I haven't been to China but I have two friends who have lived there for 1 and 2 years respectively.
99% of Riddil's post is in complete agreement with everything they have told me.
The only thing I'd question is the historical claim that the current culture is mostly a result of the cultural revolution under Mao.
From what I've read (quite a few sources) about Chinese history, the autocrats have traditionally had
absolute power over everyone, and acted accordingly. People kept their heads down and their mouths shut.
This is my favorite story, and I've heard several variations of it:
Quote:
Zhao Gao, one of the chief ministers of the second Qin emperor [Qin dynasty 221-206 BC] , suspected some of the ministers of being disloyal to him. He had a servant bring a deer into the hall and called all the ministers together. Pointing to the deer he said, 'Look at this fine horse I have brought for His Majesty the Emperor. I want to know what each of you thinks of it.' One by one the ministers spoke. Most of them praised the 'horse', saying what a splendid animal it was and how clever Zhao Gao had been to find it. A few, though, refused to call it a horse, and one even said, 'Horse? What horse? I see only a deer!'
After they had all finished speaking, Zhao Gao gave a signal to his soldiers, who grabbed all those who had not said that the deer was a horse. He had them executed, hoping in this way to terrify everyone into silence.
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This has led to a Chinese saying - to point to a deer and call it a horse, meaning, to say something obviously false, to say one thing and do another. This is a useful expression if you want to call BS on a Chinese person.