think Tank Article "A Chinese Student's Wish List For China"


Yes, I watched for 15 minutes about China's culture almost everyday in world journal news. It's sad to know that they don't have much freedom... also human rights as well.

 

[webexplorer]

I watched on the news that Chinese parents forced their children to work hard to prepare for the Olympics. The children were almost abused by overwork their exercises. Some kids were crying hard.

The Chinese government warned the parents if they failed to meet the requirement or they did not win, they will be automatically discredited. They will never get a better job for rest of their life. That's cruel system.

Today, I watched on CBS Sunday morning news that China is getting a double economy around the world. Most countries are getting better with their own economy, but the China will go after them. We are getting a bigger problem now with China's market because we have been receiving so many packages in our country that are made in China. The news failed to warn you that we should not buy China's products in our stores.

We need to fight to preserve our own native's stores. It is complicated for me to explain how does this happened. President Ronald Reagan started it when he visited in China and became friends. (It has nothing to do with Nixon.) But, not the point yet, most of our private companies are buying China's products now which made the Government difficult to deal with because, in fact, we are losing our money. When Bush Jr. became a president, it got things worse.

You know the China loves to sell its products to around the world. Most products are broken in a few months later that made us to buy another one. Don't forget that one because you are seeing things again and again. We created more dumpsites in our country. Many stores are now cheat with their own prices to sell to us. For example, a plier cost 3 dollars and compare to another store that cost 14 dollars for the same manufacturer. That is scary.

This is why we have to stop buying China's products. We don't want China to sell anything around the world because China is still communist country and still refused to accept the human rights for many years. Again, China is really fucking no good.

Oh another thing, Haier Company is owned by China in our country now that sells from TV to toys. Oh brother!

Yes, China's Olympus is very beautiful, but it has two faces now with their hidden abuse life.

I find funny that George Bush wasn't thrilled to sit in the public with people at the Olympus. His wife was thrilled, and she did not complaint with American groups. He must have thought that he would have a nice private cooled air room to drink an expensive wine and enjoy with his wife to watch the games. Ha ha. He sat with his cheap hand-fan and looked so grouchy face. Gee.

 

[Liebling:-)))]

Update because of naisho

*bumb*

Any questions or experience about China culture?

 

[naisho]

Hmm.. This posting is a bit late my time, so pardon me if any typos or grammatic errors show up or if the logic seems odd.
I can relate to Ms. Yu's experience from educational knowledge, but from personal experience, I have never lived in China all my life, even as I was growing up. I basically grew up in the U.S.A. from birth until today where I am now. From then until now, I have lived 25 years as a American, as a Californian. Of course, the people who see me in my country for the first glimpse never do think I am born here. The common reaction is that I'm from China.

The best example that can describe me is a Twinkie:

Yellow on the outside, white inside. Also a cost effective fattening food; meaning cheap for the amount it gives. And I'm considered as cost effective minority - stereotypes of Asians doing more work than caucasian/european employees - see Harold and Kumar: Go to White Castle for a classic comedic example.

But, aside from my East Asian studies during my term at UCI, a Californian university, I have received countless experiences shared to me from my kin and family that spoke of the hardships of how it is from the motherland, and why we are all in America in the first place.

China's guilty for playing the straws among its citizens. There's too much corruption and greed going on. Cheap labor. Prostitution. Why do you think the black market is huge in China?

As I was speaking to someone else in another topic, regarding abortions, China came out into the subject. China has an presentable dilemma that is still unsolved as of today: Population issues.

Some undeniable facts:

Population of China: 1,330,044,544 (JUL, 2008) EST.
Population of USA: 303,824,640 (JUL, 2008) EST.
1,026,219,904 people more. One billion. For every one person we have in the US, they have four.
Size of China (Physical Territory): 3,696,100 sq mi
Size of USA (Physical Territory): 3,676,487 sq mi

A huge problem yeah? Well, sadly that's not the end of it.
A part of the problems mostly stem from the past cultures and civilization - pre-modern China. Back to the dynasties. Ming. Qin. The early scholars. Confucius. Sun-Tzu. China's regrettably, is very old. The past has was and always been a emperor controlled environment. The consensus was, Emperor cares about expanding his empire and sovereign authority over all his land, the peasants always trying to live up to their expectations. Since everyone of non-noble class was treated like poop, they had to get by with their families, and even as far as extended families. The general idea was to have more children, the more money they would get you in return. It was commonly accepted practice that as the child grew older, even as far as a fourteen, they would be expected to start contributing financially to the family.

This was one of the earliest influences of a surge in the population. And they did not see what it lead to, today.
Now I don't want to make this a history course because that's not the purpose of the original post. It is referring to China being analogous in unfair proportion to playing unfair grounds.

As far as I can tell, it is nowhere near as equal opportunity for the people compared to the USA. We have freedom here, they have dedication. They have people that do all the work for us. People that need the money. People who understand the term "Working Hard." instead of "hardly working".

There is so much to go on, I don't even know where to start and I don't want to make this a super long essay. What ever you guys would like to focus on asking, I'd be glad to contribute what I can.

 

[Liebling:-)))]

wow, interesting... for share your post here...

Do you can speak, read and write Chinese? If yes, how hard between English and Chinese?

I was like puzzled when I saw chinese language under your avator because you wrote from right to left on one line which I notice different about chinese people. They don't read the newspaper or magazine from right to left and back from right to left line but read from top to down and then back top to down... Is it true that chinese wrote or read from top to down instead of one line from right to left...

 

[naisho]

Yeah they write that way sometimes. Top to down was always the most common in the past just so that I believe people would not get confused where they were reading and get lost. Nowdays they are getting more westernized and started using "left>right" but there are still some up>down and right>left. There are over 5,000 symbols that are used just about everyday, that if you memorized these then you can get by with reading like 90% of newspapers and modern magazine/books.

But if you want to include the past.. there's over 60,000 symbols.. can you think about how hard it is to know all that!? I probably can only do 300-500 myself..

The difference between chinese symbols and USA english is that for english speakers, you only have to know the 26 letters of the english alphabet, understand some prefix and suffixes, know maybe like ~500 to 1000 words and you can get by daily.
The problem with Chinese symbols is that EACH single symbol represents a different word, and you have to memorize how it is written. There is no simple way to remember a letter, except try to picture the word with an image, other than that the whole system is about memorization.

Then, if you wanted to compare Japanese and Chinese: they share the same symbols, but there's one problem. Even if the words look the same, one can mean something in Japanese and means completely another word in Chinese. Like the word "Old" in chinese, means "someone" in japanese, but its the same symbol.
You can easily tell Japanese when you read it because usually they also contain 'Hiragana': The basic Japanese alphabet (and there is an english version called romanji as well). Once you see those ~100 characters; they are easily memorizable, you will know what you are reading is japanese.

Personally, I can do the following with CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)

Chinese:
Speak fluently at Americanized accent - but I don't know vocab words that are high school and beyond.
Read+Write at grade scool level, maybe like 2-3rd grader. (~500 chars max)

Japanese:
Speak at 2nd grader
Read+Write 2nd grader

Korean:
Speak at 3year old
Read+write: I forgot everything I learned!

Now I wonder.. where are our other Oriental ADers?

 

[webexplorer]

naisho - It is interesting.

I took a non-credit class to study in Chinese culture and some languages when I was in high school. It was so hard for me to understand the language. aah, I know you what mean to memorize each symbol of the words together. I was jealous of my classmate who did very well in Chinese and traveled there. He now works as an EMT when he started 19 years old. He is very smart.

I did not like two things about China: a big Communist system and lack of human rights. They killed thousands of wild dogs in a few years ago because they refused to give the medicines for the dogs to eliminate some diseases. The Chinese police are somewhat crazy because they do not get the point what the human right is all about.

My nightmare is that why in the world that they put alive cats, alive chickens, and alive dogs into the boiled water for cooking. They did not understand the moral of common senses. I am not talking about PETA stuff. They have excellent foods as herbs, vegetables, and many varieties of foods pretty much similar to Japan. They have wonderful things, but they did not have the opportunity to create their own ways and fight for their human rights.

I believe that there is a conflict between two separate lifestyles in China: high class families (government people/relatives) in the city and poorest farmers in the far country. In America, there are mixed with rich and poor lifestyles.

Again, I remember a story that a woman who joined the Olympus, and the Chinese government warned her family that they must work very hard to win the game. If her child fails at the game, then the government would take away their home and money. That's very scary for the family. I think this child won a 2nd prize so I assume that they are safe.

You are so lucky that you are in American and anything you want to do with your life.

I am a sort of aware that some Japanese people in the business are greedier than the Chinese people. A perfect example, a Japanese owner owns a museum in Florida. The customers pay a ticket to get in the museum. If they are hungry and there is a restaurant inside the museum, they still have to pay another ticket to go inside the restaurant which is not included the foods and a tip. What a shocking! :roll:

Anyway, my very good friend, who born in Trinidad, became U.S. Citizen. It is interesting that many oriental deaf people rather to stay in the same group of race because they understand their own culture. I never thought of that before so it didn't bother me.

I notice that most oriental people wear nice clothes in America. Isn't that right?

 

[naisho]

You have most of that conception correct for the most part, even if they are psychological stereotypes they are valid enough to be seen in reality.

China's communist system is surely the main thing that is holding it back. But to be honest, they have been trying to work with the US economy for a long time, and slowly in return China is gaining profits. Some of its profits may be cruel in the way they have to work to gain it, but no one can deny that they are making some good money now.
One thing about the communist party is that it very old, China's not good at instantly reshaping their country's politics overnight or in a year. Chinese people in culture are very resistant to "advances". By advances I mean almost literally anything, technological, political, related to life, etc. They are conservative and old fashioned.

From the initial emperor period, then shaped into a feudal period, and then during Mao's revolution in the 1900's which brought the communist period. That was when Karl Marx's communist ideas became widespread and people thought it would become the neo government for the worlds in the future. But like we know today, communism is crumbling and doesn't fit with the modern world. Most of this I believe is due to the fact that not everyone follows it, and import/exporting plays a role in the profits of a country.

I think in the future China will change its style of government, it's just taking its time. Like I said.. They (the old timers) the conservatives aren't as likely to change as quick. Most of it newer generation like ABC's and teenage-20's children there are becoming more infused with westernized ideas.

Sometimes, I do realize that I am ahead of the ball game compared to my brethren back in the motherland. Sometimes I even forget to realize this and take it for granted.

PS. I think they do dress nicely, it is considered general etiquette on how you look. I remember when I was younger, my mom always nagged at me if I didn't wear something that she thought was right. But we also do have those punk dressers around.. Take a look at the schools around here for example .

 

[Phillips]

Very interesting! I do know some little Twain (<spell) signs!