The Mainland Chinese proto-Westernized petite bourgeoisie, in its long path of… · @qquinnsworth · TwKit

@qquinnsworth

The Mainland Chinese proto-Westernized petite bourgeoisie, in its long path of globalization, is host to a range of attitudes towards the West ranging from reverence to chauvinism. Where one member stands on this spectrum can be decomposed to their position along two axes. The first is whether their dominant relationship with the "foreign" is that of a buyer or seller. The contemporary Chinaman is a simple creature, analyzing a Chinaman's relationship with the flow of money reveals just about everything anyone needs to know about them. Typically, the seller to foreign, especially Western markets, is more reverent of the West, and the buyer, the consumer, is more openly critical, in some cases chauvinistic. The seller persona would include, say, factory owners selling to foreign buyers, a professional selling labor to a Western corporation, either in China or abroad, and running or working for a Chinese company heavy on exports or overseas sales. To them the Western/foreign buyer is the God of Money, the provider of sustenance, undeniably an object of reverence. If the contemporary Chinaman had faith, which they largely don't, not biting the hand which immediately feeds you would be a core tenet. On the flip side, the seller persona would include leisurely Chinese international students (the ones who don't plan on pursuing careers in the West), tourists, moneyed retirees settling overseas. For them they are the buyer of services provided overseas, they see themselves as the God of Money, the provider of sustenance to the Western/foreign economies to which they've attached themselves. Being the God of Money opens up the right, well, to complain: the Chinese food here sucks, it sucks having to speak English, there's so much cool shit back home in China that they don't have here, etc. The second key axis is degree of exposure with the West, now this is obvious to some, counterintuitive to others, but typically the less integrated, worse at English, the more rosy eyed, reverent, and the more integrated, more English fluent, the more chauvinistic and critical. For example the stressed out, spiritually broken 996 tech grinder in China dreams of having a chill job, an easier life for their children, in a Western country, or even Singapore, or Japan for that matter, but they feel held back by lack of language skills and right of residency. On the other hand, the third culture kid whose parents handed them Canadian PR, or HK citizenship, or an American green card, a lifetime of international school or posh boarding school, is much more open to seeing the West with a critical eye. For one, their "Westernized" education enables them to ask questions and find themselves beyond concerns of financial reward and incentives! They are also much more exposed to waves of anti-China sentiment, often misdirected, irrational, frankly absurd, that plague Western discourse about China. They see China as a politicized topic in the West, yet live with China as a real place, and a rather comfortable one at that, often to settle in a place of deep disillusionment. The less integrated are insulated because, well, they hardly associate with English speaking people. Even though I love to caricaturize the Chinaman, the individual Chinaman is after all an individual human being. Where they stand on this grid could shift depending on the moment, the situation, particular experiences, and stage in life. It is not uncommon for a single Chinaman to come full circle, or even make multiple roundtrips across the grid!

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