我很担心ABC的将来
redpill
楼主 (北美华人网)
我们做家长的都心知肚明 但是没有办法只能选择做个鸵鸟 中国肯定回不去了
这个一个ABC 写的 Chinese American (Mainland heritage, born here) guy in college here, and geez, I'm so worried about things with China going south.
Like, I know I'm in the US and don't have to worry about getting into trouble for protesting because of the 1st amendment... in theory. Sounds awesome, right? But more realistically there's a good chance I'll end up having to put my career prospects or personal safety at stake. I've seen all those Israel and Palestine protests on my college campus, and while here they've generally been peaceful (if noisy) so far, I've heard stories about people in Columbia University getting beat up over this for instance.
So now you see why I've generally decided to stay away from those kinds of protests. Which shouldn't be too hard, right, since I'm neither Jewish nor Muslim, and this issue doesn't really affect my life too directly? (Same with Russia vs. Ukraine last year.) Well, problem is, I can't keep doing this forever, right? Because I'm pretty sure the Mainland coming up against Taiwan is next.
I have many relatives back in China, and honestly, even for its problems (censorship, surveillance, etc.)... China's a pretty awesome place to visit (even if actually living there's another story). I know I'm gonna be sounding like some brainwashed victim of Stockholm syndrome here, but I've actually been there several times, and, well, I very much enjoy China's culture, cuisine, language, media, and landscape. I don't want to tick them off and... like, my grandparents didn't work their asses off just so they could send their children off to the US for a better future and see how the next generations could invest back to the motherland, only for their grandchildren to just stab them in the back like that, right? It's disloyal and treacherous, and disrespecting your elders is pretty much the worst thing you could possibly do, especially as a Chinese person. They're not abusing me or anything so there should be absolutely no rationale to do so, right?
But OK, what if I do choose to backstab my family? Well, the way things are going, I'm convinced the US and China will go to war during my lifetime. And when (not if) that happens? FML then. Remember how Japanese Americans were treated back in WWII? Even if the government doesn't set up camps again (and thankfully, I'm fairly confident they're not that much of screwups)... it won't be pretty regardless. Everyone will shun the hell out of us. We were the "sick man of Asia" back during the colonial days, and ever since 2020 we've seemed to be living out our legacy just as strongly. I'd love for us to be more than that, of course, and I'm sure you would too, but... what do the masses know?
I know a lot of people here seem to believe that "China's declining!", "China's a paper tiger!", "No way China can invade Taiwan!", or even "East Asians will be considered white in 50 years!" But IMHO all of that reeks of misguided optimism and magical thinking. i.e. it's just something people tell themselves and each other to make them feel better despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, based more in copium than in reality. The same people said that Russia wouldn't invade Ukraine, and not only did they, they also did it pretty well. And now trouble's brewing in what's supposed to be the most "progressive" BS-resistant nation in the Middle East. I'm convinced we're on track to WWIII (or Cold War II, or by whatever name you want to call it), and I feel like people who believe otherwise... might want to come out of their hysterical ideological bubbles and reexamine their own arguments?
Sigh, I just hate this whole situation. I grew up watching Xiyangyang on repeat, worked hard in school, and studied the absolute hell out of the language expecting success and prosperity, and what do I get in return? Absolute disappointment, economic hardship, and cultural decay, with war and chaos looming over the horizon? I can assure you I'm not schizophrenic or anything, but sometimes I feel like my mind's controlled by a pure white robed angel and a grotesque yellow hairy demon, constantly competing with each other. And I'm aware this is an incredibly stupid and US-centric way of framing it, but sometimes I even feel like they're on opposite political parties.
(sorry if this sounded rough, wrote this on my phone between classes)
EDIT - look what happened in Hong Kong too. Now you can hardly even talk about the protests anywhere in the world, and frankly I've been trying not to think about them.
这个一个ABC 写的 Chinese American (Mainland heritage, born here) guy in college here, and geez, I'm so worried about things with China going south.
Like, I know I'm in the US and don't have to worry about getting into trouble for protesting because of the 1st amendment... in theory. Sounds awesome, right? But more realistically there's a good chance I'll end up having to put my career prospects or personal safety at stake. I've seen all those Israel and Palestine protests on my college campus, and while here they've generally been peaceful (if noisy) so far, I've heard stories about people in Columbia University getting beat up over this for instance.
So now you see why I've generally decided to stay away from those kinds of protests. Which shouldn't be too hard, right, since I'm neither Jewish nor Muslim, and this issue doesn't really affect my life too directly? (Same with Russia vs. Ukraine last year.) Well, problem is, I can't keep doing this forever, right? Because I'm pretty sure the Mainland coming up against Taiwan is next.
I have many relatives back in China, and honestly, even for its problems (censorship, surveillance, etc.)... China's a pretty awesome place to visit (even if actually living there's another story). I know I'm gonna be sounding like some brainwashed victim of Stockholm syndrome here, but I've actually been there several times, and, well, I very much enjoy China's culture, cuisine, language, media, and landscape. I don't want to tick them off and... like, my grandparents didn't work their asses off just so they could send their children off to the US for a better future and see how the next generations could invest back to the motherland, only for their grandchildren to just stab them in the back like that, right? It's disloyal and treacherous, and disrespecting your elders is pretty much the worst thing you could possibly do, especially as a Chinese person. They're not abusing me or anything so there should be absolutely no rationale to do so, right?
But OK, what if I do choose to backstab my family? Well, the way things are going, I'm convinced the US and China will go to war during my lifetime. And when (not if) that happens? FML then. Remember how Japanese Americans were treated back in WWII? Even if the government doesn't set up camps again (and thankfully, I'm fairly confident they're not that much of screwups)... it won't be pretty regardless. Everyone will shun the hell out of us. We were the "sick man of Asia" back during the colonial days, and ever since 2020 we've seemed to be living out our legacy just as strongly. I'd love for us to be more than that, of course, and I'm sure you would too, but... what do the masses know?
I know a lot of people here seem to believe that "China's declining!", "China's a paper tiger!", "No way China can invade Taiwan!", or even "East Asians will be considered white in 50 years!" But IMHO all of that reeks of misguided optimism and magical thinking. i.e. it's just something people tell themselves and each other to make them feel better despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, based more in copium than in reality. The same people said that Russia wouldn't invade Ukraine, and not only did they, they also did it pretty well. And now trouble's brewing in what's supposed to be the most "progressive" BS-resistant nation in the Middle East. I'm convinced we're on track to WWIII (or Cold War II, or by whatever name you want to call it), and I feel like people who believe otherwise... might want to come out of their hysterical ideological bubbles and reexamine their own arguments?
Sigh, I just hate this whole situation. I grew up watching Xiyangyang on repeat, worked hard in school, and studied the absolute hell out of the language expecting success and prosperity, and what do I get in return? Absolute disappointment, economic hardship, and cultural decay, with war and chaos looming over the horizon? I can assure you I'm not schizophrenic or anything, but sometimes I feel like my mind's controlled by a pure white robed angel and a grotesque yellow hairy demon, constantly competing with each other. And I'm aware this is an incredibly stupid and US-centric way of framing it, but sometimes I even feel like they're on opposite political parties.
(sorry if this sounded rough, wrote this on my phone between classes)
EDIT - look what happened in Hong Kong too. Now you can hardly even talk about the protests anywhere in the world, and frankly I've been trying not to think about them.