We should not try to cover or justified a asocial behavior. The central government recognized this problem and try to educate the people how to behave in public by instituting social credit.
It is a bit harsh but yea I can understand the reason
China too is homogeneous 90% of the population are Han And Japan copy almost everything from China including etiquette and custom .Even the peasant in Japan has relatively good etiquette So I won't necessarily blame poverty or education for the lack of etiquette. Culture and upbringing has more to do with it . That is why I said that Xi effort to return to the traditional culture should be applauded whole heartedly
I mean I don't blame mainland Chinese. I do have high respect for them for their hard work and dedication Circumstances make people different All those dislocation war and chaos take their toll. compounded by political infighting and the need to survive in 80's and 90's does not lend itself to etiquette and niceties
Contrast that to the relative piece that Japan enjoy 350 years of Tokugawa reign give them plenty of time for refined life
Peasantry has nothing to do with etiquette Most of overseas Chinese are descendant of riff raff, petty criminal and landless peasantry. But even the lowest peasant has kernel of culture in them
They might not know the poem of Li Bai or Qu Yuan But they know what is proper and what is not.As soon as they have money they hire teacher from China to teach their children proper etiquette
LKY himself acknowledge this fact in his conversation with Deng. There is no doubt as to who has the better pedigree. He said the best and brightest does not immigrate. He said he has no doubt that China will achieved high development even better than Singapore
I have no doubt that as China prosper and maintain stability those etiquette will return. You can see in the huge interest of Chinese traditional value and etiquette
And debate going on now as what it mean to be Chinese
Han is a social construct. It is actually an amalgamation of various tribes and cultures. Through history, as the Chinese civilization expanded, many "barbarian" tribes and kingdoms integrated into the Chinese civilization and became Han. The Kingdom of Qin was considered a barbarian kingdom before its rise to prominence.
This diversity of origins has become a diversity of cultures in modern China. While all regions of China share many common cultural traits, they also have many subtle differences. Northerners, for example, are more blunt and assertive, while Southerners are more reserved in public.
One time, I was visiting my grandfather's grave with my dad and my uncle. The cemetary was built like a temple, and we were standing outside chatting when my uncle finished his drink and threw the empty bottle on the ground. My father admonished him for throwing garbage on the street, but my uncle laughed and said someone would be by to pick it up shortly. Indeed, as I looked around, I could not see a single garbage can within sight, but I did see several street cleaners.
I also remember back when I was first dating my wife, she gave my mom a gift from her mother. She didn't think much of it, but my mom was very upset over the gift. Why was this woman she barely knew giving her a gift? Did she have some kind of ulterior motive? To my mom, you gave gifts to friends or someone you needed help from. A gift like this felt insincere, even manipulative. To my mother-in-law, giving a gift to somebody you barely knew was a gesture of friendliness.
Then there was the time my wife (then fiancée) told me that in order for her to marry me, my family had to give her family a large sum of money. I had never heard of such a thing (but have since learned that it's a common practice in China), and was very upset by the request. This became a major point of contention. My wife told me her father would lose face if he could not tell his friends he received a lot of money from my family, and I, at the time, thought that utterly ridiculous.
When I grew up, my parents always taught me not to bother friends with trivial matters. If a friend helps you, etiquette requires you to return that favor as early as possible. My wife, however, taught me that you should seek help from friends as much as possible, and not be so caught-up on returning the favor, as it was in such interactions that friendship grows stronger. I had always been taught to be very polite to my uncles and aunts. To my wife's family, that kind of politeness was off-putting. Ironically, her family is very keen on certain etiquette around the dinner table on special occasions. One could only eat after one's elders have started eating. The younger generation had to toast the older generation. In contrast, my family has always been very casual in that regard.
I've been to plenty of restaurants in China, mostly small places tucked deep in residential neighborhoods, where people would toss food scraps on the floor and the server would sweep it up. I've also been told by a young security guard to leave the front of a hotel because I was riding a bike at the time. Again, I urge anyone who wants to truly understand Chinese culture to spend some time traveling the country. Only then will you realize how much of what you thought was the entirety of Chinese culture was really just a tiny fragment of a great mosaic.
