they are crap lah just a bunch of racist facist.
read the exp below.
The Chinese Dilemma
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29 June 2001,
Vignette
Singapore
Please note that the opinions expressed are not that of the Harimau Organization. The article does make interesting reading, nevertheless.
Perhaps I can share with all of you what I think of the Chinese intimately.
The Chinese may have one of the oldest civilisations in the world, distinct and rich in content, but like a thick hollow vase, it is not blessed with the foundation of a truly unifying religion as in other races. In other races, religions play a significant part in not only their daily life but also their literature and arts whereas for the Chinese, religion is largely insignificant in every aspect of their life. They are by nature atheist or agnostic. They seem to think that by virtue of their cultural superiority to other races, religions are dispensable.
But the Opium War and ensuing humiliating western imperialism of the 19th century had put paid to the fallacy of her cultural infallibility. The Chinese had largely skewed their cultural development on certain aspects, ignoring other vital aspects like military, science, commerce and fashion. It was due to their inadequacies in such areas that the west was able to exploit the weaknesses of the Chinese people and subject them to endless imperialistic humiliations. It is only of late that the Chinese realise they have indeed lagged so far behind in such areas of developments that they must strive much harder to bridge the gaping disparity between them and the west. Of course, several Chinese had won the prestigious Nobel prizes of scientific and other fields but the technological and military attainments of the Chinese taken in toto are still way off the mark compared to those of the west..
Let's not assume the Chinese civilisation is unmatched by others. Surely it does not take a rational person much to ascertain that the civilisation had not been developed in an all-rounded comprehensive way. The Chinese had emphasised far too much on food, music, the arts, literature and suchlike humanities but neglected such aspects as religions, law, science, psychology and any other area which speak to the deepest human convictions or are vital for meaningful human existence and intellectual growth. So it is fair to say that the Chinese civilisation, unlike that of the west, is not in essence pragmatic or utilitarian but is at best aesthetic or, to put it bluntly, merely ornamental..
The language itself also leaves much to be desired. It is non-phonetic and non-alphabetical which automatically disqualifies it to be an international language, which has as its main criterion, the ease of being picked up by people of drastically different linguistic backgrounds. The unique culture-laden Chinese characters do assure the perpetual survival of the language. Many people learn the language partly because they are awestruck by this very uniqueness. The language does bind the race to the civilisation but its practical value hardly goes beyond that.
Being non-alphabetical, typing it is cumbersome even if possible. Writing it is tedious. 16 strokes are needed just for a simple "I'm". It impedes fast and direct written communication. It also cannot assimilate foreign ideas readily, and because of its slow development, much of her vocabularies are archaic. This makes learning Chinese properly difficult because there isn't a standard of what correct actual Chinese is. To add to this problem, different parts of China develop their own peculiar usage of the language (not dialects) and in time, it is rather difficult to assess what grammatical Chinese really is..
> It has been suggested that the Chinese language, being more regular in sounds, is more suited to the development of voice data entry technology. It is primarily "digit" in form as opposed to the "analogue" nature of English. The fact is, such technology is still in its experimental stage and has never been proven to be of practical use extensively. The capability of such technology is obviously overrated..
In modern-day living, things Chinese can be viewed as anachronistic or old-fashioned. Women shun cheongsam on ordinary days because it is passe. Some youngsters do not want to speak Chinese because they deem it uncool. They equate modernity or coolness with Americanism, with English. As a result, linguistic proficiency drops and traditions become diluted. Even people who speak Chinese do not often use it conscientiously. It is also human misconception that speaking the language alone is manifestation of one's cultural pride. Cultural pride certainly has more to do with the preservation of traditions. In the face of hip western lifestyle, such traditions don't go down well with the young..
Another fallacious thinking of most Chinese is that Buddhism is central to Chinese culture. But we know Buddhism is an import from India and can be dispensable. The other two, Taoism and Confucianism, are at best works of sages or prophets, or merely artifices concocted just to provide some semblance of answers to life. It is heartening to learn that more Chinese are embracing the Christian religion, the only one which is God-given and truly universal, amenable to all races and languages. It is not an overstatement to state that without the Christian foundation, any culture, the Chinese one not excepted, is untenable, regardless of its being around for a long time or its being the way of life for many people. It is Christianity that lends credence to any civilisation, making it truly relevant..
It is not hard to see why so many Christian Chinese are unliked by the majority of pagan Chinese who view the former as traitors to their own heritage. They would not think likewise if they realise Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism are incidental to Chinese civilisation.
. And because of this paganism inherent in the Chinese civilisation, Chinese people are given to endless pursuit of insatiable materialism. To this end, Chinese philosophies, real or perceived are often invoked to dogmatise or restrain others moralistically to merely serve one's own selfish needs. People form relationships for mutual or self benefits. Human concern or even love are beyond the grasp of most Chinese because materialistic concern overrides everything else and Chinese are blindly partial to only their own family members while treating those without for personal gains, or with hostility otherwise. Currying favour and enslaving subordinates are the order of the day. And those who have the misfortunate of being left out of these networks are usually misused. Christianity can help alleviate such problems. Chinese culture alone doesn't..
China may be one of the largest nations in the world. Chinese may be one of the largest races in the world. Chinese history may be the longest in the world. But number games alone do not amount to anything in point of fact. It is the extent to which the way of life of a people gives them relevance and happiness that matter more. As mentioned, the cumbersome language which disallows its people to reach across to one another and to the world at large effortlessly, and the lack of Judeo-Christian foundation which is necessary for its cultural underpinning, are her coups de grace. So westernisation itself is not to blame for the erosion of traditional values.
In a sense, western cultures, be they French, Spanish or Portuguese, are more viable. Sharing the same Judeo-Christian foundation and an alphabetical writing system, these, coupled with colonisation and mass migration, help spread their languages and cultures far and wide. The fact that the early Chinese did not colonise others is no excuse for its cultural or linguistic dormancy on the world stage. Even the Italians and Germans, who are no colonisers, had managed to popularise their influence globally. In this age of globalisation, a language can only achieve higher status only if it is also readily accepted by other peoples. Chinese loses out on this score by virtue of its own complexity or difficulty of usage..
We are quick to point out the moral decadence of the west. But the very same moral decadence can well happen among the Chinese or any other non Judeo-Christian Asian societies. Cultures provide dogmas, dictates and doctrines but not enlightening truths. They admonish with conventions, and cultural values can thus be exploited opportunistically. People often do evils and hide themselves behind the smokescreen of cultural sanctimony. But only the Christian religion speak to the individuals without bias and rightly morally. It is fair to say that any supposedly rich civilisation but one without the sanctity of Christianity is in fact a hindrance to a truly liberated fulfilled living. That is because life has become too restrained by hollow and unquestioned conventions.
Asian values are quite a myth. People may in time come to realise the futility of a secular though culturally rich living. Some find it no longer worthwhile clinging on to such hollow philosophies whereas others rebel. Westernisation is more than just Hollywood or Mac as the media would like us to believe. Without Christianity, the so-called barbaric west wouldn't have survived till now. We have to adopt Christianity for Asian civilisations to survive, in the face of a converging but still as yet western-dominated world. Chinese especially must make their language more relevant by changing to a romanised script. This is the only way to make the Chinese language relevant to all other disciplines beside culture. In this age of technology and commerce, it is just not enough for a language used by almost a billion people to be confined to just the cultural realm alone or it will be rendered insignificant and useless in due course..
Economic motivation alone is not enough to prompt others to learn her language seriously. Of late there has been much fevered anticipation, owing to China's growing economic prowess, about the renaissance of Chinese culture and hence cultural hegemony. But economic prowess alone does not translate to cultural or linguistic dominance, as the blatant example of Japan had shown. Though China is very much a larger country, with a huge population and thus a strong potential for a superpower economy, as mentioned above, her very own complex and inflexible lingo is her own undoing. People learn the language mostly for economic inducements. The language can hardly be applied in other disciplines or aspects of everyday life..
With the opening up of China, more and more mainland Chinese, especially the younger generation, are picking up English. Outsiders wishing to trade with China can choose to do so in English. If they pick up some working knowledge of Mandarin, it would stand them in better stead still. But overseas Chinese wishing to trade with the Mainland Chinese can only do so in Mandarin, and herein lies the catch. Overseas Chinese would have to command a high proficiency in the language, comparable to that of the mainlanders, in order to find acceptance and favour among the latter. They are not expected to conduct trading in English as the mainlanders view such transactions between members of the same race in a foreign tongue highly suspect and unreliable. Thus it seems that non-Chinese outsiders are better placed to conduct trades with China. India, another potential growing economic rival, does not face this problem as English is one of her official languages and the Indians are highly competent and comfortable in this language, with outsiders and amongst themselves..
With so many things not in its favour, it is not hard to see why some Chinese turn to the west for their cultural identification and spiritual solace. Of course, there are those who are motivated by the coolness of western fashion and those who yearn for the highly materialistic and status-conscious western lifestyle. But they are those who are so utterly disenchanted with the superficiality and falseness of their own culture that they can see their lives being enriched and rendered meaningful only by the all-compassing and complete western civilisation. Of course, it is impossible for any Chinese to forsake his or her root altogether but it has come to a stage for some people that the Chinese culture is nothing more than a necessary evil, imposed upon them only by virtue of their birthright. They begrudge the westerners their complete civilisation..
Either because of Caucasian superiority or because of their own Chinese inferiority, some Chinese women choose to walk down the aisle with Caucasian men rather than members of the opposite sex from their very own race. This has become a phenomenon, the "Pinkerton Syndrome" and cultures do play a substantive role in it..
The very same stereotypes that make Chinese women desirable to the world make Chinese men marginalised. Chinese men have always been stereotyped as either a nunchaka-toting gungfu desperado or a wimp or geek of Fu Manchu persuasion in Hollywood movies. This sort of stereotypes has been reinforced and left unchallenged as literal truths among audiences and the peoples. Asian manhood in general and Chinese manhood in particular leave much to be desired. On the one hand, they lack the hot-blooded virility of their Caucasian brothers and on the other, they are relatively sexist, bigoted and humourless. It is not difficult to see why so many Chinese women prefer the company of Caucasian men to Chinese men..
In the final analysis, we could deduce that China does not have what it takes to assert her linguistic or cultural values globally unlike English even though she may quite be well poised to be a very rich economy. Chinese glory in her past came about only because the west had yet to develop her own civilisation. The west was able to surpass the Chinese by virtue of her superior linguistic, religious, cultural and scientific attainments subsequently. English became the true international language, not only because of the British empire and American economic power and mass cultural appeal but also because of its being alphabetic, phonetic, grammatical and systematic standardisation. The westerners have also adopted Christianity, the only true religion of the world, and fused it with their own civilisation, rendering it relevant and inspiring whereas the Chinese civilisation is secular, pagan and thus peripheral..
What would the future hold for China now that she is opening up and growing economically? Will her language be relevant to the rest of the world? Will she find herself marginalised by the rest of the world since she is stuck at one corner of the globe, being bypassed by those countries bordering on the Atlantic? Will she be relevant only because of her economic might, like Japan, but nothing else? Will she be sidelined geographically and linguistically? What sort of value systems will the young Chinese live by? Crass pop-culture American values or old-fashioned introspective Chinese values? These are questions nobody can find the ultimate answers to..
Given the very huge population of the country, she needs a viable agricultural system to sustain herself. China occupies 16 per cent of the world's landmass but only 13% of the world's arable land is within her and is much urbanised or underutilised. Because of the massive land, China cannot employ mass agricultural technology cost-effectively, unlike in the west. Much labour is still needed to cultivate the land. There has always been dissatisfaction in the inland provinces of the coastal provinces' phenomenal urbanisation and prosperity. The coastal provinces have also pulled mass population to their rich cities and this floating population steals jobs of low wages and cheap housing away from the city dwellers. Indeed, these are only the tip of the iceberg as far as China's domestic problems are concerned. The Chinese Communist Party is facing all manner of challenges - corruption, influences through Internet, a more privatised economy and the unviability of state-owned enterprises etc..
Can China set its house in order? Unlike Russia, China is continually seen as a threat to western hegemony. The yellow peril has always been a bugbear among the western nations. They deem it fit to help Russia pull through her ailing economy by, for instance, allowing her to join G8 but such a favour would not be extended to China (not really because she is Communist). Instead, the west allows China to join WTO only after much persuasion and pleading. The west even frustrated China's bid of hosting the 2000 Olympics by citing her dismal human rights record. Of course, such a claim is not entirely groundless. We have seen how atrocious the regime had been in clamping down on the demonstrators and dissidents in the June 1989 Tiannanmen Square Incident..
Because of her spiritual poverty, cults like the Falungong are allowed to rear their ugly heads and spin their webs round. In a country with a population in excess of a billion, such virulent activities can be catastrophic, if not apocalyptic. One can then well understand the moral quandary of the Central Government - swift clamping down on such insidious activities can be construed as arbitrary harshness by the foreign media, especially the west. But then, it is true that the many political activists being held up in Chinese prisons are often denied a fair trial which is part of a democratic process. The Central Government should also have refrained from passing any critical political comment on the award of the literary Nobel Prize to Gao Xinjian, another dissident in exile, for in passing such a comment, it has played into the hands of the western powers by admitting itself as being doctrinaire and undiscriminating..
Really, China may not even make it as a true economic power. Unlike the US which is fronted on both sides by the Pacific and the Atlantic, she is geographically confined to one corner of Asia, having a relatively short coastline. She is constantly under threat from potential rivals like India, Japan and even the mercurial Russia (as history has shown), apart from the US, militarily and economically. China is in a way a persona non grata on the world stage..
Would the compartmentalisation of China be a better deal for her people? Would Taiwan and Tibet be better off going their own way? By breaking up China into manageable sizes, each independent nation can still seek a close-knitted military or economic alliance regionally. Of course, the Central Government, ever so intent on clinging onto its iron-fisted powers would not let such a reality materialise. A divided China (China would be no more then but in her place countries of manageable sizes) united with well-forged alliances would provide more security and prosperity to both the people on the land and others..
Let me summarise here what the problems confronting the Chinese are:.
1) Its civilisation is secular and pagan. This means that the civilisation is not built upon any spiritual bedrock. Western civilisation, on the other hand, is firmly entrenched on the holy Judeo-Christian tradition..
2) Its civilisation is not developed in an all-rounded comprehensive way. Her cuisine and the arts are far too sophisticated to be preserved easily. She made relatively little contribution to science, religion, law, psychology and other lofty human endeavours. Western civilisation, by comparison, has made and is still making substantive contribution to virtually every area of life. Even the earliest history of the Chinese is shrouded in mythology and its authenticity is doubted..
3) Because of her secularism and lop-sided development, Chinese civilisation, despite her earlier beginning than the west, is tenuous, vague and peripheral to real life experiences..
4) It is also a fallacy to say that the Chinese civilisation had really enjoyed a golden era in the past. It is an invidious comparison because the western civilisation came into being only later..
5) It language, being non-alphabetical and non-phonetic, is impractical. In this age of science and commerce, a language has to move beyond the cultural or even literary realm to stay relevant. Being non-alphabetical, it is difficult to type (even if possible) and makes written communication cumbersome. Being non-phonetic, it makes learning difficult and so it is not as suitable as English for the role of the international lingua franca. Even other European languages such as French, Spanish or even German are more suitable. For other various reasons too (colonialism; connected to English)..
6) The younger Chinese are increasingly facing a spiritual vacuum and poverty. Paganism or secularism, runaway materialism, foreign pop American culture and loss of traditional values partly owing to smaller family size account for this..
7) China is geographically isolated. This partly explains her being culturally pristine for such a long time. It remains to be seen how she will measure up vis-Ã Ã -vis the western civilisation. Her bad geographical location also means that she cannot take advantage of trans-Atlantic trading (since that's where most of the countries border on). It remains to be seen if the world chooses to sideline her or engage her, and to what extent (economically or more)..
Her mass population is a boon for others since it provides a huge ready market for foreign goods but it is a bane to herself. Pollution, intercity migration and other social problems are hard to manage. A huge population also means that China needs to constantly produce enough food to feed herself. By and large, a large section of her population is still rural. Given the physical realities, her efforts at industrialisation and urbanisation on a mammoth scale bring with it other social ramifications..
9) On the world stage, the stereotype of China is that she is still a feminine and exotic curio. Chinese women are stereotyped as submissive. There is a trend of many young Chinese women learning English and leaving the country for greener pastures. Many dream of marrying to the west. The Pinkerton Syndrome is more prevalent than ever. The likes of exotic celluloid babes like Lucy Liu, Christy Chung and Coco Lee perpetuate this "yellow chick" stereotype. On the other hand, Chinese men are often typecast as sexually inept, crafty, petty and having the hots for Caucasian babes. Already, China is suffering from sexual imbalance where disportionately more boys than girls are born and raised each year. The intermarriages of Chinese women to Caucasian men, an ever inexorable trend, will take its toll on this imbalance..
10) Chinese women in recent years have made great stride in their career and status. But, unlike their western counterparts, they still face sexist discrimination in their own country. Male-dominated stereotypes and prejudices hold back the nation's social development..
To summarise, China will not be a true superpower in every sense of the word because of her.
1) baseless civilisation and partially mythological history
2) impractical, ungrammatical and non-standardised language
3) geographical isolation
4) unmanageable population and resultant problems
5) potential threat to rivals, thus making her unpopular
6) feminine and exotic stereotype (being a curio rather than a real force to reckon with)
7) Chinese men being more sexist and bigoted than their western counterparts. Other dated values also persist.
other socio-political problems (transition from communism to socialism to democracy)
9) territorial problems with Tibet, Muslim-dominated provinces and notably Taiwan. Externally, over Aksai Chin with India, Diaoyutais with Japan and the Spratlies with 5 other nations.
10) spiritual poverty among the young and uncertain future
Taking the above into consideration, we can thus peep into the future of China:
1) There will be problems in leadership. Evolving realities such as capitalism would dictate that the present-day Chinese Communist Party would have to transform if not to be replaced by democracy. There will be a contest of power between provincial authority with more individual freedom and the ironclad authority of the central regime. Young cadres will transform the political arena further. But an erosion of central power may result in more corruption and other social problems. Tight authority will rouse democratic sentiments and brickbats from western countries and investors. It remains to be seen how much the party is willing to divest of its power and what consequences such a transformation will bring about. With her opening up, people may not be satisfied with just more economic freedom and opportunities. They want more in other realms. Cultural and religious expressions, for instance.
2) There will be problems in her relationship with other nations. Unlike the US which has worldwide allies, China has yet to gather worldwide affinity. She is surrounded by many potential rivals. She has territorial dispute with India over Aksai Chin and they had fought a bloody border war in the 1960s. Cheap Chinese goods flooding the subcontinent have also rouse the unhappiness of local manufacturers. Russia to the north had occupied much of China's territories irretrievably. Their relationship, more as a counterweight to the hegemony of the US, is at best constraint instead of cordial. Japan is the age-old economic and cultural rival to China. The two Sino-Japanese Wars are a constant reminder of their hostile relationship in their histories. Throughout history, China and Japan have never been both strong economically simultaneously, and so it remains to be seen how the two will co-exist. Japan would be hard put to accept a China which surpasses her economically and has more strategic importance to the US, an important Japanese ally. The US stance towards China is circumspect. Her intervention in Taiwan's democratic processes (such as the presidential election) is seen by the Mainland as an infringement of her internal sovereign right (Taiwan is seen by the Mainland as a renegade province). Taiwan's ambiguous stance on the "One China Principle" and her political and military dealings with US and other nations are a continual challenge to the massive hinterland's sovereignty and international credibility of her supremacy over the island. The Tiannanmen Incident is still a sore point with the west which is most wary of the Chinese' dismal human rights record. This does not bode well for her trades and other international affairs. Of course, the threat of yellow peril is another reason for the west to continually forestall her economic ascendancy.
3) There will be problems with her language and culture. As mentioned above, the young will be beset with foreign pop cultures and an erosion of their traditional values. Already, linguistic proficiency has also dropped. Her language, for various reasons outlined above, is not well exported and valued. China as a country will not be reckoned with too much seriousness by the rest of the world as compared to the US or the EU. We have also seen the unwelcome appearances of cults like Falungong. We will have more to come. To add to that, democratic sentiments (nothing less than Tiannanmen Square Incident perhaps) and widespread corruption (which the central government is hard pressed to act).
In sum, the country will be sidelined by the rest of the world. Others are there to just exploit her economically. Her people, confronted with greater freedom as never before, will cause social disorder. Corruption, crass materialism, western idolatory and other anti-social activities loom. Environmental hazards such as pollution, desertification and food shortages will dramatically increase her problems.
So we can surmise that the picture being painted for China is bleak. On all fronts, she will stand to face an overall grim picture:
Economically,
Socially,
Culturally,
Historically,
Linguistically,
Politically,
Environmentally
What is the point of developing science and military in the face of all these problems? She is not liked by others and others will continue to do anything within their means to stall her ascendancy.
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