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Q: "Cute" or Offensive?
It seems to me that those cutesy little cartoon figures are everywhere. Family planning-put out a cartoon explaining pregnancy. Getting married-give candies with a cute cartoon couple on the box. News on the television-fill up the screen with cartoon figures making comic book-like quotes. I don't mind when such ads are aimed at children, like promoting safety, but adults? If I were Chinese I'd be offended. These are grown-up decisions and problems, and in my opinion, deserve to be treated as such. Anyone else bothered by this? Is it like this where you come from?
.... the "Hello Kitty" Lexus somewhere in my neighborhood is pretty offensive to me.
A couple of things about the cuteness that plagues this country.
a) If you are at the police station to pay a fine, then seeing a poster of a cute, cuddly teddy bear police officer with a speech bubble saying "Be a good citizen and behave", then you are probably less likely to go postal over what you are presently doing, than had it been a real life cardboard cut out of one of China's finest.
b) The part of the population older than 15 are not gown ups. They are older but the society does not make people into grown ups. No responsibility, no requirements, no freedom to take control of your life. All you need to do is to queue up for being told what to do. The "grown up" population are aging infants. (yes yes, my "Generalization detector" did spot this too)
Treating adults like children keeps them controllable.
My kids love that Mei Yang~Yang TV show that's posted and sung, sold, worn and almost every where we go. I can't stand it, I'm like kids lets watch transformers, Nooooo dad, we want mei Yang~Yang. lol
I also can't believe so many grown women like to use those huge iPhone Hello Kitty cases, or other cartoons.
It does not bother me, there are way more offensive things out there (ie. antisocial behaviors being the norm here). Anybody here have been to Japan, and seen the same habits of using cartoonish characters to explain the rules ? Maybe it was borrowed from Japan, just a speculation.
DrMonkey:
Errrr... Yesterday afternoon, go out for a walk. On the walkway, a guy drive his scooter. On the walkway. Driving left side. Looking at his phone and not in front of him. Years in China took their toil, I just stop him and tell him (in Mandarin) "Hey, never heard of right side ? And why are you on the walkway". He keeps talking on his phone and just try to avoid me. I block him, he stops. Keeps talking, not giving a shit. I repeat. He says "but I'm talking on the phone !" with the look of 10 years old kid caught the hands in the cookie jar. Eventually, my wife feeling terrible about the whole thing, I just give up. Guy keeps driving like he did. Just an other day in China. Then, I will see on the TV some spots about how civil behavior is good, I will see damned Lei Feng face, and I will just hate this place a little more.
Scandinavian:
MrMonkey, you have to know that the phonecall is more important than the douces own life and of course also your life.
Civil behaviour. Tthis morning out walking the dog, sun is shining all is well. Inside our community an Audi Q7 pulls up, doors open, it looks like Doc Brown exiting the DeLorean, smoke coming out of the doors. 3 People get out and almost simultaneously, hark and spit. How awesome is that.
icnif77:
How we (West) would look/behave, if being behind the 'curtain' for ages? I assume, we're not 'judging' them? I hope, we all just vent.......
BuTT..., if we judge them, let's step into their 'shoes' for an hour or two.
After I do that....', I simpatise with Chinese. I'd rather see positive things in China, then 'spitting, driving and other anomalies'.
You can meet bozos in any place you go around the World, with difference in China 'everybody' behaves like bozo.
Or we're all afraid, how China will look in 100Y from now?
royceH:
That's a beauty, Dr...three cheers to you!
If I could speak Chinese that's just what I'd like to do. And the dickhead's response....so Chinese!
However did they occupy their time before the mobile phone came along to provide such stimulus??
DrMonkey:
@icnif77 When I step in Chinese shoes for an hour or two, I feel revolt, anger and a need to act swiftly to live up to the country's pretensions. I would form a citizenship right & duty movement, with various cells. Would spend time on the streets doing the job the police, the state, is too "shy" to do.
icnif77:
You're standing in their shoes, and think as Westerner. Think as you're Chinese, you were munching on the dog meat and 'gian', because that was all available to eat. And suddenly, you have an Audi.
Change (in 'how to proper spit'
) will come, but not overnight. In 'Komun', individual is not that important, for difference of West, (where they metadata you)!
DrMonkey:
@icniff77 What you describe is true, it's the way it looks in general. However, a few Chinese did what I said. All by themselves, people who never went out of China, people with no serious exposure to Western life. Did you heard of Xu Zhiyong and his movement ? Try to find and read Hou Xin's (she was supporting Xu) final statement at her trial, a month ago. I copy my preferred part, translated
---
I stand here today on trial. In the last 11 months, I have experienced things that I had never imagined I would experience in my life, until today. I have repeatedly asked myself: Have I really committed a crime? Yes, I owe my family so much, and I have failed as a daughter and a wife. My actions on March 31 [2013] in Xidan were indeed not approved by public security organs in advance, and this is all wrong. But what I want to say is: I am not guilty! The public security organs, prosecutorial organs, and court have sincerely advised me many times to admit guilt; so have my relatives, friends, and many others. I know that it might be to my own best advantage if I admitted guilt. But if, in our country, it is a crime to demand that government officials perform their basic duties and disclose their assets, then this era we live in is an era of absurdity. Then, every one of us, whether we are high-ranking officials in exalted positions, or common people who toil to make ends meet, will be nailed to history’s pillory. Centuries and millennia later, our descendants will ridicule and mock us, ridicule this era of ours, and mock this people, which, like a herd of pigs, cannot tell right from wrong and has placed itself outside of modern civilization!
---
The notion of civil society is not a Western one, it's something that emerged here. However, the people who tried to diffuse this *peacefully* ended up in jail. Not all Chinese have the zombie-like attitude "I shut-up, I can't do anything, I trust the powers-to-be to do the right thing, this is not my role". With this kind of discourse "we are guest, we should shut-up, this is their country", I think we are encouraging this zombie-like attitude. Me, I can't do that, just can't.
icnif77:
''Loads of 'loose change' everywhere I look'', so I tend not to bother 'out of my purpose', here or anywhere else!
China is neoteny run rampant. Many countries in Asia place too much emphasis on youthfulness.
