Understanding the rise of China | Martin Jacques

I would have left my wife standing on the porch When you'd made an arrangement to meet them at a certain time? Man, to me that's just cold. your wife no doubt picked up from China’s strong nationality One thing that I picked up from dating then marrying my wife, is that China is waaaay more diverse and varied within its borders than most people in the US imagine. The basic philosophy towards friendship between the north and south varies, and even that is an oversimplification. One province over, the dining habits are waaay different from where she grew up. She comes from a Mandarin speaking region in the south, where before I'd heard that the south speaks Cantonese, but even there it's more complex than I'd thought. Turns out the real traditional languages are two entirely different dialects I'd never even heard of. China's not so much a nation-state, as a "civilization-state." [VIDEO] and authoritarian paradigm. Maybe there's something to that.

"China starts from a different point of view — that a strong empowered state is necessary, in order to drag the nation forward." I highly recommend Martin Jacques' Ted talk [0] on this very subject from over 7 years ago. I believe this aspect of Chinese culture -- of treating the state as being a BIG part of your daily life -- is super important to grasp if one wishes to get a sense of Chinese thinking and way-of-life. It's also a starting point if one wishes to imagine how a future China might turn out to be. [0] [VIDEO]

The legend "Chang'e flies to the moon" (嫦娥奔月) lies behind the Mid-Autumn Festival (featuring mooncakes, as it were). Point is, the names of Chinese space missions are every bit as carefully steeped in tradition as, say, Mercury/Gemini/Apollo. The People's Republic of China doesn't think of itself as a "Nation State." Instead, it thinks of itself as a "civilization state." A part of PRC's self appointed charge is to prevent the marginalization of Chinese civilization. [VIDEO] When I was working in Houston, it was a regular occurrence for me to meet yet another Chinese born employee of whatever corporation I was in, who would soon after ask me if I could read Chinese characters, then say it was a "shame" I couldn't. I'm not even Chinese, so I find this a bit parochial. I'm aware of the importance of Chinese characters in the culture of East Asia, but still, there's something a bit too self important about it. Now, many years later, I'm married to a Chinese woman. Even she gives me this guff! It's like they're trying to match the attitude level of the French. (EDIT: If you know of something wonderful more people should know about, most of the time, you should try to share it as a direct experience. That way, you're more likely to get across the magic and you're less likely to come across as a lecture.)

Nice article. I highly recommend watching Martin Jacques' TED talk [0] on this subject. It's interesting how people in China view the State as an intimate part of their family instead of something of an invasion, in contrast to societies in the West; which, I suspect, may be because of their collectivist roots. [0] [VIDEO]

I'm not sure we actually disagree on many points. We do disagree on some points. For example, what you view as an abusive relationship, I think is more simply a completely different worldview as to what are considered acceptable norms in society. But it's easy for you to look at the relationship and think it's abusive because of your foundational worldview about what is normal and what is OK, especially considering the likely difference between power distance index values between yourself and Chinese culture. edit: This reminds me of a business case about cross-cultural work I had to learn for my MBA. It is amazing how much a real-life company failed in China only simply because lack of cultural understanding led to immense distrust between the two parties, even though both parties really actually wanted to work with each other. But their cultural ignorance could only lead them to both believe that they couldn't trust each other, as they were completely misunderstanding each other's messages and signals. I can see that happening in general when analyzing another person's society. The point of the case was that cultural misunderstanding tends to lead to negative assumptions, rather than benefit of the doubt. :endedit I am definitely mostly saying that I've learned that the world has a lot more nuance than I realized when I was younger, and that we'd all do well if we realized that. It allows for better dialogue among people, especially with those who are different from us. For