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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Why these cultures lack independent thinking
We are hearing about this crap now a days.China will become innovative and bla bla . Do you think China can ever become innovative or do they even know it means to be innovative.
Do you think China can ever do something original which humanity has never seen before.It seems like this is something common in all Asian cultures .Japs make good car,but nothing original came out of it in modern times.Korea has Samsung and LG,but more or less those are 'good quality copy" from other Western ideas.Japs can at most do some modification and improve the product a bit.
Why these cultures lack independent thinking to the extent that it doesn't exist almost?Rich or poor,democratic or
non-democratic,this is one thing common in all these countries.Will any original scientific invention ever come out these places in modern time ?Do they have "follow West,copy West,learn from West" in their subconscious mind...that is how it started 200 hundreds years ago.The only way you can become like West is by "learning from them".How about "thinking like West".
Any clues guys?
Well, Japan have a fairly fertile research sector, which is not minor alterations of existing design. Also, this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_inventions#Technology
China can be a place where creativity can blossom. Yes, people here can, want and to innovate. But they do so in a proper environment for this, which China does not provide. The long list of successful Chinese innovators abroad speak for itself. For now, whoever want to blossom will have to blossom somewhere else.
You are clearly misinformed. Japan is among the world leaders when it comes to robotics. They are not braggarts like China.
And don't forget Anime
expatlife26:
Yeah japan makes some amazing things. Im not an anime fan but I concede its an original contribution for an intelligent audience with global appeal.
There is a theory that people get the government they want. So, although China's oppressive gov't is the primary culprit in it's stifling development, it cannot be completely separated from its people.
It's true, Japan has shown some modicum of innovation, but it's disproportionately small compared to its industial development. The same goes for many Asian countries.
It's a mystery I don't know the answer to, myself. I can only hope that attitudes and 'culture' are to blame for people's tendencies, and that they will improve over time.
xinyuren:
That theory was obviously cooked up by someone who lives in a democracy. Those who oppose totalitarianism face execution or worse and revolution is a bloody affair.
coineineagh:
I'm probably beginning to sound like a broken record, but I should make a few points to substantiate my claim: China practiced footbinding on its women to raise their attractiveness/value, long before shallow materialism came to prevail in contemporary culture. Chinese families were throwing their daughters into rivers long before the advent of one-child-policy and forced abortions. Their history is riddled with tales of warlords waiting on mountaintops so a wise shifu can tell them how to lead their armies to victory. They were starving/executing cartloads of citizens long before unkie Mao came up with the same brilliant idea to pay off debts. Chinese are desperate to find and maintain stability at any expense, have a static view of reality which is unrealistic, form rigid authoritarian hierachies to achieve their aforementioned goals, and justice and fairness be damned. So in the end, I wonder if the current dystopian government is simply a reflection of the people's current zeitgeist. I know it sounds offensive, but maybe they really live in the government they envisioned (i.e. deserved).
xinyuren:
if you're going to use that argument, you shouldn't cherry pick your history. You suspiciously overlook the Song and Tang dynasties, arguably the peak of Asian culture. China flourished with great art, politics, and technology. China was the most advanced place in the world. Sure many bad things happened in every country's history, but to say a whole people deserve to be ruled by tyrants is either ignorant or unsympathetic. Chinese people do belong to the human race, you know.
coineineagh:
My knowledge of Chinese history is that of a westerner - limited. Still, I wouldn't trust the average Chinese to recite their own history accurately due to all the propaganda. From a quick google search, those dynasties you mentioned were many centuries ago, so the connection with contemporary culture is weak at best. How about Chinese 'tiger' parenting as an example of the origins: People can't even show a basic level of affection to their children, and just push them to achieve all the time, instilling a deep-seated unsecurity due to the absence of parental support. *That's* culture. That will breed paranoia and hysteria; exactly the kind of thing that would spur cruelty, selfishness, human rights abuses, and so on. Rational thought is a luxury, granted when the mind is freed from overarching concerns of survival. China is modernizing, people are getting richer, and a middle class is emerging. But the intellectualism and creativity is still absent. Maybe things will get better over time: culture always lags behind progress, and China's progress has occurred within a short space of time after all.
East Asia has historically been very insular as to their foreign policies and diplomacy with the rest of the world. They haven't enjoyed the benefits of fast advancing technology as a result of global competition and free trade. China was the last to join the fray, so they are the most behind. Additionally, in order to keep their people from looking outward, the government has used the educational system to reward docile, compliant, non-competitive behavior. This makes it easier to wield their power and implement their socialist style of society. As a result, China, staying behind their big red wall, had no need for innovation. When they opened up to the world, they were unprepared to compete with the West on their (capitalist) terms.
A Society can't turn on a dime, you know. Give them time, they'll get there.
China has always been separate. China was closed to foreigners not really that long ago. The Borg thinking that "Chinese need to eat Chinese food" etc always makes me angry. How the F* do you know that when you eat crap and never try anything different?
coineineagh:
Oh, the Borg were practically a parody of the CCP... "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Your species will be adapted to service us. Resistance is futile." In their collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy; driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption, beyond reason. One consequence of the collective state, ... was that the Borg were utterly without mercy or compassion. In a collective society only the needs of the group as a whole are considered, and in this utilitarian calculation the needs of the unrivaled number of Borg would nearly always override any other considerations.
expatlife26:
Yeah but the borg were a scary threat. The chinese are the ferengi.
It's actually quite simple. Innovation needs creativity and with creativity also comes independent and critical thought. Now, the CPC are a bunch of corrupt criminals and they know that if independent and critical thought were to be encouraged they would be out on their asses in a few years. The CPC has every possible incentive to develop a nation full of hive minded nationalist citizens. Can't have creativity under such circumstances.
Japan is one of the most innovative and creative countries in the entire world. I have no idea what you're talking about, mark. You've been fed the CCP brainwash line one too many times. Your level of brainwashing gives me the willies something awful.
Japanese are very creative, the number of weird/unique goods or cultural products originating from Japan is absolutely astonishing.
Please do not compare China with Japan and Korea. Japan and Korea have very strong soft-power industries, they have the two largest cities in the developed world and both are so clean that you could eat on the pavement, they are financial and research powerhouses, their people are the friendliest and sweetest I have ever met, you can let your door open or your bag anywhere because both countries have no petty crime.
In China people pee and shit on the street.