Hong-Kong Protests

B.I.B.

Captain
30 years ago was far from China's weakest period, and this attitude of 崇洋媚外 still exists today, albeit COVID-19 probably battered it down quite a bit.

You just have to look at all those Chinese who give themselves English names while working in China! To me, that is one of the most absurd things ever.

That said, I will say this. People make their choices in life based on their circumstances. Just as China is not some kind of Hell, it's not Eden either. My dad chose to leave because he simply could not stand the practice of 关系 and 开后门 in order to advance his career back in the 80's. My mom, on the other hand, would have been far better staying in China, just because she had better familial connections, which she completely lost after coming here.

Myself, as a software engineer, there's no way I would be able to tolerate the 996 culture permeating all the major tech companies in China. For my kids, however, I want to keep their options open, so I place a lot of importance on them learning to read and write Chinese.
 

KYli

Brigadier
Every time I go to HK i discover that most of the locals suck at English and Mandarin.

So much for international city

Hong Kong educational system has always been sucked. First hand experience. Most the best and the brightest and wealthiest were sent aboard or to the few elite schools. Those suckers which are the majority of HKers were brainwashed not to learn Mandarin.
 

solarz

Brigadier
While I can't speak for the "elites", my experience here as far as friends/family/acquaintances are concerned, is not so much a desire to integrate, but just difficulty level. I hear this a lot. Chinese is just a difficult language that requires a lot of unavoidable memorization. Even if you it were alphabetized, it would not be helpful. Korean Hangul is basically the closest thing to alphabetizing Chinese, but as an example, 門 and 問 both are 문 in Korean, so basically the difference relies solely on context which in turn is memorization. It is extremely difficult to motivate a child to put in the work.

From what I've read, there is a golden window of opportunity for children to learn Chinese characters ("hanzi"), which is around 4-9 years old, so again, it's crucial to start early.
 

B.I.B.

Captain
30 years ago was far from China's weakest period, and this attitude of 崇洋媚外 still exists today, albeit COVID-19 probably battered it down quite a bit.

You just have to look at all those Chinese who give themselves English names while working in China! To me, that is one of the most absurd things ever.

That said, I will say this. People make their choices in life based on their circumstances. Just as China is not some kind of Hell, it's not Eden either. My dad chose to leave because he simply could not stand the practice of 关系 and 开后门 in order to advance his career back in the 80's. My mom, on the other hand, would have been far better staying in China, just because she had better familial connections, which she completely lost after coming here.

Myself, as a software engineer, there's no way I would be able to tolerate the 996 culture permeating all the major tech companies in China. For my kids, however, I want to keep their options open, so I place a lot of importance on them learning to read and write Chinese.

That is most commendable. Being a descendant of many generations of mixed marriages I am descended from a Chinese migrant who was a cabin boy and jumped ship in 1842 when it arrived in NZ. He worked hard and acquired citizenship so that he could buy land. He married twice, both English women and since then his descendants have intermarried with many nationalities with German, Norwegian. Danish Taiwanese/Japanese being particularly strong in my lineage. Consequently, I had a eurocentric upbringing and never learned Chinese.

A few years ago I came across some magazines left by a tenant of my friend sent from China some of which were still in their postage envelopes. The envelope had the name and address of the publishing company written in Chinese and English and also some other writing which I was told was Chinese, written using the European alphabet.

Is that right, do they still do that, and is it known by any special name? One of the magazines was called "China Reconstructs" and published in English around late 50's or early60's
 

Gatekeeper

Brigadier
Registered Member
That is most commendable. Being a descendant of many generations of mixed marriages I am descended from a Chinese migrant who was a cabin boy and jumped ship in 1842 when it arrived in NZ. He worked hard and acquired citizenship so that he could buy land. He married twice, both English women and since then his descendants have intermarried with many nationalities with German, Norwegian. Danish Taiwanese/Japanese being particularly strong in my lineage. Consequently, I had a eurocentric upbringing and never learned Chinese.

A few years ago I came across some magazines left by a tenant of my friend sent from China some of which were still in their postage envelopes. The envelope had the name and address of the publishing company written in Chinese and English and also some other writing which I was told was Chinese, written using the European alphabet.

Is that right, do they still do that, and is it known by any special name? One of the magazines was called "China Reconstructs" and published in English around late 50's or early60's

I still got loads of China reconstruct magazine in my loft.
 
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