throwb187

While his kids could speak Mandarin and went to local schools, I have a feeling he was mainly in the expat bubble so had a very skewed perspective of China and the people.

Also, it seems like people will give a pass to these types of generalizations if it's about Asians or Chinese people. To tell if something is "racist," I like to apply the Black/Jewish-Litmus Test.

Basically replace the word Chinese with Black or Jewish and see if you find it racist. If you do, then it is when you write about Chinese people.

e.g. There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in Israel... There was no exogenously held right or wrong, only whether you made money.

There is a complete and utter lack of respect for the individual or person in Nigeria...Lying is utterly common, but telling the truth revolutionary. There was no value system.

There are also a lot of news reports in China about the opposite happening. Where groups of people will get together to save someone.

There was even one incident where a group of people lifted a car up to save the girl that was run over. Or how a taxi driver jumps into a manhole to save a girl who fell in. Or how a group of delivery guys caught a child that was hanging on a several story perch. However, those news reports are rarely ever reported in Western media.

All we see are the bad things.

I've never been to France, but I have to completely disagree about China.

I've never asked to get my dish replaced, but the only times I have seen it happen are at very high end restaurants or chain restaurants, and that happened in both countries.

In general, I feel that I get much better customer service in China.

Perhaps it's because I'm a visible minority where some members of my group are not known as good tippers. So I am immediately assumed to be a bad tipper.

Then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, where I get bad service and thus I leave a low tip (In the past, I used to leave 20% even for bad service, just to try and defy the stereotype. But I've stopped doing it now.).

I've lived in both and I definitely prefer walking on Chinese roads.

Most US drivers, except for those in New York, are largely unaware of pedestrians, bikes, and motorcycles. I find it much more dangerous to ride a motorcycle in the US because so many drivers don't expect it and do things like turning right without looking behind them.

However, I do generally prefer driving in the US. The only issue I have is with the police. I'm much more scared of getting pulled over by a cop in the US due to some minor infraction, e.g. having a broke tail light, than I am of Chinese cops.

Having driven in both countries, I totally agree, with one slight caveat.

In the past, I had the opinion that due to individualism versus collectivism, US drivers tend to take things a lot more personally.

If you accidentally cut someone off or honk at them, US drivers feel it's a direct assault on them. I've witnessed and even personally encountered some scary road rage in the US, but never in China.

However, after finally having the chance to drive in New York, I realize that it's actually a city versus suburban driver/pedestrian culture.

I was quite amazed by how driving in New York City was so similar to driving in a Chinese city. Where it's more of a "dance" between cars, pedestrians, and other vehicles like bikes.