Christopher BALDING

choi

(1) 王允, 美国教授因批评中国遭北大解聘. RFA, July 18, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yat ... 07182018105959.html
("克里斯托弗·鲍尔丁曾在北京大学设立在深圳的汇丰商学院教书九年")

(2) his blog:
Balding's World; Global finance and economics.
www.baldingsworld.com

Quote:

"Living in China is not without quirks both maddening and amusing.  For instance, something as simple as standing in line in many places can devolve into a knife fight given the utter lack of restraint in cutting [the line 插队] that is so common.

"There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in China.  People do not have innate value as people simply because they exist.  This leads most directly to a lack of respect for the law/rules/norms.  One thing I began to realize over time is, while not German, how law, rule, and norm abiding Americans are with minimal fear of enforcement.  Cutting in line is considered extremely rude because there is a sense of fairness and that people have equal rights.  In China, line cutting is considered nearly standard operating procedure. * * * in my experience [in China] laws/rules/norms are simply ignored.  They are ignored quietly so as not to embarrass the enforcer, however, [probably the comma should be a semicolon]  frequently, the enforcer knows rules or laws are being ignored but so long as the breaker is not egregious, both parties continue to exist in a state of blissful ignorance.  Honesty without force is not normal but an outlier.  Lying is utterly common, but telling the truth revolutionary.

"There is no innate value given to human life as precious.

In China: "making money was the entire meaning of life. There was no value system.  There was no exogenously held right or wrong, only whether you made money.  With apologies to a bastardized Dostoevsky, with money as God, all is permissible. * * * these attitudes and responses set the tone for a culture where individuals, respect, and truth mean nothing.

"The people that I respect most are those who can live their convictions. * * * In China, there are very few people who I witness live a testament of their belief.

"Of major economies, only Canada and Germany are higher [than US] as a percentage of foreign born population share. * * * I think of an area where I know well[:] academia and start ups.  The ability of foreign born academics to rise to a position of prominence or create a start up in China is virtually zero.  In the United States, Silicon Valley is rich with a foreign born population or the children of immigrants and the professor and deans ranks are filled with foreign born population. * * * The United States continues to take the largest number of immigrants [perhaps Canada and Germany absorb immigrants at a higher RATIO per capita]

"In China you cannot talk about most of history

"One of my biggest fears living in China has always been that I would be detained.  Though I happily pointed out the absurdity of the rapidly encroaching authoritarianism, a fact which continues to elude so many experts not living in China, I tried to make sure I knew where the line was and did not cross it. There is a profound sense of relief to be leaving safely * * * I know I am blessed to make it out.  I leave China profoundly worried about the future of China and US China relations.

Note: About quotation 4.
(a) bastardize (vt): "to reduce from a higher to a lower state or condition : DEBASE"
or:"to produce a poor copy or version of (something)"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bastardize
(b) Slavoj Zizek, If There Is a God, Then Anything Is Permitted. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Religion and Ethics, Apr 17, 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/04/17/3478816.htm
("Although the statement 'If there is no God, everything is permitted' is widely attributed to Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (Sartre was the first to do so [misquote -- or, more correctly, make up a quote] in his Being and Nothingness), he simply never said it")
(c) Jean-Paul Sartre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre
(1905 – 1980)