As China is "moving forward" there are certain things I would like to see. Please feel free to add to this list.

1. A TV show not based in "ancient China"
2. A video game not based in "ancient China"
3. Real internet access, not this giant WAN that slows to a crawl every time it rains because people are too scared to leave their homes so they download 8,000,000,000 GB worth of pirated movies.
4. A computer that is not running "Hello Kitty WinXP"
5. An original or creative thought, idea, or concept about anything
6. A receipt system that is not based on the store deciding whether or not they actually want to pay taxes
7. A statement from that government that IV antibiotics are not actually a cure all for every single possible illness and in fact should NOT be administered on a regular basis
8. Beer with an actual alcohol percentage. 3.6% isn't really beer. 3.1% definitely isn't beer. This needs to be sold in the water isle. REEB red label has 4.7%, but I'm pretty sure it's made from recycled urine or magic hangover water
9. Meat cutting techniques. I understand that in the past when China was poorer, EVERYTHING needed to be used. Now, not so much. How about removing the bones from things? I enjoy eating chicken and fish minus the choking hazard. PS - A hammer is not a slicing instrument and it should not be used to cut meat. I don't care about culture or anything on this, small sharp bone shards are BU HAO CHI. While we're at it, how about cuts of meat that make sense? A cow,pig, chicken, or even a fish has areas on them where cuts of meat reside. These can be removed easily by a skilled butcher and presented in such a way that they are good. Attacking a side of beef with a hatchet and randomly hacking off chunks may be "traditional", but it just plain sucks. I don't understand this at all. I have personally butchered cows, deer, pigs, chickens, etc in the past, and the cuts of meat are almost laid out like a map. Here's this, here's that. It comes apart easily. Randomly chopping stuff up to me shows lack of skill or just plain laziness.
10. Nutrition information on products. Sure, the jiaozi I just ate may have been delicious, but I'd like to know if I am consuming my fat content for the entire week.
11. Companies that actually try to do business with the rest of the world based on international standards, and not expecting everyone else to conform to "how business is done in China". China is not the center of the world. Companies that come here and try to conform to the "China way" are stupid. China needs to step up and deal with international processes like everyone else. China is NOT special, and it is simple greed that companies try to do business like the Chinese so they can get a foothold here because of "face" and retarded laws. Companies trying to "conform" to the Chinese way are only empowering China's ideals of theft, lack of IP laws, and Confucionism. China needs to join the world, the world does not need to join China, not matter how much the Chinese think it is "their century".

These are just a few things. I intentionally left out things like "Not stepping in baby poop on the sidewalk", "not seeing a taxi driver pee in a bush by the side of the road", "man spitting in subway car", etc, because these are common daily events.

I went to a restaurant and saw a woman hold her baby over her "finished" dinner bowl and she let the baby poop in it. Stay classy China.

Looks like it's time for the OP to move on....So many things bother him...

Hey, these are honest requests! I want to see China grow an do well.

Also, I'm just having fun and trying to give a few laughs. I guess sarcasm doesn't translate well in text. Except for the baby pooping in a dinner bowl. First time I had ever heard or seen of that practice, but at least the mother was polite enough to not do it right there on the floor, even though there was a toilet 2 meters away.

Damn it, I'm in the States right now on vacation, the OP just succeeded in persuading me not to go back. One less TMD laowai in China, cheers!

genghis wrote:1. A TV show not based in "ancient China"

I'd rather watch Ancient China shows full of actors with silly hair, than watch the "new fashionable China" shows where the only method of distinguishing whether a person is a young woman or a young man, is by whom is screaming and crying like a little kid, the most...

A Chinese response, from a laowai

1) We have TV shows based on The Revolution.
2) We have video games like mahjong.
3) It doesn't slow down, and of course our internet is real????
4) Some computers have other pirated versions of Windows you know.
5) What about "face"? We thought of that!
6) We give receipts freely to whomever pays for them.
7) In China, you always need a periodic IV antibiotic drip. TIC!
8) Our beer is stronger than American beer! What are you, Canadian?!
9) Without the bones how would we know where the good meat is? And besides, taking the bones out means we have nothing to spit! Dinner isn't complete without spitting!
10) Why do you need a label. Western food is bad for you and Chinese is good. Simple! Especially since we add MSG to everything!
11) Join the world? China is the world! Don't you know we invented paper money and international trade!?

genghis wrote:1. A TV show not based in "ancient China"

Maybe they have this, but I haven't seen it... When I first moved here I saw the city as an endless backdrop for a really cool hard bitten homicide cop or private investigator TV series. I think I may have mentioned this in the past. It would be hard to get it right, though. No silliness and hospital bedside wailing like in ALL the other "modern" shows on the tube. It doesn't have to have Hong Kong style walls of lead spraying about, but, you know, tough, dark and seamy, with good writing. Oh, and top notch production quality is a must, regardless if anyone in the country is yet able to appreciate it.

I think the above mentioned items are stereotype of China.

12. graffiti

I hate it at home coz it's mostly obnoxious scribble but I'd love to see some here. I think good graffiti shows questioning, self- expression, a bit of rebellion and original thought. Not such a bad thing.

^ I think you answered your own question.

12. graffiti

I hate it at home coz it's mostly obnoxious scribble but I'd love to see some here. I think good graffiti shows questioning, self- expression, a bit of rebellion and original thought. Not such a bad thing.

There WAS some great graffiti on Moganshan lu, but i was running past the other night and this group of kids were just spraying black scrawl on it, destroying the art

5. An original or creative thought, idea, or concept about anything

below is for creative funny things originating from local people, not sure if meets your style.

http://www.quwan.com/

China is larger than you expect, you'll see what you want only if you stay longer and know more.

Good luck!

^ You've got to be joking, right?

The grizzly bear is huge and wild
He has devoured the infant child
The infant child is not aware
It has been eaten by the bear.

A.E. Housman

genghis wrote:9. Meat cutting techniques. I understand that in the past when China was poorer, EVERYTHING needed to be used. Now, not so much. How about removing the bones from things? I enjoy eating chicken and fish minus the choking hazard. PS - A hammer is not a slicing instrument and it should not be used to cut meat. I don't care about culture or anything on this, small sharp bone shards are BU HAO CHI. While we're at it, how about cuts of meat that make sense? A cow,pig, chicken, or even a fish has areas on them where cuts of meat reside. These can be removed easily by a skilled butcher and presented in such a way that they are good. Attacking a side of beef with a hatchet and randomly hacking off chunks may be "traditional", but it just plain sucks. I don't understand this at all. I have personally butchered cows, deer, pigs, chickens, etc in the past, and the cuts of meat are almost laid out like a map. Here's this, here's that. It comes apart easily. Randomly chopping stuff up to me shows lack of skill or just plain laziness.

So true... went to the local market the other day, and saw that the ribs were actually well cut, so paid for them, and was ready to take them from the seller, when she whipped them away and put them on the chopping board and started hacking at them! Told her that I didn't want them destroyed, but too late, she had already had her fun - then she told me that they will taste better like that


10. Nutrition information on products. Sure, the jiaozi I just ate may have been delicious, but I'd like to know if I am consuming my fat content for the entire week. [/quote]

hahha...oh please, then you would know exactly what was in the food you just ate! wouldn't want anyone to know what's in it, now would you?

13. Buskers

Sure you get the occasional old guy playing some ancient cello thingie but why don't we ever see young people singing in the streets?

revolution9 wrote:13. Buskers

Sure you get the occasional old guy playing some ancient cello thingie but why don't we ever see young people singing in the streets?

I experienced exactly that, two days ago in Yongzhou. Of course, she was armed with a cheap microphone hooked up to an ancient sound system being pushed well beyond its limits. The resultant distorted, off-key, caterwauling screech sliced through my defenceless brain from a hundred paces away, like a rusty knife through butter.

cinderellaniu wrote:I think the above mentioned items are stereotype of China.

I wonder why?

^Haha.

I want to see less factory and mining accidents.

More fresh Western movies in cinemas.

revolution9 wrote:13. Buskers

Sure you get the occasional old guy playing some ancient cello thingie but why don't we ever see young people singing in the streets?

They're all in KTV making asses of themselves in private.

Who wants that limp noodle atonal easy listening crap on the streets?

Or the ones who are actually trained, are all technique and no emotion. Who are they moving? Robots?

^that picture is so freaky. I'm going to have nightmares now.

sorry but i had to comment on the bones thing cos i think the bones and fat are part of chinese cuisine

it doesn't suit my tastes but i don't think that chinese food having so much bones and fat is down to anything except taste

the thing that has annoyed me most in my time in china is the whole 'developing country' thing as an excuse for everything. china isn't a country in the way i understand it as a european so even tho there is still crazy poverty in some parts of china people in shanghai and jiangsu using that as an excuse for crap that goes on in here pisses me off. i'd guess jiangsu has had a better economy than a country like italy or spain for the last 15 years, the whole babies pooping in the street and mutated beggars is nothing to do with lack of money at all

Tanna wrote:^that picture is so freaky. I'm going to have nightmares now.

It's because of something called the uncanny valley. Robots look really disturbing when they're just nearly human.

Learn something new every day. Thanks eudaimonic! Sorry Tanna! Soon all the nurses in Tokyo will look like that!

when you come to a new place, you should spend your time on your dailylife..talking with local people, having local species... lots of fun in it..

hope you enjoy it..

eudaimonic wrote:

Tanna wrote:^that picture is so freaky. I'm going to have nightmares now.

It's because of something called the uncanny valley. Robots look really disturbing when they're just nearly human.

a big, big problem in cinematic computer games when you are trying to get an audience to buy-in to an idea and suspend their disbelief..

I would like to see free internet and no more spitting in public. Fine spitting in public like Singapore do.