• Are Chinese people selfish? On the one hand, they’re labeled as “community-oriented,” placing the interests of their family, community, country above their own needs — at least, they face huge pressure to do so. On the other hand, they will do anything to get ahead: They don’t believe in lines, and they push and shove their way onto or off of buses and subways just to grab the best seats.  Maybe “impatient” is a better description.
• In discussing China’s rise and potential as a future superpower, and the U.S.’s concurrent decline, optimists always point out that the U.S. has the creative edge by far. It’s not even an edge, it’s a gulf. And based on what my personal experiences, it’s not going to close anytime soon. But will innovation remain as important as it is now, given China’s ability to imitate?
• Why do the Chinese imitate? No one tries to sell anything different because it might mean a loss of revenue. It’s a nation of people so averse to risk.
• Laowai, Chinese slang for “foreigner” that literally translates as “old outsider,” is increasingly sounding like an equivalent of nigger in the U.S. At face value, laowai is an affectionate nickname for foreigners, with lao added in front of people’s names or titles to indicate intimacy or informality. But often, when I hear laowai used, it’s because a Chinese person is pointing out and gawking at some laowaior going on a rant about them. Still, many laowai still refer to themselves as laowai – just like black people refer to themselves asniggas. (That metaphor ran deeper than I thought!)

• Why can’t the Chinese invest in some air-freshening products? I know air fresheners aren’t necessities, so they’re reluctant to waste precious monetary resources on such frivolities. But my nose and sense of smell really wish they would indulge for once every time I go to the bathroom.
• Am I ever again going to be able to wake up and not be freezing? It’s the end of April and Beijing has turned off the heat, but temperatures keep falling. What the hell, BJ, what the hell? I’m cold!
• It’s been said (by David Brooks, no less) that the U.S. wins in the assimilation category. That is very true based on my experiences. The foreigners here, as foreigners do everywhere, clump in groups, form tight-knit, impenetrable communities. I still can’t decide who is more to blame here, though: Are the Chinese, with their deeply ingrained sense of foreigners as “others,” too unwilling to let us in, or are expats generally reluctant to fully embrace Chinese culture?

I don’t have a lot of faith in the Chinese: They have bad tastes, they’re generally disgusting and I may not have witnessed a bigger herd of sheep ever in my life or a group of people so unwilling to take the lead on and responsibility for anything. But every so often, I am reminded why.

Such as today, when Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years in prison for “incitement to subversion” of state power. Tan is an activist and environmentalist in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. He had been working on an independent investigation into the collapse of school buildings in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and trying to ascertain the names of some 5,000 children who died as a result. He had publicly blamed the government for the schools’ shoddy construction, but the cited reason for his sentence was comments he had made in e-mail messages about the 1989 crackdown on demonstrators at Tian’anmen Square. The court never mentioned his earthquake investigation, though this is the obvious suspected reason.

China has a handful of such activists, willing to speak out against the government and criticize it for its (perceived) wrongdoings. A lot of them, like Tan, are imprisoned. The most recent case involved Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced to 11 years for his involvement with Charter 08 (a petition calling for freedom of speech, human rights and free elections, among other things). Ai Weiwei, an outspoken artist and supreme critic of the Chinese government, has so far managed to avoid being arrested.

When dissenting voices are quelled so swiftly (in Tan’s case, the verdict was handed down in under 10 minutes), and a stamp of government approval is a prerequisite for everything, few people will bother to think for themselves. There’s a saying in China: You can do as you please, as long as it pleases the government. The deputy program director of Amnesty International in Hong Kong, Roseann Rife, summed up Tan’s verdict nicely:

“The message,” Ms. Rife adds, “is that civil society can participate, if at all, only under the government’s guidance and with its permission.”

The only outlet Chinese citizens seem to have to voice their opinions is the Internet. New words and catchphrases spread like wildfire over Chinese forums. The Chinese government is well aware of this, even going so far as to inviting netizens to participate in political affairs. Last year, after the death of an inmate in Yunnan Province aroused public suspicions of abuse and a cover up by prison officials, the government quelled the outcry by inviting netizens to participate in an independent investigation of the death. Alas, they were met with uncooperative officials and their investigation turned up inconclusive. It was a savvy propaganda move, designed to give Chinese citizens the feeling that their government is more open and more amenable to hearing their grievances. But the government knows online cynicism is still virtual and therefore poses very little threat in reality. CMP’s astute analysis:

In the government handling of the “eluding the cat” case we can glimpse an eerie phenomenon emerging in China: the rise of virtual political participation as a proxy and foil for real political empowerment. Notice, political rights are not on offer to China’s citizens. But if we believe the hype China’s state media are selling us, China’s “netizens” are in political ascent.

And that is why this latest catchphrase supporting Tan is so ironic. Tan’s given name, Zuoren (作人), is a homonym for “be a person” (做人): Wo yao zuo ren (我要作人) means, “I want to be a person,” but uses Tan’s name, so it really reads “I want Zuoren.” Clever, these netizens. Perhaps they do want to be people, with real rights and real voices that are capable of effecting change and that will be heard by their government, and their sentiment belies a subconscious awareness that their virtual selves are not real. But then, if their sentiment is of the virtual world, is it a real sentiment? Or will it not translate and netizens just keep going on as sheep?

As an aside: China blocks searches on Liu Xiaobo. The first time I googled his name, I was able to get search results, but none of the links worked — I’d get messages of not being connected to the Internet or server is down or the like. Going back to the search results brought up the same. After a new URL to another site and a few reloads, I am granted access to the Internet again. As of now, you can still google Tan Zuoren, but I suspect this won’t be the case for long.

“I believe that Chinese peacekeepers will win the glory for the motherland with their own strenuous efforts and successfully implement rescue and peacekeeping missions in Haiti.”

Hu Yunwang, director of the 5th anti-riot police force in Haiti in 2007, to Sina.com. He is being deployed there again to help with peacekeeping efforts in the earthquake aftermath.

In China, EVERYTHING is about China and how to bring glory to the Motherland, even in the wake of tragedy half the world away.

If China were a person, it could be psychoanalyzed as such: China suffers from an inferiority complex that has stunted its emotional and psychological development. Thus, it acts like a baby and shows an appalling lack of maturity in how it conducts its public relations.

China makes up for its insecurity by bragging about how great it is — because if you say it enough, surely people will catch on. It is always bragging about its economic development. After Copenhagen, the Chinese media bragged about China’s role in its “success”. Now, after the Haiti earthquake, they are bragging about their peacekeeping forces.

The quote above is from a (horrible) story I had to polish today, in which Hu seemed to mainly talk about what he will be doing in Haiti and the political and social conditions that might present challenges to his mission. It was tacked on at the end, out of nowhere (as Chinese writers are wont to do). To be fair, the reporter may have prompted Hu to say it, so Hu could have a heart. As for the Chinese as a whole, my faith in them is shattering.