That's what Marx said. Mao said, "Swollen in head, weak in legs, sharp in tongue but empty in belly," in commenting on how lazy peasants are. Full Comment>>

I cannot stress this enough, although I find Luoyang to be a nice weekend getaway (highly recommend the museum, White Horse Temple, and the Guanlin Miao), the Longmen Caves are a waste of time and money. The ticket for the Longmen Caves is very expensive, and the picture above is the picture of the only statues to ... Full Comment>>

State-Owned Enterprises own more than 65% of the nation's assets, yet account for less than 10% of the annual profits. In a system that has no rewards for hard work or even just plain adequate, why would anyone with half a brain even try? Full Comment>>

Here is the future warlord who will burn this country down. Full Comment>>

This is typical of Chinese culture. The stepfather feels he is not of my genes, he is not my son, therefore not my problem. Most street kids are products of this situation. Full Comment>>

But strangely never hold grudges against people who actually wrong them. Full Comment>>

His points are extremely valid. Wealth creation in a developed economy is based on innovation and entrepreneurship, not mercantilism, or buying low and selling high, and precious few Chinese billionaires made their wealth that way (the only one coming to mind is Jack Ma), that's why he's predicting so many will lose ... Full Comment>>

Apparently Dongguan is the Florida of China Full Comment>>

I never understood why the Chinese government does not embrace gay marriages. In a country where the government dictates popular opinion, it would be easy to make people accept it. The benefits being 2-5% of the population would stop reproducing, with willing happiness, and the inevitable repeal of the wildly ... Full Comment>>

The U.S. military, the most advanced and well funded fighting force in the world has been fighting al-Qaeda for ten years, and yet al-Qaeda and its affiliates are stronger than they have ever been. It's not simply a matter of eradicating extremists. You kill one, you make him a martyr. You kill ten, you make a ... Full Comment>>

You hit it right on the head. Big Bang Theory is not dangerous because it is overtly political, it is dangerous because it promotes a fulfilling middle-class life with dignity. Making a living wage. Not being afraid of your boss. Having rights. Having hobbies. Going out on the weekend. Living in a nice apartment ... Full Comment>>

According to a recent poll from the Washington Post, 59% of Americans are in favor of marriage equality, and a little over 50% say the Constitution guarantees the right to gay marriage. About six in 10 Catholics, non-evangelical Protestants and eight in 10 with no religious affiliation support it. Three-quarters of ... Full Comment>>

In this particular case I think you are right. However, Aung San Suu Kyi says that it is good to create tourism in closed off countries, because the citizens can then see that what is being said about the outside world is false. Locals start seeing that other countries have what they want and ideas about what is ... Full Comment>>

You forgot one factor--the Chinese will do anything for money. ANYTHING. And if they feel the political winds shifting or see an opportunity for a bigger slice of the pie, they will quite literally throw anyone and everyone under the bus. They are loyal only to their immediate friends and family, everyone else can ... Full Comment>>

A person either works for themselves by having highly sought after skills for leverage, they are their own boss, or they slave away for another pence in someone else's pocket. Unfortunately in China (and increasingly the USA too), there are very few skills that give you real leverage. It's kind of pathetic when my ... Full Comment>>

I love that somehow, in spite of everything, this still manages to be America's fault. Full Comment>>

Well put. Clearly the guy who wrote it does not live here. China can pour all the money it wants into making movies, but that doesn't mean they will make money or even be good. I recall The Last Airbender, The Lone Ranger, John Carter, Speed Racer, The 13th Warrior, and man does the list go on, but all of those ... Full Comment>>

What I can't get over is that you lose your right to work for five years if you have a second child... isn't that self defeating? The whole point of the One-Child Policy is that you prevent them from being a burden to society, but five years of unemployment would pretty much guarantee that the family would become ... Full Comment>>

These examples aren't very realistic. I think the differences are best illustrated with the Wu Dialect's word for wife: 棍子. It means stick, but the implication is, the thing my wife beats me with. Full Comment>>

6. Just because you like the way your mom cooks doesn't mean anyone else will. I have known plenty of Westerners in China (American and European) who can botch up steaks and pasta just as badly as a Chinese person, if not worse. Opening a shitty bistro in Shanghai is no better than opening a shitty bistro in Paris. Full Comment>>

The Chinese have an idiom that is something like, foreign invasion and internal revolt; it means the end of a dynasty. To think of China in long periods of peace punctuated by conflict and disaster is totally incorrect. Throughout history, China has only had one extended period of peace: The Tang Dynasty. Literally ... Full Comment>>

In America, I miss cheap beer sold by the giant bottles or the box of giant bottles. I miss 大排挡 and spicy crawdads that I watched the women cook live. Roasted sweet potatoes (who cares if they are cancerous, can't be any worse than a weekend in Beijing), sweet sausage thin sliced, "dry-wok" bull frog, ... Full Comment>>

So they can arrest the woman selling her family's heirloom, but people selling shark fins... Oh, why even bother; just insert the comment we're all thinking here... Full Comment>>

Start asking your Chinese friends. It's literally easier to just go by a different name the rest of your life than change the ID card. My friend's father works in the provincial government, and his guanxi is still not enough to get an ID with the correct birthday. Full Comment>>

I was tempted to do this with the giant cockroaches in my apartment in Hainan... Full Comment>>