- China has great opportunities for riches
- Getting a US VISA is hard and painful when you come from a populous country like China or India
- My China-born colleagues seem to in general be more conservative, and Silicon Valley has become violently intolerant of anyone that holds an opinion different than the predominant view
Only the first reason is somewhat objective, while the two others cause stress in their daily life as their ability to provide can at any time be removed due to what is perceived as arbitrary reasons. Everything being equal, many of them have told me they would prefer the less crowded Silicon Valley.
What exactly does this mean? Are they evangelical baptists, libertarians, reactionaries, nationalist, homophobic, misogynist, racist, anti-atheist, pro family-values, pro corporation, skeptical of global warming, pro fossil fuel energy, war hawks, or something else altogether? It's really quite difficult to interpret your statement as anything meaningful without clarification, and there are ten thousand different ways to be "conservative".
And to be clear, "conservative" is anything but a dirty word or something I'm trying to critique here--just a context-sensitive one. It could be a pejorative or a value.
Otherwise it doesn't add much to the conversation--it is itself a reactionary statement.
> What exactly does this mean? Are they evangelical baptists, libertarians, reactionaries, nationalist, homophobic, misogynist, racist, anti-atheist, pro family-values, pro corporation, skeptical of global warming, pro fossil fuel energy, war hawks, or something else altogether?
That's a long list.
baptist: no
libertarians: definitely no
reactionaries: depends on what you mean
nationalist: yes, beyond your wildest dreams... btw fuck Japan
homophobic: no, disapproval of homosexuality is likely, but not phobia
misogynist: rarely, but routinely sexist
racist: yes... especially vs Japanese
anti-atheist: of course not
pro family-values: absolutely
pro corporation: yes
skeptical of global warming: no
pro fossil fuel energy: not on the radar
war hawks: only if rightful and historical claims are not respected
something else altogether: many, many things
That's a snarky comment.
Obviously not everyone raised in a given country holds identical views, but there are real differences in cultures and beliefs between countries (especially those with centrally managed media).
It's a gentle reminder to all who read things like this that Chinese people are individuals too, and don't all subscribe to the same beliefs. The notion that the modern Chinese person is racist towards the Japanese is pretty laughable, for example.
> The notion that the modern Chinese person is racist towards the Japanese is pretty laughable, for example.
It's hard to see how anyone with any familiarity with China who does not themselves hate Japanese would laugh at this.
Not only is there widespread hatred of Japan (including Japanese people whose parents weren't even born during WWII), but it's fanned by the government[1]. Anti-Japanese specials run on TV during national week and over 200 anti-Japanese films are produced in China every year. In some cases anti-Japanese films are censored for being too moderate. A well known example is the 2000s war film, Devils at the Doorstep, which was nationally banned for including a scene where one Japanese soldier was friendly with Chinese villagers.
Despite your implication that modern China suffers less from this, surveys have shown that anti-Japanese sentiment in China is higher among the current generation than among the Chinese who lived through the war occupation. [2]
Personal anecdote is the weakest form of argument in this kind of debate, but I'll also add that while living on the mainland, I've personally received criticism simply for having befriended several Japanese students during my uni days.
1) https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jcca/article/view/1...
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment_in_Chi...