After returning from our family vacation to China, I've been thinking a lot about the vast differences that become so apparent as soon as you step off the plane at the airport.  I won't delve into the specifics of the perceived differences by nature that you should really see this for yourself, but what I will say is that there appears, at least to me, a surprising lack of common courtesy and patience when it comes to everyday interactions.  I say surprising because it really is surprising.  Considering that China is a nation that claims to be on the cusp of the 21st Century technological advances in both civil and experimental realms of development, it is still very much backward in reality.  Virtues such as love, patience, kindness, and self-control are all lacking when you sit and watch Chinese citizens interact on a daily basis.  For a country that recently announced it's first trip into Space it is quite disappointing that despite it's technological improvements, China still as much to learn when it comes to cultural maturity.

Contrast this with Taiwan, and the differences are startling.  Though its citizens are urgent, which modernized western influenced country isn't, they behave ever so calm and collected.  I've never seen another city more clean, more organized, and more courteous to newcomers than Taipei, its capitol.  Cities like Tokyo and Singapore come to mind, though Taiwan is different, and it's the people that make all the difference.  Here in Taiwan the people are so kind and patient.  They remind me of Chicago where the people, though seem urgent, always have time to help a lost traveler.  The same is true in Taiwan.  If it seems as though I'm repeating myself I apologize, but it's true the people here are just simply great.  Taipei seems way more mature and grown up than Beijing or Shanghai.  To me, China could be summed up by this analogy:  China could be likened to a neglected sibling, who spends much of his life being overlooked by an overachieving brothers and sisters (read: Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea--the Four Dragons of Asia), and after years of being ignored he is now trying to get the parents attention (read: the West) by jumping up and down in a fancy clown outfit.

Yes, China may have one of the strongest emerging economies in the World. Yes, China has the largest number of citizens that make well over 50 million dollars a year.  Yes, China has the largest number of large, wealthy, booming cities in the world.  Yes, in terms of technological advance, China is second to none.  China has all of these and more, but the one thing it has failed to achieve is a mature and active middle class.  While you could argue that life could be summed up as a conflict between the "have's" and "have not's," this is a better analogy of China, whose advances economically thus far have failed to improve the social and moral aspects of the culture as a whole.  Driving in any one  of China's major cities is like driving in Ghana or Mexico City not a modern developed city as it would appear.  China has all the riches, all outward appearances of success, all that money could bring to a society, but none of the virtues that  Greek philosophers waxed poetically that all advanced cultures must attain to be truly developed and mature.  As a result all of China's shouting and attention-getting is fast getting annoying, despite their best efforts.

This is merely my commentary on how China appears to me.  There are much more positives than I let on here, but this is the general trend, because of the unfortunate event known as the Cultural Revolution.  This could be best explain as the not-baby-boom-generations.  Whereas in America it received a period of societal and cultural growth after WW2 that led it to become the strongest most powerful and wealthy nations in the world, China on the other hand experienced the exact opposite.  Towards the end the 80s, Mao was losing some of his control and in an attempt to regain control he triggered what would be now called The Cultural Revolution in the youth and young people of China.  Everything of established knowledge--books, professors, societal professionals, learned scholars of all kinds--were captured and quickly destroyed (books) or put on trial and sentenced to life in labor camps or executed. During this time, Mao closed China's borders and expelled all foreign nationals, effectively isolating China from the rest of the world.  That was 20 years ago.  In the most recent 12 years, China's advances have become extraordinary, but the sad antithesis to all of this success is the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, and wouldn't you know it China has on of the largest.  In a country full of superlatives this is the one that stands out to me.

Well this is all for now.  I apologize for not writing sooner, but well that's the past.  And I promise for more regular postings.  :)