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Intro
I've lived in China for over a year now. I moved here at the beginning of last year. Send me questions! You can hit the button marked 'Discussion' up at the top of the page to do so. I like writing so feel free to ask me anything about life here China!
Questions
Have you talked to Chinese about communism and the CPC?
I've asked Chinese folks what they think of communism and the CPC, and both are very very popular! Same as what all the polls say. Something like 90-95% of Chinese are happy with their government. I've found a few Marxist philosophy book clubs here, but my Chinese isn't good enough to join them. The largest bloc within the CPC are farmers. About 1 in 7 adults here are party members. I've met (and confirmed because they were wearing their badges on official party business) about a dozen members so far. When my Chinese is closer to C1 level I'll try to talk about this stuff with them.
I've heard people in some cities like Shanghai and Beijing are more liberal and western than in others. Is this true?
Shanghai by reputation is very western and very liberal. Beijing is to a lesser extend described this way as well. Shenzhen where I'm at, is a Cantonese-speaking Chinese city. The Cantonese part of China, that is the South-East is historically the only part of China that the outside world, particularly the west, interacted with. The vast majority of foreigners live in these areas, or in Beijing. So there's definitely more western influence here than most, maybe the rest of all of China.
I find Shenzhen to be very influenced by the United States like how Hanoi, where I live for a year before China is heavily influenced by the French. In Vietnam, those bidets the French are famous for are in every toilet. I miss bidets. In Shenzhen, every elevator starts with 1 as the ground floor. As opposed to G being ground floor like in European countries.
My observations
Shenzhen (2023-Present)
I've met my 2nd Ex-Soviet citizen here! The first was in Vietnam back in 2022. He's a cool guy who likes Stalin and does dialectical materialism instinctually. Grasps that things are defined in terms of motion, that is fading away/coming into being and by relations to one another. Much more rational than most every other 老外. The only thing in common amongst all the foreigners （老外）here is a sense of humor. An ability to laugh at the strange, ancient and simultaneously hyper-modern world we find ourselves relearning to swim in. Talking with other westerners who're communists here in China, I become acutely aware: most communists live in communist countries.
I really like the economy freedom everybody has here. The Chinese constitution guarantees the right to a job. Food, housing, internet and phone are all extremely affordable here. Put those two facts together and you get an environment where parents/elders don't have immense economic power over children like they do in the USA where I'm from. I've seen too many (more than zero) parents financial abuse their LGBT+ children. China is far far closer to abolishing the family in its negative aspects than any western country.
Billionaires and bankers are periodically executed here. It's a healthy proletarian dictatorship (https://redsails.org/china-has-billionaires/) getting stronger and healthier day-by-day. See China daily for about 85% videos/pictures of cute animals and 15% corrupt capitalists and white-collar criminals getting [redacted].
Chinese are more physically intimate with each other than in the United States. Locking arms and holding hands between women is common and men will do this too from time to time. Men even hold each others shoulders out in public. For comparison, Statesians mostly just shake hands and nothing else.
In the English language, a person giving off violent or deviant hints is a red flag event. In Chinese culture red is a symbol of wealth, luck, power, and the proletarian dictatorship. So their equivalent of the English "that's a red flag" is quite different. In Chinese we say "that's a green flag" for sussy behavior. This is made a bit complicated since green politics are huge here. There are weeks where I feel like half the stuff the government puts out at a local level is gentle suggestions on how to do green things for your home and environment. There's also a cool tree-planting system (see also: gamification) that rewards you for using public transportation, metro/buses/ebikes/tram by planting a new tree in exchange for points.
Everything's electric. All the buses. All the bikes. All the cars. Shenzhen is so quiet what with the city being without combustion engines. The background roar replaced with a quiet road vibration and the wind. I can here the wind so clearly. I can hear birds chirp and the road vibrate! This has never happen before in the dozens of cities I've been in throughout the United States. I'm going back to visit family for a month in 2024 July. The noise is going to be tough.
I know football (soccer fellow burgers) is the #1 sport in China, same as most countries. I have a sneaking suspicion that Basketball will overtake Football as the #1 sport worldwide. Basketball is huge in Vietnam and China and growing in popularity. As more an more people move to cities (about 60% as of 2024 of China is urban) football fields become way less common and basketball courts explode in popularity. In a dense place like a city, space is a premium, so basketball courts are a significantly more efficient use of space. Now that China is building up the infrastucture of the global south --something the global north failed for centuries-- （see How Europe Underdeveloped Africa) this trend is poised to emerge all over the belt-and-road system.
I've struggled a lot trying to explain racism to locals in China and Vietnam. Since black people aren't targeted by banks and cops (with red lining and so on...) in either country like they are in the US of A, its... difficult.
Observations of others
What being black is like for my black comrades in China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEb9cBsYNn8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKE9UlCbMlo
Jerry Grey is an Australian man who has lived in China for more than 2 decades. His experiences in China, in general, echo my own. You can find his YouTube where he discusses his own experiences and obeservations here https://www.youtube.com/@jerrystakeonchina799 He is more into psychology and I am more into philosophy (in part because of the replication crisis in psychology) so there are areas where our opinions different in depth and in our frameworks of political-economy.