That’s a tough. Normally I would hope there’d be an easy choice, but things have changed really quickly.
I don’t know much about real life in China but every time the current American administration violates human rights or represses science sacrifices our future to line their pockets or attack our friends and allies, it seems like I read about the Chinese government moving in the opposite direction. The direction of “good”, the direction the US always claimed to be. They seem to be making a lot of smart moves for their economic, technical and scientific future, and for larger influence as a global citizen. I have no way to evaluate the current level of repression but they’re at least saying alot of the right things
Sure, its not as bad as North Korea or Taliban-controlled Afganistan, but still, not like a nice place to be.
I mean aside from the extremist politics of this administration obviously, I’m overall more ideologically alligned with the west than CCP, and the only potential issue I see is probably the racism I’d face, but its a big world, not everywhere is Texas. And hopefully this shit doesn’t go more than 4 years.
Wall of text if you wanna read it...
I mean, even just in terms of prosperity, you think the US is bad, China is worse. I still remember how much my parents were at work while I was just alone at home with my older brother (which is why we got in fights alot), and even then, we were still struggling.
Culturally, there’s a lot of patriarchy, conservatism, culturally its sort of like the American South, but Chinese Edition.
it seems like I read about the Chinese government moving in the opposite direction
I meam, their PR is good, I’ll give them that. Some aspects of their stuff might be better, but overall society is still kinda f’ed. One the outside, it looks like its crime-free, on the inside, you’ll have people warning you about 碰瓷 (broken vase), a type of scam where they pretend like its your fault for breaking something, or pretend your car hit them so they can extort payment. Not even western propaganda, my mother told me about this stuff. Warning about these incidents are like all over WeChat. Sometimes there are even official local police warnings about these scams. Also, petty theft is more common.
Even being born in 广州 (Guangzhou, a city), they still legally considers me a 台山人 (Taishan person, Taishan is rural), because of the Hukou system. I mean they basically let you be in the city until policy changes then you could theoretically be forced to leave and go back to your shitty village. (Sort of like the undocumented immigrants of America, but in China, this is internal borders) I remember the villages still had public bathrooms. Like if you need to use the bathroom at night, you walked outside of your house to the communal bathroom, no bathroom inside your house. The part of Guangzhou I lived in was also kinda like a slum, better than rural places, but still, very dirty. When I first learned of the Brazil Favelas, it kinda reminded me of the part of Guangzhou where I lived.
Labor rights suck, there no independent unions. No OHSA.
Also, internet sucks, firewall, censorship. (Domestic media is boring) Where I lived was so behind in developement that I never had internet until I came to the US.
/rant over
Basically the dilemma here is, Chinese-Americans, at least those who are westernized, never really fit in on either side.
That’s a tough. Normally I would hope there’d be an easy choice, but things have changed really quickly.
I don’t know much about real life in China but every time the current American administration violates human rights or represses science sacrifices our future to line their pockets or attack our friends and allies, it seems like I read about the Chinese government moving in the opposite direction. The direction of “good”, the direction the US always claimed to be. They seem to be making a lot of smart moves for their economic, technical and scientific future, and for larger influence as a global citizen. I have no way to evaluate the current level of repression but they’re at least saying alot of the right things
I lived in China, I hated it.
Its not really as beautiful as it seems.
Sure, its not as bad as North Korea or Taliban-controlled Afganistan, but still, not like a nice place to be.
I mean aside from the extremist politics of this administration obviously, I’m overall more ideologically alligned with the west than CCP, and the only potential issue I see is probably the racism I’d face, but its a big world, not everywhere is Texas. And hopefully this shit doesn’t go more than 4 years.
Wall of text if you wanna read it...
I mean, even just in terms of prosperity, you think the US is bad, China is worse. I still remember how much my parents were at work while I was just alone at home with my older brother (which is why we got in fights alot), and even then, we were still struggling.
Culturally, there’s a lot of patriarchy, conservatism, culturally its sort of like the American South, but Chinese Edition.
I meam, their PR is good, I’ll give them that. Some aspects of their stuff might be better, but overall society is still kinda f’ed. One the outside, it looks like its crime-free, on the inside, you’ll have people warning you about 碰瓷 (broken vase), a type of scam where they pretend like its your fault for breaking something, or pretend your car hit them so they can extort payment. Not even western propaganda, my mother told me about this stuff. Warning about these incidents are like all over WeChat. Sometimes there are even official local police warnings about these scams. Also, petty theft is more common.
Even being born in 广州 (Guangzhou, a city), they still legally considers me a 台山人 (Taishan person, Taishan is rural), because of the Hukou system. I mean they basically let you be in the city until policy changes then you could theoretically be forced to leave and go back to your shitty village. (Sort of like the undocumented immigrants of America, but in China, this is internal borders) I remember the villages still had public bathrooms. Like if you need to use the bathroom at night, you walked outside of your house to the communal bathroom, no bathroom inside your house. The part of Guangzhou I lived in was also kinda like a slum, better than rural places, but still, very dirty. When I first learned of the Brazil Favelas, it kinda reminded me of the part of Guangzhou where I lived.
Labor rights suck, there no independent unions. No OHSA.
Also, internet sucks, firewall, censorship. (Domestic media is boring) Where I lived was so behind in developement that I never had internet until I came to the US.
/rant over
Basically the dilemma here is, Chinese-Americans, at least those who are westernized, never really fit in on either side.