Chinese minds

Friday afternoon, I had that much dreaded meeting with my boss, which, thank God, went all according to the plan. Relief! A great way to end a busy working week!

Then a new insight about China. At lunch, we came to talk about The Party. The top students at every university are invited to join. It is so well thought out! They make it an attractive elite club – not for everyone, only for the best. It is human nature – everyone wants to join a group of exceptionally talented people.

We also spoke about Visas and the fact that it is hard for a Chinese person to get a Visa and even a passport to go abroad. On the very simple and direct question:

- Do many Chinese people think it is frustrating that it is difficult for them to travel abroad?
The answer was:
- I am very proud to be Chinese.
What!? Goddag yxskaft!

This reminds me of an article by Ola Wong in Svd not long ago. He talks about the recent riots in Urumuqi and the Rio Tinto case. The article in itself is not bad, if you ask me, but the interesting thing is all the comments after the article. From focusing on the actual article it evolves to be a discussion about whether or not Chinese people can take chriticism on their own country. It might be that normal Chinese people are more reluctant to doing so, but it could also be connected to the fact that 200 000 people in an unknown province in China are hired by the government to write positive things about China on blogs and forums all over the world. They are called the five mao people as they get 5 mao (55 öre) for every comment they write about China. I wonder if the Chinese commentators of Ola's article were five mao people or just regular Chinese-lovers.