Turnoi, I suggest we stop showing the astf poster so much respect as to assume he could carry a discussion regarding heavy topics such as culture, society, etc. He obviously doesn't care to take into heart the opinions of others and think them through. This is due to a lack of empathy, as seen so obviously from his posts.

Behaviors from people like these goes back to what I was talking about with internal versus external locus of viewing the world and believing how much you are in control of your own life and the dynamics of how you deal with the world and how it deals with you. People who have a good balance between these, normal people in other words will be able to maintain a sense of fair mindedness and genuine curiosity as to how other human beings think and why they believe differently. People who are mentally unstable on the other hand cannot seem to grasp the mature, useful notion of finding commonalities with others no matter who they are and where they may be from, therefore blinding themselves to be able to see others as equals. During my time in China I saw how the Chinese will not understand nor respect this idea and I'm sure you know this all too well also as the people there will either hold you up on a high pedestal for your status or awards from something you have achieved and use that to put an "idolizing" caricature of you in their minds. This kind of relationship can hardly be considered genuine as the primary motivation is more towards that of utility rather than personal care for you. On the other hand if people there perceive to know you well enough and therefore absolutely knowing your faults there will be unwelcome criticism that crosses personal boundaries. You would find that some folks will go way out of line to try and change you "for the better" in their minds on what you should become, rather than respecting who you are now. It seems for all the educating that the Chinese are stereotyped for having they've forgotten how to be human.

Arguably the biggest thing holding China back is the intellectual prowess of her people. This country prides herself on education and can generate many folks who go to the best schools in the world, but still cannot change the backwards aspects of the country. You can be well schooled, but still poorly educated as one of my colleagues said so well once.