Tychoides 说:
I -am- from East Asia, I read dozens of books on East Asia, I write about East Asia, I watch things from East Asia ,etc. And
East Asia pays for my tuition and food.
That post was supposed to be a sarcastic remark at the post immediately above. It always amused me that the subcontinent possesses so much "otherness" when they've been bumping shoulders for 3-4 millennia. Distinct and characteristic cultural heritages are one thing. It's another when the only thing that drives international politics in that region forward is mudslinging and xenophobia.
Then you're the lucky one. Everyday on my way to school I see beggars lined up on the streets. Right beside me sits one of the tallest buildings in the world. Yeh, talk about economic equality. Asia has in a way, grown up to fast but left parts of it behind. It is a free for all, no man's land where the government doesn't care and neither should you.
Fei Dao 说:
Meh, I'm an American citizen, I've visited my relatives in China several times, and it really didn't come across as "3rd world" to me.
That's most likely because you're wealthy. You are probably in the middle class or the upper class, not the underpayed factory workers.
East Asia is full of corrupt (more than Western) governments. Terrible human rights do exist, and I'm not prepared to cut
any slack for them just because "they're" improving. You don't need time to start treating humans with common decency.