CL, thank you so much for the input. You paved the way for myself to use what you have stated as an example of real culture and ideal culture. There was a book on china written a while back by a foreign intellect which included observations of how the chinese think. Basically one of the main points of the book was how chinese people don't put into action a lot of what they believe in. I believe that the good ideas thought up, especially in the arts/politics/literature world end up following and being stuck in whatever status quo the ruling power deems appropriate. Also in my mind when you couple this with the traditional aggressive agricultural mindset which the survival psyche thrives on you make the population as a whole mistrustful of one another. But the arts and literature are supposed to be appreciated by the public, without the love of society in mind there cannot be genuine creation/originality. People who engage constantly in the ideal culture mindset are willingly deceiving themselves(they know this on certain levels even if they don't put it out directly), thus real action is prevented from being carried out. The unfortunate thing is this can become a conditioned behavior. Anyone who knows psychology should share more on what we can call this behavior on a massive scale.

Three Kingdoms and the 2 movies you saw really show the projection of idealistic archetypes that most chinese (as well as many people who want to identify themselves as chinese) want to experience. Yet this experience entails carrying yourself into the real world, which the educational, political, and traditional social landscape tries to prevent by throwing structured patterns. A confusion of the ego is easily brought about, and very few people break out of it. Of course both of us know that Three Kingdoms is not a historically accurate book, it's more entertainment for the general masses.

"Closing the door after the horse has bolted" is a seemingly engrained behavior in all aspects of life with the chinese, especially with dealing with others trying to get their way with you. What is worrisome is the chinese masses putting up with this abuse from people who have power and/or money because they look up to them and feel they would do the exact same thing if they were in that position. We need to question the extent of how much this can be allowed.