People who have grown up in comfort do not fully comprehend the effect of widespread hunger on a large population. Natural selection rewarded those that put their families above everything. The families that did not died. Parents that did not do everything in their power to feed their children watched them starve to death in their hands.
Many things about modern China can be directly linked to this shared national pain.
The absolute, obsessive drive of Chinese parents to have their children study and reach a higher station of life is a direct result of the culture of hustle instilled by their parents and grandparents. Devotion to families, incredible work ethic, creativity and innovation can all be traced back to the skills necessary to survive the Cultural Revolution.
However, many of the problems in modern China can be linked to this phenomenon. Bribery, open piracy, corruption are common in every walk of Chinese life. Chinese people put themselves, and their families, first and they've never had a compelling argument against it. People in the West believe in their institutions in a way that doesn't exist in China.
But, time will change this. There is clear precedent in the West that each successive generation that grows up outside of poverty will be less and less cutthroat compared to the generation prior.
Cultural Revolution selected for these traits, survival at any cost.
Now you have a billion people that have no regard whatsoever for lives of others.
Why, I don’t have a clue. Maybe it is the last 200 years in China, civil wars, then Communists and Mao. It is weird because there is not much violent crime at all. You won’t get kidnapped or mugged outside your hotel or anything like that.
Everything is provided, decided, controlled, influenced, reviewed, rethought by and via the state (in some representation, the party, the government, the local government, some group or other, an official, someone with connections, the police, or even just a faceless automated system/website/machine). This reminds people that everything is temporary, effort is futile, etc. This makes people simply not care much about common stuff. (Environment, roads, streets, houses, etc.)
Source, I'm from a post-soviet country, and we're dealing with huge swaths of the population who are still very much thinking like this.
See also:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9eXi3RL8q4 (why everything is falling apart)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XopSDJq6w8E (what about new buildings, quality, maintenance?)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxP2fAqamZQ (about powerlessness, apathy)