Comments on: Intresting headline for an intresting article.

Intresting headline for an intresting article.

delmoi — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:45:29 -0800

The life of an average Wang.

By: Specklet

Specklet — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:06:56 -0800

Don't you mean the rife of an average Wang?

By: fenriq

fenriq — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:16:52 -0800

This is NOT about a pornstar's life. I was misled (no, not missled).

By: gyc

gyc — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:40:23 -0800

How so? Wouldn't a pornstar have anything but an average Wang?

By: Mr Bluesky

Mr Bluesky — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:47:29 -0800

Nothing average about these megastars!!

By: Mr Bluesky

Mr Bluesky — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:48:22 -0800

Sigh that was meant to link to this..now I feel like a total WANG!

By: RakDaddy

RakDaddy — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:49:36 -0800

Investing with Gabe. Conversing with Gabe and Tycho. Wang. Heh.

By: state fxn

state fxn — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:00:47 -0800

*coming out from under a rock* Does this mean that the Chinese are not trying to take over the world?

By: JGreyNemo

JGreyNemo — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:02:09 -0800

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)

By: fenriq

fenriq — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:07:26 -0800

gyc, yeah, I thought about that after I'd posted. Sigh!

By: state fxn

state fxn — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:19:01 -0800

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...

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:25:45 -0800

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!

By: Mr Bluesky

Mr Bluesky — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:46:46 -0800

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!!!!

By: bobo123

bobo123 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 17:01:43 -0800

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?

By: Clay201

Clay201 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 18:26:10 -0800

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?

By: BoringPostcards

BoringPostcards — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 18:48:32 -0800

If y'all ask nicely, I'll be glad to share with you some choice adventures of a larger-than-average Wang.

By: VulcanMike

VulcanMike — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 19:27:01 -0800

Surely to be as productive as the last AlwaysOn FPP...

By: squirrel

squirrel — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 20:10:46 -0800

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.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 21:02:14 -0800

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.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 22:32:18 -0800

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.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 22:34:06 -0800

I suspect that this would be an average Wang.

By: Dean Keaton

Dean Keaton — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 23:17:16 -0800

Well whaddya know, they are human. All this time I thought robots were making my motherboards.

By: Clay201

Clay201 — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 00:35:36 -0800

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.

By: vbfg

vbfg — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 02:00:52 -0800

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.

By: Jatayu das

Jatayu das — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 04:42:40 -0800

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.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 07:06:11 -0800

The first computer I ever used was a Wang.

By: banishedimmortal

banishedimmortal — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 07:29:16 -0800

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.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 07:50:32 -0800

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.

By: gregor-e

gregor-e — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 18:57:52 -0800

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.