Maggie's Farm

My experience being in China is they are more capitalistic than the United States, although everything is still technically within a command economy structure overseen by the CPC. It could be called the Corporate Party of China now.

They have a middle class which is rapidly growing and is now much larger and more prosperous than the middle class in America. Instead of being in a situation of decay and decline like America is, China is in a state of rapid economic improvement and that plays out in the attitudes of the middle class. So long as things are getting better, they very much support the present system and the concept of "Our China."

When you're in China you see little evidence of the communist party other than nostalgic nods to the past (like finding Mao buttons and little red books in the tourist knick-knack shops). You do know that there are certain standards of behavior you have to follow and you do not want to get in trouble. But I think the society is actually more lax than other countries like South Korea, which has a lot of political freedom but is very regimented societally and in how you can behave.

Where you are socially in China does depend in part whether you are a Communist Party member. One of my friends is a lecturer and researcher at a major university. He could be a professor, but he doesn't like the Communist Party and refuses to play the game. (His family was very badly treated under Mao and he hasn't forgotten that--his father was a medical doctor who came back from London to China at the call of the new Communist Party government to treat Chinese soldiers injured in the Korean War--the medical class was later suppressed during the Cultural Revolution and his father ended up being arrested and dying in prison.) His wife, on the other hand, is a Communist Party member and she is chair of her department at the university. The fact she is a member actually kind of gives him more room and cover to grouse about things he doesn't like in China--he's kind of viewed as a wayward curmudgeon member of the faculty.

The thing that bothers me most about China is their concepts of honesty are pretty sketchy. A lot of folks will try to cheat you in business dealings, and they think that is all part of the game. My wife got cheated once buying a piece of jewelry in China and she is still pretty down on Mainland China. She had bought a jade bangle from a "government" jade shop, which supposedly means you won't be cheated, and paid a rather healthy price for it. When we got back she took it to one of our friends, a jade dealer here, and he just shook his head. He showed her the flaws in the jade and said that, at best, it was only worth 1/3 what she paid. He said you should never buy jade in Mainland China unless you are with a jade expert because you will be cheated.

China also has a serious lack of Chinese culture, which seems pretty strange to say but is true. Most of the traditional Chinese culture and values were destroyed by the Communists and replaced with a "dog eat dog" society. That is still very evident in public interactions where many people have no concept of politeness and will just push their way to the front to get something.

The government actually is now trying to bring back a sense of the Confucian value system and behaviors, and you will see a lot of stuff now talking about honoring the ancestors. But I wonder whether that can really be re-established.

Yes, that is their general reputation, of being loud, rude and rich. Even in Taiwan, the Taiwanese Chinese say the Mainland Chinese drive them crazy because they have no manners.

In Seoul several years ago, the Mainland Chinese tourists were basically overwhelming everyone else with their numbers and money. The major department stores like Lotte and Shinsegae (which is very upscale) were largely accommodating the Chinese tourists because they were so rich and bought so much, and kind of started ignoring everyone else. They even had their own in-house tours with Chinese speaking guides who would try to sell the Chinese tourists everything. This changed when China pulled back its tourists because of disputes over the placement of THAAD missiles and other issues but Mainland Chinese travelers are still an economic force throughout Asia.

I personally have never understood the Mainland Chinese crowd mentality. It's totally counterproductive. Intersections in cities are one big snarl of cars and mopeds all trying to fight their way through the intersection without following any traffic rules. The traffic cops just stand on the corners and do nothing. The only time you have order is when the People's Liberation Army sends its soldiers out to direct traffic (usually during major holidays). People of course will follow their commands.

The most crazy example I saw of that was once in our hotel in Beijing. We were waiting for an elevator along with a bunch of Chinese businessmen. An elevator opens and there is immediately a huge scrum going on. People inside the elevator are trying to push their way out while the businessmen are all trying to push their way in. Meanwhile, I hear a "bing" right behind me and another elevator opens up. We step right in and are the only ones. The other folks were so busy fighting over getting into the other elevator they didn't even notice ours opening. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Here, check this out (Thai lady loses it over rude Chinese tourists--she mentions Korean airport bathroom, I don't know if this is Incheon which is generally quite orderly and spotless): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaPUX1lhjaA

That is a big problem here too. It is called the "High Three," in that your pension is based on the average of your highest 3 years of salary. What you commonly see here is career politicians who technically don't get paid that much for legislative service (they make their money on the side doing deals outside their political office), suddenly retiring and being appointed by the ruling party to a cushy administrative job. Three years later they then retire and get their High Three. It also works for the political system, in that in keeps open seats to a minimum. Instead, if a legislator retires mid-term, the governor selects the replacement to serve the remainder of the term--the person is selected from a list prepared by the central party committee. The new loyal party member then succeeds to the political and fundraising machine of the predecessor. The goal is to always be running an "incumbent," to minimize the possibility an outside challenger could win the election. The result is that our state has the lowest voter participation in the country. Many races are uncontested, and in any event you know how they are coming out already.

"Archaeologists Release Grisly Details of Swedish Iron Age Massacre"

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From the description, this was obviously the work of Grendel.