Appearances vs. Substance, part I

Appearances vs. Substance, part I
coineineagh Mar 01, 2014 15:25

This, the first of a three-part blog, attempts to illustrate a very disturbing pattern I have observed in behaviour of many Chinese over the years, both in China and internationally: great care in appearances, but a lack of accompanying substance.

 

It is divided into many chapters, each discussing a specific aspect of China in which the behaviour manifests. The chapters in this part are bolded below:

 

1. Intro

2. Education

3. Language

4. Family

5. Hospitals

6. Hygiene

7. Economy

8. Law

9. Politics

10. Culture

11. History & Mythology

12. Fiction & Television

13. Society

14. Racism

15. Sexuality

16. Biology

17. Propaganda

18. Synopsis & Credits

 

 

INTRO:

 

If someone were to ask me what I thought of China today, the best answer I could think of would be: "China is a GOOD-LOOKING country."

Onslow - Keeping up Appearances.  I feel for him as I sit here compleely surrounded by no chocolate.

Being a down-to-Earth, lower-middle class person in my needs and expectations of life, I've never really placed much value on appearances. Of course I acknowledge the need for a bit of outward display, but other people are often a lot better at maintaining appearances than I am.

 

Since living in China, I've been granted the status of 'showy' character by virtue of my race, skincolour, language, culture and so on. I can't say I like it, most of the time.

Keeping Up Appearances

But for the Chinese, my distinctive appearance is a source of envy. Many enterprising locals go to great lengths to get a good image, and I don't need to do anything for my appearance. When I'm not making a concerted effort to dress sharply as accompaniment to my international LOOK, the conclusion is drawn that I'm a slacker.

 

It ties in with the prevailing mindset of locals, that there's too much foreign "trash" living in their country. But I feel there's something locals could learn from me, or more accurately, un-learn by example.

 

"Mrs. Bucket? B-U-C-K-E-T?"

- "No, it's pronounced 'bouquet', like the beautiful, sweet-smelling flowers. Remember that for the next time."

 

Appearances matter far too much for people in this country. People are dynamic, adaptive, emergent creatures. But everyone here thinks we're as static and unchangeable as paintings, and we should all LOOK PERFECT.

 

First impressions matter, but there should be more to a book than its cover. This view of reality is making everyone cruel, indifferent, selfish, shortsighted, smallminded, sick, delusional and poor.

Keeping Up Appearances....

EDUCATION:

This is where it starts, really. At home too, but I'll get to that next. Many ESL teachers will observe the importance of appearance in education. Teachers can't sit on chairs too long, because it "looks lazy".

 

Private schools will emphasize the importance of keeping parents & children *happy*, because that's how they get the tuition paid. And the only way to make them happy, is by satisfying expectations with windowdressing.

The learn-by-rote teaching style applied in schools is ineffective, and although this has been explained to parents & children many times, it just doesn't get through.

It LOOKS GOOD when parents see their kids nose-down in a book, or reciting words they memorized (often in chorus, aided by the memory of the best rote-learner in class).

 

The problem with effective teaching (creativity, improvisation, originality, independence, problem solving, lateral thinking, learning from mistakes, etc.) is that the students must think hard about the answers, and will make mistakes. Making mistakes is embarrassing and causes loss of face! That doesn't LOOK GOOD, so it is assumed that something must have gone wrong.

Blame is placed at the perceived source of the dysharmony, and precautions are set in place to prevent such real learning situations from occurring in the future. In fact, children are forced to go to 12+ hour schooldays to satisfy the "busy learning" expectation of their parents.

 

The foremost thing kids learn in Chinese schools, is the importance of pretending to meet Great Expectations. As long as the little emperors(小皇帝) pretend to learn well, their family is *happy*, and the 小皇帝 retains a bit of freedom.

 

Often, that freedom is used for negative attention-seeking, as any ESL teacher who's been assaulted and manhandled can confirm. If your own parents won't let you have fun, then isn't it fun to take away other people's joy, too? That's how kids learn to be well-behaved bullies.

 

Moving on to university, the parents are no longer present to observe their kids on campus anymore, and professors don't have the time to attend to each individual in the classroom. So, uni students don't need to show up for class!

 

 

It LOOKS BAD, but no-one is looking! The only reason they were there, was to make people *happy* -- so why pretend when no-one is looking?

 

They will show up for exams, and they naturally expect to be passed with a decent grade. They can pay bribes, and you wouldn't want them to LOOK BAD, would you? Coz if your students LOOK BAD, you the professor are blamed for students' non-adherence to expectations. Passing grades for everybody! So long, and thanks for all the fish/hongbao!

 

Keeping Up Appearances

LANGUAGE:

What do you guys think of the Chinese spoken and written language? You must definitely look assertive (if not rude) before any stranger will pay attention to you for no personal gain.

 

When I listen to all the times people go "eh? Eh? EH?!" on the phone, I wonder if the subtleties of the intonations are lost in the digital reproduction of the sound. Or perhaps with so many homonyms and homophones in the language, it becomes difficult to understand what people are talking about without being able to look at their situation.

 

But I love the hieroglyphics/character writing system most of all: tens of thousands of symbols all drawn in the same style, making it very hard to distinguish them without lifelong practice.

 

 

No Chinese person knows all characters by heart, just the most important ones, and those relevant to their own lives. Handy for when the government wants to screw over uneducated people for taxes, legalities, payments, or anything else for that matter.

 

The suckers literally can't read how they're being screwed over!

 

 

Are Chinese characters practical? Are they accessible? Is it a 5000-year-old Ponzi scheme designed to keep intellectual discourse centralized within government elitists, and keeping the poor from being competitive? Does it look like a horde of tiny chickens dipped their feet in ink and ran across your paper?

 

 

No disrespect intended; the Chinese character script definitely LOOKS GOOD...

 

tumblr_lrziptm6lA1r02x60o1_400.gif

FAMILY:

It can be argued that this is actually where it all starts. Parents beat their children, and punish them for perceived disappointments. The consequences are harsh, and the child is often given no realistically achievable path to indulge his/her playful curiosity and make parents happy

 

In fact, by the account of Chinese people themselves, they *must* beat their children. How else would they become marginally competent in recognizing the tens of thousands of characters in the Chinese Alphabet?

You must force them to learn it at a young age, and extinguish their innate impulse to indulge curiosity through playful exploration.

 

 

Perhaps this is the saddest part of all: It's clear that people lose all curiosity after going through this kind of childhood.

 

Most Chinese adults nowadays have no hobbies or interests, and don't care what happens outside of their closest family & relationship ties. They care obsessively about money and family. Or: food & mating, just like the Animal Kingdom... That's what happens when there is no more humanity.

And look at what happens when the kids reach adulthood: If the girl was lucky enough not to be aborted straight off the bat, she will be sent to the slaughterhouse as fertile marriage meat for the richest customer the family can find. 

 

But in China, the cattle gets to call the shots. Too many buyers (men) and not enough sellers (women). Add a little hysteria into the mix, no pensions or social safety net, and laws that require people to care for their elders, and we have a market where marriage and childbearing are in highest demand.

 

And the women really know how to gouge the price! It's pretty much all they know. So, women make sure they LOOK GOOD, and don't make any effort to cultivate depth of character.

 

 

The men are equally dull, and the ways in which they objectify women and focus on the desired son are inhumane. The underdeveloped foetuses are taken out too early, making C-section the newest norm.

Keeping Up Appearences

HOSPITALS:

You would expect doctors, who took a hippocratic oath to do no harm, to be untouched by these effects. But they are not. Perhaps they mistook the philosophy of Hippocrates for hypocrisy?

 

It may seem quite harmless at first, but once you give in to patients' expectations, the effects become very insidious.

 

Hospitals are quite dirty, here, but sick people aren't there to critique the decor. They will wait in lines, because a successful doctor should appear to be very popular, hence busy.

Elder doctors are implored by the hospitals to continue working, because an 80-year-old doctor LOOKS skilled and experienced. The whole crowd waits inside the doctor's room, so they can observe how many people are vying for the doctor's attention.

 

There isn't much room to do physical examinations, because other patients are too busy lurching over the desk to spread germs.

 

It's not that they're *curious* about others, because that is a trait they've become incapable of - they simply invade your personal space because they want to get their turn sooner, and they observe for weaknesses and non-conformity; anything that LOOKS BAD will be held against you.

 

The doctor's diagnosis is in: "You have a cold." Well, then you should stay warm and sick it out, right? Wrong. Patients feel uncomfortable, so they expect lots of medicine. Just one bottle of cough syrup? No, take this impressive-looking cocktail of assorted pills as well!

 

I can only hope that they're placebos: If they're antibiotics, I might be cultivating the newest strain of multi-drug-resistant streptococci in my own body.

 

 

Doctors should have some awareness of the risks of giving out antibiotics too readily, but in China, the panicky patients don't give a crap who gets hurt.

 

In fact, it looks good to them if others are put at risk! As long as it LOOKS to them like they got everything they could to stay alive. If it's at the expense of everyone else's safety, then it must be good for you, right?

 

Why else would the doctor be reluctant to prescribe it to you - it's the nectar of health and long life that he didn't want you to have. "OK, I gave you antibiotics for your cold virus (antibiotics work on bacteria not on viruses, by the way). Would you please leave now?" No, wait. It still doesn't LOOK GOOD enough.

The patient waited in line, paid the money, got pills and stuff, but where's the show? There must be some good-looking performance for their efforts.

 

So, in comes the nurse with the intravenal drip. You can look at her pretty eyes while she hooks you up with a bag of salt water, yay! After a few hours sucking up fluids in a special IV room, the patient is satisfied that expectations are met, and finally pisses off. "Visit our hospital-themed windowdressing service any time. Payment in advance."

 

Chinese doctors have adapted to their money-making role readily, but not everyone is happy about it.

I

t's the most nauseating industry I can think of, because it takes the place of real hospitals in this country.

HYGIENE:

But hospitals are not entirely to blame for poor Chinese health: Chinese cuisine may look good, but you know there's cross-contamination taking place when people dip their saliva-coated chopsticks in the shared dishes on the table.

 

 

"Don't touch the chopsticks with your mouth" - fullproof hygiene indeed. And why do Chinese keep their windows open all year round? Does it look like they might suffocate if there's no airflow? Is it any wonder why there are so many respiratory infections over here, not to mention new viral outbreaks? 

 

Many expats rant about all the farting, hacking, spitting, defecating and worse that happens on the streets, here.

 

As a victim of flatulence myself, I'm probably not the best person to discuss how it looks. If Chinese tend to their industries the way they tend to their bodily health, it would explain all the air pollution.

Smog is practically a blessing, because it LOOKS BAD. Hopefully it will spur the government into undertaking some real environmental action.

 

Disclaimer: This blog is copyright 2014 by T. I. de Jong, a.k.a. coineineagh.
All rights reserved. This blog is authorized to be hosted on the following website: eChinaCities

 

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