<p>
</p>
<p>God, it really is all about appearances, is it? There cannot be a thread about China without worries about how x and y appears in the eyes of others. What a limitation it is to always worry about what you look like in someone else’s eyes. That’s why I’m not worried about China overtaking the US any time soon.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wow, I wonder how people could be stupid like that! It’s not like people in the US ever considers appearances, right?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s kind of hard to not have such concerns when within the last 170+ years, it has been subjected to colonialist invasive wars and policies, civil wars of various types driven partially by the first, two revolutions, and at least two major ill-conceived domestic policies by an ideologically motivated Maoist government. </p>
<p>All of which brought Mainland China down to a really low sorry state and did make it the proverbial laughingstock in many parts of the Western world of that time. In many ways, it isn’t too far removed from how the foibles of the North Korean Kims has made them and their nation into an international joke within the last 2 decades. </p>
<p>In contrast, the last time the US has been subjected to a serious colonialist invasion was during the war of 1812 when the British Army took and set fire to Washington D.C. Not surprisingly, it’s a war that’s not usually covered in much detail in most US schools…especially the part about how the US actually started the war by trying to “liberate” Canada before being beaten back by local British forces and then subsequently invaded by British reinforcements by sea. </p>
<p>Ancient history to the US…especially considering it surpassed the British as a superpower after WWII.</p>
<p>
I think there maybe close to 1.3+ billion Chinese in PRC and Cobrat does not represent Chinese, so I think you should still worry about China overtaking the US if he is your bench mark.</p>
<p>zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz</p>
<p>more of the same anti-asian sentiment (specifically, anti-chinese folks) on this thread. fear fear fear, hate hate hate…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Indeed. One wonders how folks in the fashion, motion pictures/TV, arts, music, marketing, PR, architecture, corporate business/biglaw, ibanking, and especially politics here in the US survive without considering appearances? </p>
<p>There was supposedly even a son of a president elected in his own right recently because he “looked folksy enough hang out with over a beer or two”. Elected twice on appearances…pshaw! Of course, not!</p>
<p>Which is why I’m glad we have the creativity and right-brain thinking that we have here in the US (or western countries as a whole).</p>
<p>Here is the result of the International Math Olympiad 2012:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.imo-official.org/year_individual_r.aspx?year=2012[/url]”>http://www.imo-official.org/year_individual_r.aspx?year=2012</a></p>
<p>I fail to see any country with a monopoly on highly creative and talented individuals.</p>
<p>more of the same anti-asian sentiment (specifically, anti-chinese folks) on this thread. fear fear fear, hate hate hate…</p>
<p>I think it is mostly fear. When it comes to our personal self-interest, and the interest of our progenies, we can be totally tribal. Education does not change that reality; it can only makes our rationalization more obtuse.</p>
<p>As Heather Mac Donald notes in her comments on the NYT article, having families, rather than the government, pay for more of the schooling of their children may encourage children to work harder, since education is not seen as free.</p>
<p>[Lessons</a> From a Chinese Family - By Heather Mac Donald - The Corner - National Review Online](<a href=“http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/340885/lessons-chinese-family-heather-mac-donald]Lessons”>http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/340885/lessons-chinese-family-heather-mac-donald)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not really. </p>
<p>Other cultural and institutional factors could play just as important of a part…such as an educational system which tracks from much earlier ages which provides no “second chances” if one screws up or displays academic slacking tendencies at any point from late elementary/middle school onwards which admittedly does weed out the vast majority of those who aren’t going to work hard. Then top it off by having a cutthroat competitive national college exam which weeds out most of the applicants* for entry to ANY college. </p>
<p>Another factor is the strong cultural sense of shame which accompanies academic mediocrity/failure and/or slacking in one’s studies/work ethic due to the great importance placed on one’s educational performance in such societies. Consequently, unlike in the US…you won’t see too many prominent folks making light of or even taking pride in flunking out or graduating with mediocre grades/stats as one recent twice-elected US president has done. </p>
<p>Over in East Asia and in some parts of Europe, the shame and embarrassment of mediocre/poor academic performance is such that most would rather keep it hidden…especially considering it can still be used against them by critics, political opponents, and the electorate**. </p>
<p>More ironically, one recent phenomenon after the pulling of educational subsidies which made college free in the late '90s is something called a “graduation certificate”. According to several friends who taught in Chinese universities within the last decade, it’s provided in lieu of a college degree for students at elite universities who flunked out or otherwise didn’t meet academic graduation requirements. Reasoning behind this policy is that the Profs/admins felt that in light of how hard the students worked to gain admission under the cutthroat national college entrance exams and paying tuition, they felt students who had no disciplinary issues and who couldn’t graduate because they couldn’t meet academic standards shouldn’t be left “empty handed”. </p>
<p>As a result…enter the “graduation certificate” to at least certify they qualified for admission to an elite university and didn’t leave due to disciplinary issues. </p>
<ul>
<li>Those who weren’t already tracked off the academic track for college-aspirants.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>** Attitude here isn’t too far removed from President Abraham Lincoln’s true feelings about his background of growing up in a log cabin and working hard doing manual/farm labor from a young age. Contrary to a campaign which made use of those facets of his early life as election campaign/popular historical heromaking, he was actually deeply ashamed of them as he felt it made him seem like a “backwoods rube” and did his best to try to leave it all behind before politics made that a futile quest.</p>
<p>Oh my god the chinese school BBC Canuckguy posted looks awful</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Except then the children of the poorest families won’t be able to go to school at all because they families cannot afford it. In such a situation, education will tend to reinforce inherited socioeconomic status for the next generation.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Under Chinese cultural mores of “filial piety” is she really allowed the right to do her own thing? </p>
<p>Her parents may be sacrificing everything for her education, but it’s not all altruism. The parents expect her to be their retirement fund. In contrast, American parents who sacrifice to fund their kids’ education just want their kids to be financially independent.</p>
<p>Here’s more on filal piety:
<a href=“http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/16/china-updates-ancient-guide-to-filial-piety.html[/url]”>http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/16/china-updates-ancient-guide-to-filial-piety.html</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It isn’t as big of a factor as it was before 1949 or before. In fact, the lack of filial piety in practice in some East Asian countries is one reason why countries like Singapore and China have passed laws mandating adult children support their elderly parents in old age on pain of legal sanctions.</p>
<p>In Neo-Confucian ideology…if one needs a law to ensure filial piety is carried out in practice rather than moral persuasion/reminders…that means such concepts aren’t being taken very seriously.</p>
<p>@cobrat, my point still stands that this girl is viewed by her parents as a walking pension</p>