[I’m thinking of writing one big essay on an aspect of Chinese culture or history every month too, maybe one of the subtler things that I don’t anticipate anyone ever asking about. Or just something I have a lot of personal interest in, that I’m excited to talk about. If you want to, take a moment of your time and go answer
Reading my question back it comes across a bit arrogant, sorry about that. Even though I disagree with these policies, I do agree that it's a nuanced situation with tradeoffs and no obvious best answer. I guess I'm just looking at it from my perspective growing up in the West, rather than putting it in the right context. These kind of policies are so far outside the realm of possibility over here, but of course China is so different that you can't just blindly apply the same logic.
Oh no, not at all! I totally get what you mean. And also, honestly, "incompetence or malice" is a question often applied to American politics too, and I think most of the time, American politicians are probably also doing the best they can given their circumstances. I just honestly don't think incompetent people become successful enough to run a nation (so long as you're not living in a feudal primogenitor system where inbred mad kings can still be crowned), and I think most people are the heroes of their own story. Very, very few people are actively malicious.
'Course--I said in yesterday's post asking for question submissions that I'll answer them **to the best of my ability**. Obviously, I don't have any sources to cite for any of these claims, except that they're based on my own personal observation and opinions growing up in China.
Yeah Chinese propaganda is normally subtler than imagined from what I've seen. They get people to say what they think. For thoughts on Japan, it's usually negatively tinged anyways, then just get others to amplify.
I will note that it definitely wasn't always this bad. A lot of people have pointed out that there used to be a lot less propaganda in the 90s and early 2000s, when the economy was well and truly booming. CCP members themselves have admitted that the worse off the economy is doing, the more budget the propaganda department gets. People weren't even that negative about Japan when China was going its strongest. It's really only when things are not going well that people seem to feel a need to or get satisfaction out of reading anaesthetising stories of how China is sooo much better than its neighbours, and how evil and predatory everyone else is.
I'm returning to this old post because I just read a survey (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23780231221084775) about belief in the supernatural in America that is relevant to the discussion of ghosts. One question they asked was about whether the respondent believed in hauntings; another was about whether they feared ghosts. For the population at large, "belief in hauntings" was significantly more common than "fear of ghosts." For people of Asian descent, however, the two numbers were virtually identical. This seems to imply that some non-Asians think ghosts are real but aren't anything to worry about (Alternately, they may define "hauntings" to include things other than ghosts), but people of Asian descent think that if there are ghosts, they're something to be feared.
I think this goes back to the "lore" about ghosts. Like for most Americans, I think, ghosts have to actually actively hurt people for people to think they're scary. Like if someone bought a house, and found out that literally Casper the Friendly Ghost lived in their attic, I don't think people would be that worried about it. There's definitely plenty of ghost tours and stuff at historical places where shit went down, and people happily go.
But in China, ghosts carry with it exceptionally strong yin energy. They're basically like...supernatural radiation poisoning? Just being in the general vicinity of one, even if they're super friendly, will cause your health to get worse and maybe even shorten your lifespan.
I think western comedies in general are less popular in China, because comedy is super hard to translate and often very culture-dependent. I've seen a lot of discussions online that western horror movies aren't as good as Chinese horror stories though, and various lamentations that you're not allowed to film an actual horror movie in China.
The censors require that there's some kind of reveal in the end that it's all scientifically explained. Like, you're not allowed to make a movie where the supernatural actually exists.
There was a time when superhero comic books had a similar rule in the US, because of fears that they were spreading Satanism. My personal favorite example of this is a comic where a coven of witches were cursing people, turning them into animals, et cetera. At the end it's revealed that this is because they had the support of an alien with paranormal powers. So it's not the devil granting them magic powers, it's just a malevolent otherworldly entity granting them the ability to break the laws of physics. Totally different!
Also, my two cents, I wouldn’t mind at all if you included humor posts that would be impractical to translate localize, but in an abbreviated form, like [A humorous post based on rearranging chunks of poetry]. I’m pretty okay with being confused, since I’m here to expose myself to what I’ve never heard of before! (Of course, you should ultimately do whatever you find is the best use of your time.)
Thanks so much! I'd love it if, once in a while, you spent a post diving into some of the cultural allusions. "Similarly, a lot of memes in China concern and reference TV shows that Chinese people grew up with, or Chinese fairytales." Even if only to point us with wiki links to what's being discussed.
I might collect some Chinese sayings that are interesting and go into them one day--there really is quite a lot you can deduce about a culture based on the sayings that have been passed down through the generations.
Thanks for answering my question. The idea that China treats urban development projects as disposable, short-term investments didn't even crossed my mind. Here there are regulations requiring future-proofing any new house.
There are definitely regulations in China too, but a) they're a lot less well thought out, because real estate development has only been a fully fledged industry for 40 years, and b) connections culture means that it's very hard to enforce regulations of any kind, and c) the government and real estate lobbyists are very invested in making sure that people continually need to buy new houses, because they don't make any money on selling old houses.
Regional stereotypes: yes, please.
Very interesting answer, thanks.
Reading my question back it comes across a bit arrogant, sorry about that. Even though I disagree with these policies, I do agree that it's a nuanced situation with tradeoffs and no obvious best answer. I guess I'm just looking at it from my perspective growing up in the West, rather than putting it in the right context. These kind of policies are so far outside the realm of possibility over here, but of course China is so different that you can't just blindly apply the same logic.
Oh no, not at all! I totally get what you mean. And also, honestly, "incompetence or malice" is a question often applied to American politics too, and I think most of the time, American politicians are probably also doing the best they can given their circumstances. I just honestly don't think incompetent people become successful enough to run a nation (so long as you're not living in a feudal primogenitor system where inbred mad kings can still be crowned), and I think most people are the heroes of their own story. Very, very few people are actively malicious.
The obvious has to be said, that these Q&As are not authoritative and are ultimately opinions
'Course--I said in yesterday's post asking for question submissions that I'll answer them **to the best of my ability**. Obviously, I don't have any sources to cite for any of these claims, except that they're based on my own personal observation and opinions growing up in China.
Yeah Chinese propaganda is normally subtler than imagined from what I've seen. They get people to say what they think. For thoughts on Japan, it's usually negatively tinged anyways, then just get others to amplify.
I will note that it definitely wasn't always this bad. A lot of people have pointed out that there used to be a lot less propaganda in the 90s and early 2000s, when the economy was well and truly booming. CCP members themselves have admitted that the worse off the economy is doing, the more budget the propaganda department gets. People weren't even that negative about Japan when China was going its strongest. It's really only when things are not going well that people seem to feel a need to or get satisfaction out of reading anaesthetising stories of how China is sooo much better than its neighbours, and how evil and predatory everyone else is.
Yes please write about the regional stereotypes!!!!
I'm returning to this old post because I just read a survey (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23780231221084775) about belief in the supernatural in America that is relevant to the discussion of ghosts. One question they asked was about whether the respondent believed in hauntings; another was about whether they feared ghosts. For the population at large, "belief in hauntings" was significantly more common than "fear of ghosts." For people of Asian descent, however, the two numbers were virtually identical. This seems to imply that some non-Asians think ghosts are real but aren't anything to worry about (Alternately, they may define "hauntings" to include things other than ghosts), but people of Asian descent think that if there are ghosts, they're something to be feared.
I think this goes back to the "lore" about ghosts. Like for most Americans, I think, ghosts have to actually actively hurt people for people to think they're scary. Like if someone bought a house, and found out that literally Casper the Friendly Ghost lived in their attic, I don't think people would be that worried about it. There's definitely plenty of ghost tours and stuff at historical places where shit went down, and people happily go.
But in China, ghosts carry with it exceptionally strong yin energy. They're basically like...supernatural radiation poisoning? Just being in the general vicinity of one, even if they're super friendly, will cause your health to get worse and maybe even shorten your lifespan.
Do you know if Western comedies with ghosts (e.g. Ghostbusters or Beetlejuice) are less successful in China?
I think western comedies in general are less popular in China, because comedy is super hard to translate and often very culture-dependent. I've seen a lot of discussions online that western horror movies aren't as good as Chinese horror stories though, and various lamentations that you're not allowed to film an actual horror movie in China.
The censors require that there's some kind of reveal in the end that it's all scientifically explained. Like, you're not allowed to make a movie where the supernatural actually exists.
There was a time when superhero comic books had a similar rule in the US, because of fears that they were spreading Satanism. My personal favorite example of this is a comic where a coven of witches were cursing people, turning them into animals, et cetera. At the end it's revealed that this is because they had the support of an alien with paranormal powers. So it's not the devil granting them magic powers, it's just a malevolent otherworldly entity granting them the ability to break the laws of physics. Totally different!
So cool, thank you for doing these!
Also, my two cents, I wouldn’t mind at all if you included humor posts that would be impractical to translate localize, but in an abbreviated form, like [A humorous post based on rearranging chunks of poetry]. I’m pretty okay with being confused, since I’m here to expose myself to what I’ve never heard of before! (Of course, you should ultimately do whatever you find is the best use of your time.)
That's not a bad idea! I'll definitely include mentions of Chinese pun compilations that I find too hard to translate!
Thanks so much! I'd love it if, once in a while, you spent a post diving into some of the cultural allusions. "Similarly, a lot of memes in China concern and reference TV shows that Chinese people grew up with, or Chinese fairytales." Even if only to point us with wiki links to what's being discussed.
Thanks for all you do!
I might collect some Chinese sayings that are interesting and go into them one day--there really is quite a lot you can deduce about a culture based on the sayings that have been passed down through the generations.
Thanks for answering my question. The idea that China treats urban development projects as disposable, short-term investments didn't even crossed my mind. Here there are regulations requiring future-proofing any new house.
There are definitely regulations in China too, but a) they're a lot less well thought out, because real estate development has only been a fully fledged industry for 40 years, and b) connections culture means that it's very hard to enforce regulations of any kind, and c) the government and real estate lobbyists are very invested in making sure that people continually need to buy new houses, because they don't make any money on selling old houses.
So interesting, thanks!
Fascinating, thank you!