I grew up in China for ~5 years and I felt that the cultural mindset in China does not breed creativity nor greatness. The social culture there conditions people to be conformist and one-dimensional. The censorship is absurd. People there generally lack a higher overall perspective. Everyone tries to screw each other over for a dollar, not understanding the concept of the Prisoner's Dilemma and how it affects society as a whole.
There's a lot more to it, but basically in my opinion China is still far behind America and will not catch up any time soon. China needs some sort of cultural revolution before that happens.
This is all coming from a Chinese-American who wants to see China succeed. But reality is reality.
I really think he's the kind of guy who fetishizes the exotic. Old school geeks did this with Japanese culture, Japanese media, Japanese women, etc for decades and it was more than a little embarrassing. Its all vaguely racist or at least insensitive and has a "grass is greener" feel to it. China, and to a lesser extent, Korea, are the new Japan for geeky males.
China has a great deal of social problems (many of which are long solved in the West), but I imagine someone with a pocket full of USD, which go very far in China, a white face, and an EU password is immune to it all. The suffering and human rights issues of the locals is just an abstract given to him. Yet somehow the homeless issue in SF is very concrete to him.
I really think this article shows off a questionable brand of millennial economic tourism and is more interesting from that perspective.
It seems that you prefer a world where social problems, mental illness and poverty are hidden from your view by an ethereal force. That is fine, you can live in that pleasant fiction, but don't for a single minute pretend that beating and jailing the homeless is utopia, or that Beijing is anything other than that.
To be fair, he did disclaim at the top of the article by mentioning that he's from Sweden.
It is not like Sweden has solved any of these problems either, it's just quite well hidden from plain sight - as you mentioned in a more eloquent way.
Yes, that would be your enormous wealth that is tinting your view. If you weren't rich, I guarantee your experience would be different.
Use assertion as some statistics and compare it with another statistics? That is not how to prove a case.
This is a comment board, not a pendant's paradise.
Funny how having a shitload of money can change someone's perspective on a topic, isn't it?
"Beijing might be of historical importance for the creative forces often associated with Silicon Valley"
I note he never explained that sentence. No data was given to further that statement. Instead he makes points about cheaper engineers and cheap housing and food.
" it offered us cheap housing and food, a network of experienced mentors that were happy to take the time to help, steady access to some of the world's greatest engineering talent at a sixth of the cost of a junior engineer in Silicon Valley "
He also says: "Beijing seems to attract large numbers of truly driven, creative and interesting people". Yes, people here are truly driven. But creative? Nope, I didn't experience that. I won't mention how the drive people exhibit here is typically negative. In the US, negotiations are rarely zero-sum, in BJ/SZ it was always Walmart style: are we screwing the partner/customer/supplier to the max.
"Beijing is a city with its eye on the future and a place that you can help shape."
The whole of China is controlled by a small (percentage wise) elite. They and they alone decide the whole future. If you're not part of the future they determine would benefit "their" China then you're out. If they decide suddenly that whatever you've built is something they want, and they can get away with it, they'll take it. Creative people don't thrive here. Ask 100 creative people in China if they'd like to move to Silicon Valley, and you'll likely get an 75% migration rate. That's even higher than the percentage of rich Chinese who want to leave. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/09/15/almost-half-of...