From: roten@CUBA.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Roten)
Subject: Re: I'm very disappointed in Chinese
Organization: /cuba_b/dirbe/roten/.organization
X-Newsreader: GNU Emacs 18.57.1, GNUS 3.13, NNTP 3.10
	<1SEP199214572560@phobos.ucc.umass.edu>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 21:05:23 GMT

I'm going to cite the whole thing because such self-evident common sense 
cannot be too often repeated.  

But I'll highlight the real punchline, at least for me.  

In article <1SEP199214572560@phobos.ucc.umass.edu> 
s9874194@phobos.ucc.umass.edu (s9874194) writes:

>In article <la7749INNfdl@aludra.usc.edu>, zyou@aludra.usc.edu 
>(Zhongbai You) writes...
>>In article <1992Sep1.113239.12546@cs.mu.OZ.AU> dht@mulga.cs.mu.oz.au 
>>(Joyous Dave) writes:
>>>I'm very disappointed in Chinese people.
>>>
>>>I want to improve China, improve its people's living standard,
>>>improve its productivity, improve its economy, improve its
>>>stand in the world.  And I asked people to contribute suggestions
>>>to how to improve China.
>> 
>> Look,  many of us are improving the living standard of Chinese implicitly,
>>even not realized by themself.
>> 
>>  Chinese working here ---> making $$ -->buying Chinese products -->
>>  stimulating export in China,TW,HK-->improving Chinese's life in home.
>> 
>>  Some mainlanders even send cash home-->improve his family's life
>> 
>>  Chinese doing trade businese here-->imports directly Chinese goods-->
>>  improve Chinese's life in home.
>> 
>>  Chinese staying here try to improve their own life. They are Chinese too!
>> 
>> 
>>If not for the big oversease Chinese population, the Chinese export to
>>the world would not be today's size, TW,HK would be different. Think
>>about it. Think about the big rotating cycle.
>> 
>>  You are living in the western country, you know their economic
>>philosophy, that is, everyone works for his own good, the society
>>will be improving over all. See, the philosophy works.
>> 
>> So don't force yourself to make 'contributions', just go ahead
>>to improve your own life FIRST. At least, you can improve you and
>>your family's life. You can also improve fellow Chinese's life
>>in the same time.  
>> 
>> Also don't force yourself to buy Chinese products, buy the one
>>you like and can afford.
>> 
>> 
>>>I got handful of constructive suggestions, but tons of noise and
>>>flames on ideological differences, history, general complains, or
>>>pure noise.
>> 
>>  Just because they are making noise, dosen't mean they never made
>>'contributions'. They did, they are, they will , though they may
>>not realize it.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>====================================================================
>I would like to add another point which is somehow away from your
>points.
>By staying in the west, at least there is one thing we can do and
>should do is to promote the communication between the two different
>countries and cultures. Not too many American really understand China
>and Chinese culture. One of my American friends told me that he saw 
>some skii-boots on sale in New Hampshire last winter. Those were made
>in China with DOG fur. He said that some of his friends there were
>so disquested and believed that Chinese are animal abuser and would
>call their congressmen for banning those skii-boots. I told him that
>you American were animal abuser. The chickens in your farms would never
>even get a chance to see the sunlight in those poor babies' whole life.
>In China, a chicken was killed, grandma would tears for hours. So, we
>laughed at each other.
>The point here is that because of the cultural differences, American have
>a lot of misunderstanding about China. This has caused and will keep
>causing a lot of trouble between the communication of the people of the
>two coutries. Of caurse, different political system would add another
>barrier to it. 
>We come from the ancient culture. We have been in this culture for years.
>By introducing Chinese culture and customs to our American friends, and
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>by telling the people in our homeland the culture and customs here, 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>we can well be the window for the world to see China and China to see
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>the world. I believe that would be a very important thing and yet a
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>very easy thing to do for everybody.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT !!!!  

Folks, most of what Americans think they know about China is nonsense.  

I recall my landlady in Mississippi.  She was genuinely concerned over 
the influx of Chinese students into American universities, because she 
thought they believed in Communism !  What a howler !  I tried to 
explain that your average Chinese, student or not, was about as much a 
Communist as J. P. Morgan was (note for those who don't know .. J. P. 
Morgan was a *very* rich, powerful, and ruthless banker about 90 years 
ago in this country).  I think I got through.  But honestly disseminated 
misinformation about China (and most other really different cultures) 
abounds in this country.  

And you CSS folks are in a perfect position to do something effective 
about that !  

--
Charles Roten | Hughes-STX, Incorporated | 
  roten@cuba.gsfc.nasa.gov               | 'Use the Source, Luke!'
  7601 Ora-Glen Dr., Greenbelt, MD 20706 | 
  301-513-7805 (w),  301-317-0872 (h)    |            Obi-Wan Stallman
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china