totally forgot to respond! I will let you know how it goes thank you

i'm currently on board for a (college) club and working on designing meetings/working to create community. do you have any tips on how to apply design thinking to work to create actually meaningful connections and value to draw people to come - i find a lot of people want to come but don't find the time - which i think is partially because there isn't enough value offered.

what no dialectics does to an mf

Hey thanks for composing this reply!

Yes, I've also read can the chinese diaspora speak, but it's been a while so I don't exactly remember the contents of the article, might need to revisit it sometime.

I'm also part of the chinese diaspora and I very much agree that it is incredibly frustrating to see people's viewpoints towards the homeland. I've met very few if any explicitly supportive diaspora, but it's very interesting because there's quite a broad range from - love the things and family back there(don't really care about the gov) to I very much explicitly don't like the gov. As for your extended rant, very much agree. Have seen the same things here. It's crazy that like from growing up in the west they too adopt the western superiority mindset - but admittedly sometimes I find myself thinking things along those lines before catching myself.

I did not know that about Jerry's take on china, I agree with the view that while he is sympathetic I could sort of feel he wasn't explicitly communist or the sort. I will for sure add a disclaimer, and I think I will proceed to take what he says in the future with a grain of salt. From the videos I've watched, I haven't seen his espouse any such viewpoints and still think it's a good primer to send to lib friends, but I will be sure to do so with care.

edit: i just realized i already commented so i'm adding the link i just commented to my other comment ignore this one

it’s a big internal contradiction within china. your hukou(where you’re registered) determines what benefits you have and so its a lot harder for rural residents to work/get benefits/get schooling for their kids. I’ve also heard my mom mention there’s some discrimination/you’d get looked down on from being on the countryside. However, it was necessary to prevent slums from existing and now the restrictions are being relaxed, primarily starting in like 2nd/3rd tier cities i believe.

Edit: Here's an article about the progress and rationale behind the hukou system(in english). The rural-urban divide is very clearly noted to be a primary contradiction

“What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life,” he said. The evolution of the principal contradiction represents a “historic shift that affects the whole landscape and that creates many new demands for the work of the Party and the country,” Xi said. Previously the principal contradiction was described as one between “the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and backward social production.” (quote not from article, from here)

a cgtn documentary that you might find interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU9FVqwO4TM

yes, for overseas diaspora

Hmm, i feel like most abc believe china to be really nice environment wise like rest of asia but dislike the government. memes like social credit are pretty common. It’s never to the point of demonizing chinese people, i would say the most common stance is support for the people but not the government.

LOL yes it would probably be a lot better experience with some chinese knowledge. Also if you can somehow meet a chinese person and have them show you around(maybe try a language exchange idk), that would be cool too.

Hm... the malls were more empty than you'd expect, except at like the super big places. I think the places locals would actually frequent and super big attractions still had a lot of people. I just remember this one mall in nanchang was mostly empty... And i've heard multiple people say the economy isn't as great in non-political situations. It's likely that the average citizen can feel that the economy isn't as growing as fast as before, but I don't ever hear "China Collapse," no one would say that china would collapse I feel.

right? it's mind blowing to me how cheap everything is in comparison. The most expensive part about my trip was my plane ticket... hopefully it goes down to precovid prices.

Personally, I feel american in that I've absorbed a lot of parts of the culture, which I think there are parts that I prefer to chinese culture as i've kinda alluded to above, but I hold more national pride for China, personally. I cheer for China in the olympics, and personally am a lot more interested in Chinese history. I'm still not sure what I fully consider myself, maybe still chinese-american?

For most ABCs I feel that they either have a very negative perception of china, or a positive perception of china with a negative perception of china. The people who were with me on the camp pretty unilaterally would be against the chinese government(no democracy, etc...) but they could just feel that the environment was just better I think.

Hmm... For example the rock climbing place I went to was a bit cheaper than the rock climbing place I usually go to(and a lot smaller) in absolute terms, but relatively it would be much more expensive. I couldn't tell you about the skiing, baking, or art studio though. My guesses is that they'd be pretty expensive for regular people. In addition, my cousin said that most locals don't frequent the super big chongqing mall that i showed, but rather just go to smaller local shops as while it's not unaffordable, it's just much more cost effective to buy things elsewhere.

i just clicked cancel so now i gotta retype my comment 😭

it’s in chinese and it basically shows clips of foreigners vlogging and showing their reaction. i think there was a… russian? i don’t know what language the vlogger was saying(there were chinese subtitles tho), and it just went through a couple comments too. essentially detailing like comments about safety, infrastructure, rail, etc…