Thread

1. HeavenFox · 1790971107 · focus · HN ↗

   I am Chinese living in America.

   All the authors observations ring true, and they all stem from one simple fact: China was a very poor country just forty years ago, and even today is only a middle income country.

   The uncomfortable truth is a lot of the things westerners take for granted are, in fact, luxuries. Arts and creativity is a luxury. Freedom to pursue passion is a luxury. Compassion is a luxury. Self-esteem is a luxury. If you barely have enough food to feed your family, as a significant number of Chinese people were in the 60s and 70s, you cannot afford any of these.

   China has grown richer at a remarkable rate, but the mentality shift can take generations.

   1. esafak · 1790973872 · focus · HN ↗

      Was the mentality different when Imperial China was rich, and will it change again as it becomes richer?

      1. xandrius · 1790974355 · focus · HN ↗

         Who was rich in Imperial China? In most travelogues I've read about China in the 1800s, there was huge and deep poverty then too.

         1. handle584 · 1791036941 · focus · HN ↗

            [dead]

      2. vondur · 1790974956 · focus · HN ↗

         Just like with most Empires, that wealth was heavily concentrated with the rich and powerful, a very small group of elites.

         1. ninalanyon · 1791021711 · focus · HN ↗

            > wealth was heavily concentrated with the rich and powerful,

            It still is.

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