Intresting headline for an intresting article.
August 11, 2005 2:45 PM   Subscribe

The life of an average Wang.
posted by delmoi (28 comments total)
 
Don't you mean the rife of an average Wang?
posted by Specklet at 3:06 PM on August 11, 2005


This is NOT about a pornstar's life. I was misled (no, not missled).
posted by fenriq at 3:16 PM on August 11, 2005


How so? Wouldn't a pornstar have anything but an average Wang?
posted by gyc at 3:40 PM on August 11, 2005



Nothing average about these megastars!!
posted by Mr Bluesky at 3:47 PM on August 11, 2005




Investing with Gabe.

Conversing with Gabe and Tycho.

Wang. Heh.
posted by RakDaddy at 3:49 PM on August 11, 2005


*coming out from under a rock*
Does this mean that the Chinese are not trying to take over the world?
posted by state fxn at 4:00 PM on August 11, 2005


You mean the majority of those slanty yellow Commie Chinese people care about their families and want to live full and happy lives like us good, god-fearing and democratic West-earners do?

Get outta town.

No no...really? No.

Get outta town.

I'm so glad this shmuck took up Asian studies to write this "the more you know" tripe.

The next thing you'll be telling me is that terrorists have real feelings and emotions and don't just blindly hate my freedom.

(Although to be fair, perhaps we have traversed so far backwards in independant social conscience that we actually need people to tell us foreigners are actually human)
posted by JGreyNemo at 4:02 PM on August 11, 2005


gyc, yeah, I thought about that after I'd posted. Sigh!
posted by fenriq at 4:07 PM on August 11, 2005


JGreyNemo: In an ideal world, I agree with you. And nicely put, I might add. However, I think some credit should go to the guy because I still see that exact sentiment floating around in some surprisingly liberal places, my college town for example. So one can imagine how widespread this is. I blame it on an inner need to blame someone for one's perceived troubles. Yellow horde. Terrorist...
posted by state fxn at 4:19 PM on August 11, 2005


I often wonder about China's future (normally after purchasing a well-made and obscenely cheap electrical item or article of clothing). Overcrowding, pollution, the divide between rich and poor, the environment, working conditions… quality of life.

Bottom line is: there is a disgusting amount of money to be made by Western interests and Chinese businessmen, and no amount of rational debate or reasoned discourse is going to change her from the path she's careering down.

It's like a frickin' rugby scrum to get in there and make money. Let's hope it's a soft landing. I wouldn't like to be around when there's suddenly a billion plus pissed off Chinese!
posted by uncanny hengeman at 4:25 PM on August 11, 2005


Hey, can't we go back to making double entendres about Wangs? Coz I've got another one...my friend Dick never gets played with..rofl..get it..no really.

Damn MeFi intellectuals..curse them all!!!!
posted by Mr Bluesky at 4:46 PM on August 11, 2005


I'm somewhat skeptical of this guys conclusions, for example I had just posted about a Chinese writer who was sentenced to ten years in prison for writing a short story about pigeons that was deemed politically subversive. Given the frequency of political repression, torture and executions in China, is it no surprise most Chinese don't seem to show any concern with politics?
posted by bobo123 at 5:01 PM on August 11, 2005


Chinese are much less interested in politics than Westerners....What they are thinking about is the social welfare system, the rising cost of health care, outrageous property values, food safety, unemployment and job security, and education for their one child.

Okay. So... precisely which brand of crack is this guy smoking?

Health care, property values, unemployment and education aren't political? Is he even reading the words he's writing?
posted by Clay201 at 6:26 PM on August 11, 2005


If y'all ask nicely, I'll be glad to share with you some choice adventures of a larger-than-average Wang.
posted by BoringPostcards at 6:48 PM on August 11, 2005


Surely to be as productive as the last AlwaysOn FPP...
posted by VulcanMike at 7:27 PM on August 11, 2005


Up next, a chatty, shallow piece on the life on your average Vietnamese person, titled "A Day in the Life of Dung". Dung, (pronounced "Zoom" is a common name in Vietnam. Let us relish the 1980's John Hughes teen movie superiority that our ignorance and fear of other cultures provides.
posted by squirrel at 8:10 PM on August 11, 2005


I'm so glad this shmuck took up Asian studies to write this "the more you know" tripe.

Hey now, you need to speak slowly to AlwaysOn readers, they went to bussness school.
posted by delmoi at 9:02 PM on August 11, 2005


delmoi writes "Hey now, you need to speak slowly to AlwaysOn readers, they went to bussness school."

Wait a minute, didn't Dubya go to business school... ah, never mind, I get it now.
posted by clevershark at 10:32 PM on August 11, 2005




Well whaddya know, they are human. All this time I thought robots were making my motherboards.
posted by Dean Keaton at 11:17 PM on August 11, 2005


Listen, I think the article is worthwhile in that it tells us something about the economic realities in China. I mean, all I've heard on the subject in the past few years, it seems, is how wonderful it is that capitalism is blossoming in China and people are getting wealthy and blah blah blah. The truth, of course, is a lot different.

I stand by my contention, though, that there's a truly ludicrous disconnect between the observations the author is making and the thesis he's putting forth.
posted by Clay201 at 12:35 AM on August 12, 2005


What they are thinking about is the social welfare system, the rising cost of health care, outrageous property values, food safety, unemployment and job security, and education for their one child. And guess what? In only slightly modified form, these are the same things that we Westerners think about. We might venture a bit broader, but the fundamentals are the same.

You would need to assume politics is a synonym for getting your immaculate hair on TV to be able to say that the concerns of everyday life common to the greater proportion of humanity are not political.
posted by vbfg at 2:00 AM on August 12, 2005


The article leaves out one important point: America has (ostensibly) a participatory form of government, China does not.

We don't talk about politics because "we have too much time on our hands," we talk about politics because we can influence our government and make a difference.
posted by Jatayu das at 4:42 AM on August 12, 2005


The first computer I ever used was a Wang.
posted by srboisvert at 7:06 AM on August 12, 2005


God, there's no shortage of newly-minted, self-anointed "China experts" over there, and this guy seems pretty typical. Sort of in the "my personal revelations about China are not only ground-breaking (after all, I am the first and only Western guy in China), but have profound implications for global political and economic relations (because it's China, you know)" vein. You know, I figured all this stuff out (e.g. the typical Chinese person is more interested in making money than in politics) about 6 years ago, only I didn't think I needed to write about it. It's been done, and far better.
posted by banishedimmortal at 7:29 AM on August 12, 2005


For what it's worth, Americans with the surname "Wang" usually pronounce it as "Wong." They have a sense of propriety. Meanwhile, Andy Dick and Don Johnson roam our streets with impunity.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:50 AM on August 12, 2005


I think the writer, more than discerning a difference between the average Wang and average Joe, has discovered the difference between himself and ordinary, working-class people. If he were to hang out in a Krispy Kreme in the US and listen to the average Joe, he'd hear a lot of talk about family, food and money and rarely any discussion of politics. Perhaps it is only a revelation for him because he is normally immersed in a subculture of wealthy intellectual types. Funny he's got to travel to the other side of the planet to "discover" people outside his clique.
posted by gregor-e at 6:57 PM on August 13, 2005


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