Americans are brainwashed to think Chinese are brainwashed

[hongqingting]

Photos of Shanghai removed. Roddy

Even as late as the early 90s, Pudong (one of the main financial zones of Shanghai as pictured above) was nothing but a swampland, with scattered small farms and most people who lived there were villagers. All of those skyscrapers you saw in the second photo rose up in less than a single decade. Personally, I think this is totally amazing. Well, it took more than half a century for New York to became what it is today now, and even Tokyo had the sacrafice of a whole generation to achieve its modern status. More amazingly, I just visited Shanghai this New Year, I saw constructions going on everywhere. Some localers have told me that if they were out of the city for more than three weeks, they would return and find several new skyscrapers which never existed before. From my experience, Shanghai, especially at night, is a wonderland--it is just like if you are inside a science fiction novel or movie--I can't simply put it into words. Shanghai is way bigger than New York (the Pudong area of Shanghai pictured above is only a very small fraction of the city; the rest of the city is also repleted with spectacular skyscrapers and expressways) and the density of both people and skyscrapers are also much higher.

However, I believe most Americans and other people in the world still perceive or imagine China as 40 or 50 years ago--during the Culture Revolution and poverty years, or better in the year 1989 when the Tiananmen incident took place.Today's China is hardly communistic at all, on the contrary, its capitalistic mentality is going as wild as one can possibly imagine; it's like an exciting rollercoaster ride--going from one extreme to another. While I was there, I found out that the average Chinese person knows much more about America than the other way around--most Americans are duped by their politicians (the so-called leaders of freedom and democracy) and are brainwashed by the mass media thinking that people from other places somehow have worse lives than they do; this is really a huge and shameful irony, since American politics likes to blame the Chinese "coummunists" of brainwashing their citizens and denying basic human rights--actually, I think most Chinese people in the large cities lead very prosperous and pleasant lives and hold much knowledge and respect for people outside their realm. It's understandable though, since the world has never seen and probably will never see such rapid developments in such short period of time again in all of human history. I'm not just talking about Shanghai; during my time there, I travelled to other cities, too. And bascially the same was going on everywhere in the country. Such drama is so dynamic and on-going--only seeing is believing.

[frozenmyth]

Wish to see China becoming more prosperous.

It has a lot of problems, or rather more, to overcome though.

Indeed, I do not know another country with any development at such a rapid pace as China has accomplished so far. It's people, great people, is taking a heavy toll. The country is paying the prize of rapid developments many lives were lost in coal mining and will count more.

China has recently, for the past few years not more than 10 I guess, become more dependent on petroleum than just about anyone else (the pace). That means a lot of international politics and maybe even conflicts of interests. However, hope we all can foster a more cooperative rather than competitive attitude to work out differences. As your subject stated "Misconception." It's probably mutual with the parties invloved in many cases. Some more narrow minded people in the world may think that China just does not feel right to them for whatever the reasons (this is the same for many Chinese too).

According to what I have learned, many in the U.S. may see China's development as both lucrative and threatening. However, just about anyone can learn and gain knowledge in many ways. It's like oh, the capital of that country is... the language is, the population, that means, etc

Only a few have UNDERSTANDING--that makes a whole lot difference.

I have learned, not in person, that some non-Chinese may know more than foreign borned ethnic Chinese. By that I mean, those A.B.C. or who basically grew up in the West may have learned Chinese, but they do not have as much understanding as many non-Chinese who actually travelled to China ( or even lived there for a while).

Indeed amazing with the Chinese civilization. One of the oldest and never died out like some other older ones. It had been up and down and is still alive. Guess nobody can deny that unique part of China.

[frozenmyth]

Gee. You subject changed.

Barinwashed.

Hum.

Maybe not to that extent yet.

I think it's more of exposures to medias type of thing.

Chinese watch news, read books, listen to what their people tell them about Americans. Americans listen to what Americans tell them too.

Only few really go out them and see and experience what those are about.

Most people either don't have the time or money to afford travellings.

Or simply not interested in certain regions.

I hope it's still more of perceptions, of course a lot of biases, bigotries, prejudices get introduced, rather than being "brainwashed."

Humans are lazy so many of us form bigotries without real experiences so easily and readily.

[roddy]

The subject changed, and the message I left about not using oversize photos got edited out too, so I've deactivated that account for now.

[owen]

HA. I wish I could simply sit back and laugh at your post but I guess that wouldn't be very productive. Only, I really don't know that you are serious.

Shanghai is way bigger than New York

Do you know anything about urban planning or census taking? Well, neither do I. But I know that that is a pointless statement and in no way bolsters you're claim that 'Shanghai grew up fast therefore China and it's people are good '.

the year 1989

Yes yes, that sure was a long long time ago... and really such an insignificant event.

its capitalistic mentality is going as wild as one can possibly imagine

Well thank god for that capitalistic mentality. Surely imbibing everyone with a raging materialism can't do China any harm. And who is the one imagining here.... an American maybe?

most Americans are duped by their politicians (the so-called leaders of freedom and democracy) and are brainwashed by the mass media thinking that people from other places somehow have worse lives than they do

Please to explain the possible motivations western mass media might have in portraying other countries standards of living as being worse than they actually are.

[wushijiao]

Today's China is hardly communistic at all, on the contrary, its capitalistic mentality is going as wild as one can possibly imagine;

Reporters in the West seem to have cookie-cutter story lines for China, certain prisms in which they view the country. It used to be, "the Communist party is suppressing and oppressing its own people everywhere." Now, I think they main story line has switched to the one you mentioned- "Today's China is hardly communistic at all, on the contrary, its capitalistic mentality is going as wild as one can possibly imagine".

So, I disagree that all Americans are brainwashed by the mainstream media (which doesn't even exist anymore, I'd argue). However, we Americans may be ignorant, I admit!

[cutty]

Some people in US really know nothing about China. When I came back from China, my landlord asked if I can use internet in China. I told him I can use it as I do in US except some sites are blocked. Then he asked me again if I can send email in China.

But Hongqingting, I'm not so optimistic on the current development in China. It's not 1930s now, skyscrapers mean nothing. Every country can build it without any problem, but only Chinese like to build it. I heard not only Shanghai, but also Taibei and Hong Kong are planning for a huge skyscraper. I'd be more happy to see if there can be a clean restroom every where than all other skyscrapers. The gap between poor people and rich people are also getting larger and larger, people also lost credit and compassion, fraud is everywhere.