• 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 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.