Hmm. A strange article. A mix of really good points soaked in bitterness.
I spend the bulk of my time in Beijing, Taipei, and Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia). My take is slightly different.
Well, a lot is true. The property thing, definitely. The state industry takeovers is scary; you have to get a sense for what industries they don't mind foreigners in, and which they do. Media? Yeah, you don't want to own a media company in China as a non-Chinese. The same is true with energy and raw materials. Probably not true for manufacturing, education, and consumer goods. So, that's a weird and surreal and true point.
But some things seem dead-off. The Chinese seem much more community oriented than the West. On mornings I'm up early, there's always large groups of people doing Tai Chi, or moving around doing a sword-dance, or other group exercises. Likewise, there's huge groups of people singing, dancing, waltzing, in the evenings. Families go out and play together a lot. At least, that's what I see in CBD in Beijing.
The thing about the Chinese loving money and size is true. It's not as bleak as it sounds though, it's probably similar to 1950's America in that sense. You've got people who were raised lower on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, so they're very pro-money and pro-security. It's all pretty upfront, and everyone is in to hard work, credentialing, and earning well. My friend is married to a Chinese woman, and we were working something like 12+ hours a day for a while. Since his work/life balance was totally destroyed on the projects we were on, I apologized to her one day at their house. "Hey, sorry we're working so much..." and she replies: "You're making money?" I say, "Yeah, we're making money." She says: "Okay! No problem then, keep making money! I'm glad you two are doing it!" They named their cat "Wangtzai" (spelling?), which translates to "Bring money." Yeah, they named their cat "Bring money." But they're also happy and have a good home life together. She just respects working a lot and wants her husband to work a lot. That's where she's at mentally.
This part struck me as the most off --
> [China] does not welcome intruders—unless they happen to be militarily superior and invade from the north, as did two imperial dynasties, the Yuan (1271-1368) and the Qing (1644-1911), who became more Chinese than the Chinese themselves. Moreover, the fates of the Mongols, who became the Yuan, and Manchu, who became the Qing, provide the ultimate deterrent: “Invade us and be consumed from the inside,” rather like the movie Alien.
It's not like "Alien" -- it's more like, China was so much more artistically and culturally sophisticated that even invaders assimilated the conquered culture, and happily so. It's little known that the Mongols (Yuan) built the Forbidden City at first. It was called "Forbidden" since it was Mongolian-only, preserving some of Mongolian Steppe Culture even within China. Likewise, Mandarin is the Manchu language... the ethnic minority that conquered China and became the Qing. The Han (majority) now speaks the minority's language, since it was widely spoken in courts and high level administration under the Qing Dynasty.
But why did the Manchu become more Han-like and base out of Beijing? Because it was a pretty amazing place, and by and large it always has been.
I don't know, maybe I'll get China-fatigue at some point. I agree with his point that you'll never be really truly Chinese in China, but foreigners also get all kinds of additional respect and benefits for being foreign, along with a tacit okay to break certain customs and decorums because you don't know better. For foreigners in China who speak Chinese, it's even better -- you get delight from everyone you interact with, and lots of respect (arguably, undeservedly so)... so yeah, it's good and bad. The article comes across overly jaded, though I suppose the idea to not start a media company or buy residential housing are both good pieces of advice!
> Likewise, Mandarin is the Manchu language... the ethnic minority that conquered China and became the Qing. The Han (majority) now speaks the minority's language
Say what? Mandarin Chinese was originally spoken by Han Chinese only and is nothing like the original language spoken by the Manchu (save for a few loanwords). The Manchu language is from the Tungusic language family, and has absolutely no genealogical relation to Mandarin or any other Sino-Tibetan languages.
As it says on Wikipedia[0]:
> By the end of the 19th century the [Manchu] language was so moribund that even at the office of the Shengjing (Shenyang) general, the only documents written in Manchu (rather than Chinese) would be the memorials wishing the emperor long life; at the same time period, the archives of the Hulan banner detachment in Heilongjiang show that only 1% of the bannermen could read Manchu, and no more than 0.2% could speak it.
Manchu now has ~20 native speakers, with its closest non-endangered relative being Xibe, with ~30,000 native speakers[1].
You were also incorrect in stating that the Forbidden City was built by the Yuan dynasty. Although there was an Imperial City (known as "Khanbaliq", meaning "great residence of the Khan" in Turkic languages) built by the Yuan at the same location, the Forbidden City itself was built by the Yongle Emperor, the third emperor of the Ming dynasty. The name "Forbidden City" did not exist until the Ming dynasty either. Since the Ming were ethnically Han, "forbidden" did not mean "forbidden to the Han". According to Wikipedia[0]:
> The Forbidden City, as the residence of the terrestrial emperor, was its earthly counterpart. Jin, or "Forbidden", referred to the fact that no-one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission.
Mandarin is not totally unrelated to Manchu. There are a lot of loan words in Mandarin from Manchu, for example, 姑娘, 罗嗦, 邋遢, 马虎, 麻利, 别扭, and lots of other common phrases.
More importantly, Mandarin is heavily influenced by Manchu in other ways, for example, tones. Southern languages like Cantonese, Minnan have more tones (Cantonese 9, Minnan 8, vs Mandarin 5). Some Chinese believe Mandarin is a language polluted/reduced by Manchu, and they consider southern languages to be more elegant and culturally richer and purer.
Cantonese lost to Mandarin by a single vote during the selection of "official" language of China in 1912.[1]
> There are a lot of loan words in Mandarin from Manchu, for example, 姑娘, 罗嗦, 邋遢, 马虎, 麻利, 别扭, and lots of other common phrases.
And I acknowledged them. Similarly, southern Chinese languages feature borrowings from Tai, Austro-Asiatic, and Austronesian languages.
Sanskrit is another source of borrowings for many Chinese languages, due to the influence of Buddhism. The word "Mandarin", coincidentally, comes from the Sanskrit word mantrin (मन्त्रिन्), meaning "minister" or "councillor", although that is not used in Mandarin itself to refer to the language.
So it's not just Mandarin that has been influenced by foreign languages. The borrowing of words is very common when two languages come into contact. A prime example is the internet-speak used by Chinese netizens, which is replete with English-based neologisms.
However, that doesn't change the fact that modern Mandarin overwhelmingly bears more similarity to Classical Chinese than it does to Manchu.
> More importantly, Mandarin is heavily influenced by Manchu in other ways, for example, tones. Southern languages like Cantonese, Minnan have more tones (Cantonese 9, Minnan 8, vs Mandarin 5).
Do you have any proof that Manchu influence is the reason for Mandarin's relative paucity of tones in comparison to southern Chinese languages? Middle Chinese, which goes back nearly a millenium before the advent of the Qing dynasty, already had only 4 tones[0]. According to the relationship between Middle Chinese tones and modern Mandarin tones[1], the 4 tones of modern Mandarin are descended from the Ping (平), Shang (上), and Qu (去) tones of Middle Chinese, with some redistribution according to consonant type.
> Some Chinese believe Mandarin is a language polluted/reduced by Manchu, and they consider southern languages to be more elegant and culturally richer and purer.
And one of the major proximal causes of this is the loss of tones, since it's lead to homophonic ambiguity, which has been corrected through the formation of polysyllabic neologisms, which break many millenia-old connections with Classical Chinese. It's not just the addition of Manchu vocabulary and/or phrases.
>Do you have any proof that Manchu influence is the reason for Mandarin's relative paucity of tones in comparison to southern Chinese languages?
It's very hard to prove. There are materials from Qing Dynasty that still have the 入(entering) tone, this indicate the tone disappeared sometime during the late Qing. But others hold belief that the northern language lost the entering tone long before Qing, maybe as early as Yuan.
Whenever we talk about the nature of a people, things get complicated very fast.
That said, my personal experience with community-vs.-individuality in Chinese culture is closer to the OP's than yours. There is incredibly strong feeling in China that the world -- and, indeed, your fellow countrymen -- are out to get you, so you'd better get them first. The tragedy of the commons is not a problem in China because the concept of a commons is itself perplexing to many Chinese. The way that Chinese citizens treat common areas such as parks (read: with great disdain) is indicative of this mindset.
Put another way, the concept of "community" does exist for many Chinese people, but it usually extends only to family members and friends. If you're within this boundary then things are as warm and welcoming and community-focused as you might desire. However, the boundary is razor-sharp and does not usually extend to things such as neighborhoods or towns.
And of course, there are always exceptions. A Chinese woman I know prides herself on the fact that the never screwed anyone over during her life (she puts it a little more delicately than that).
Perhaps this is all growing pains. Maybe things will mellow out once people become wealthier, or feel that they are better protected from adversity and/or their fellow man.
Disclaimer: much of my opinions are based on anecdotes from city life (Beijing, Shanghai), rather than rural life.
I upvoted, but I also felt I should comment to say that the reason I agree and feel this comment needs to be seen is that I also agree with the OP, rather than lionhearted, precisely also because of personal experience after living in China for the past couple of years (and making truly local Chinese friends, the type who don't know many foreigners).
As mentioned in many posts, your history is a bit off.
Also, my overtime work in Beijing doesn't make my girlfriend happy; she understandably gets very angry that I never make it home for dinner or put a strong wall between work and life, this is very important in Chinese culture and I feel violations are actually more acceptable in American culture. I guess everyone is different, its impossible to generalize.
The concept of "community" breaks down very quickly in China. Sure, if you are a native Beijinger, you go to the park and do the dances in the square (assuming you are old or bored), but most of the people in Beijing are migrant workers who do not have hukou; they are basically excluded from the community. How can a community thrive when you exclude 60 or 70% of the people? Granted, 40% is still a lot of people, but something is very rotten in the society.
Everything said in the article is plausible and probably true. Once you really get embedded in Chinese society, you are as exposed to unfairness and corruption as a local is, without the benefit of being treated as a local, and it makes sense right? You can escape if you want, they don't have much leverage over you.
> most of the people in Beijing are migrant workers who do not have hukou; they are basically excluded from the community
That's not so simple. They belong to their own community of migrant workers and most are able to get community support when needed. They also become acclimated to Beijing and it is not unlikely their offspring will be Beijingers. I have a direct experience of that, our nanny is a typical migrant worker. has very good relations with our neighbors, who are of the oldest Beijing brand (they are Manchu). Disclaimer: we live in the hutong. It is very possible that life in new places is different.
Not true. Children of migrant workers don't get hukou just for being born in Beijing. You basically have people who have never been anywhere outside of Beijing who have no hope of getting hukou; they are basically a multi-generational second class citizenry.
The hutongs are about the only place in Beijing where you can find high concentrations of Beijing'ers. Anywhere outside of the second ring road tends to be mostly migrants. Granted, some of these migrants are rich, live in nice apartments, and don't really have adjustment problems, but then again, there is quite a huge underclass in Beijing that has none of that.
And if you can't get access to social services in Beijing, are you really a beijinger? Where do these kids go to school, take the gaokao, have a higher chance to get into PKU or qinghua? You aren't a full beijinger without hukou. That we can get hukou for a few of our college new hires every year is a big recruiting advantage for my company.
True. Actually there's been ongoing discusses on this issue, about education of children of migrant workers in China.
You cannot purchase a house, send your kids to school, or access many social services without a Beijing hukou(something like resident identification).
Big tech companies like Microsoft and Sina becomes more competitive on recruiting, because they have been given some hukou credits by the government, so if you get into these companies, you can get a hukou when it's your turn in the long-long queue.
And local Beijingers do not welcome those migrants. They even think it's unfair to let the kids of those to receive education in Beijing, not to mention the college entrance test(aka GaoKao).
Some good points, but you're mistaken about Mandarin: Mandarin is a Sinitic language, related to Cantonese, Minnan, etc. (and also to Tibetan); it is unrelated to Manchurian, which is a Tungusic language and is now almost extinct (Wikipedia says there are around 70 speakers).
>The article comes across overly jaded, though I suppose the idea to not start a media company or buy residential housing are both good pieces of advice!
Building a business then having the state steal it from you would make most people jaded.
Completely agree with your synopsis in the first sentence. The article would have been stronger had he given a more thoughtful analysis to the differences between China and say, America. As it is, he points out a lot of characteristics of China and the Chinese that may be more extreme, but don't seem to be all that different at a fundamental level, than what you might see elsewhere in the world. But this is understandable, given that it sounds like he's been immersed in China for the last 16 years - perhaps he's lost some perspective.
Grass is always greener somewhere else. But come on, the article is about China, not America, Europe or anywhere else. This is like how the Chinese press always diverts to American human rights problems when their is a discussion of their own. "See, America has problems too, so commenting on our problems is invalid." That's not the point, its not a competition!
I spend the bulk of my time in Beijing, Taipei, and Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia). My take is slightly different.
Well, a lot is true. The property thing, definitely. The state industry takeovers is scary; you have to get a sense for what industries they don't mind foreigners in, and which they do. Media? Yeah, you don't want to own a media company in China as a non-Chinese. The same is true with energy and raw materials. Probably not true for manufacturing, education, and consumer goods. So, that's a weird and surreal and true point.
But some things seem dead-off. The Chinese seem much more community oriented than the West. On mornings I'm up early, there's always large groups of people doing Tai Chi, or moving around doing a sword-dance, or other group exercises. Likewise, there's huge groups of people singing, dancing, waltzing, in the evenings. Families go out and play together a lot. At least, that's what I see in CBD in Beijing.
The thing about the Chinese loving money and size is true. It's not as bleak as it sounds though, it's probably similar to 1950's America in that sense. You've got people who were raised lower on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, so they're very pro-money and pro-security. It's all pretty upfront, and everyone is in to hard work, credentialing, and earning well. My friend is married to a Chinese woman, and we were working something like 12+ hours a day for a while. Since his work/life balance was totally destroyed on the projects we were on, I apologized to her one day at their house. "Hey, sorry we're working so much..." and she replies: "You're making money?" I say, "Yeah, we're making money." She says: "Okay! No problem then, keep making money! I'm glad you two are doing it!" They named their cat "Wangtzai" (spelling?), which translates to "Bring money." Yeah, they named their cat "Bring money." But they're also happy and have a good home life together. She just respects working a lot and wants her husband to work a lot. That's where she's at mentally.
This part struck me as the most off --
> [China] does not welcome intruders—unless they happen to be militarily superior and invade from the north, as did two imperial dynasties, the Yuan (1271-1368) and the Qing (1644-1911), who became more Chinese than the Chinese themselves. Moreover, the fates of the Mongols, who became the Yuan, and Manchu, who became the Qing, provide the ultimate deterrent: “Invade us and be consumed from the inside,” rather like the movie Alien.
It's not like "Alien" -- it's more like, China was so much more artistically and culturally sophisticated that even invaders assimilated the conquered culture, and happily so. It's little known that the Mongols (Yuan) built the Forbidden City at first. It was called "Forbidden" since it was Mongolian-only, preserving some of Mongolian Steppe Culture even within China. Likewise, Mandarin is the Manchu language... the ethnic minority that conquered China and became the Qing. The Han (majority) now speaks the minority's language, since it was widely spoken in courts and high level administration under the Qing Dynasty.
But why did the Manchu become more Han-like and base out of Beijing? Because it was a pretty amazing place, and by and large it always has been.
I don't know, maybe I'll get China-fatigue at some point. I agree with his point that you'll never be really truly Chinese in China, but foreigners also get all kinds of additional respect and benefits for being foreign, along with a tacit okay to break certain customs and decorums because you don't know better. For foreigners in China who speak Chinese, it's even better -- you get delight from everyone you interact with, and lots of respect (arguably, undeservedly so)... so yeah, it's good and bad. The article comes across overly jaded, though I suppose the idea to not start a media company or buy residential housing are both good pieces of advice!