Struggle.

I don't know if this is a chinese thing, but when I first saw this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnnJnIj3T90 (or lianeandthemusic's recent video) I was just thinking:

duh, life is a struggle. You're meant to struggle-- if you don't struggle what you're working hard for is not worth it. Stop wallowing and get on with it. Stop complaining.

And I don't know-- what you're taught doesn't really translate into action, I suppose. Because sometimes I feel like this too and I used to get really hung up about feeling sad and despondent, and start to wonder what I'm struggling for.

Then your parents/ teachers will tell you to stop bawling for god's sake, look at jenny--does she cry her eyes out? How are you going to compete in the future if you continue like this? Jenny's all decided about what she wants to do in life, are you? Why don't you have any ambition? Everyone else has a goal, why don't you? I'm so disappointed in you; we have spent so much time and effort into teaching you and these are the results you give me? Why didn't you try harder? If you didn't spend so much time with your friends and more time studying, you would have done better. Why did you do this? You have not only disappointed me, you have disappointed your family, school, classmates-- you are such a disgrace!

Basically the thing is to guilt-trip you until you pull up your socks.

I don't think I want to take a stand on this; I'm pretty undecided regarding educational methods and cultural differences, but I wanted to find out if the difference in opinions was significant? heh because my relatives look down on people from the states or to simplify it, angmohs (红毛鬼, a label that encompasses all caucasians), and are like: "See? Us chinese work harder, and can 吃苦 (overcome suffering). Over there they wait for the government to help them, here the government doesn't help us! See- all the smart kids are chinese or indian."

Ok bringing in Social Welfare is a whole other can of worms, but the point is that sometimes people here(?) tend to make generalisations about angmohs and in some cases they are convinced that their generalisations are correct. Take the recession, for example. Some people think that the recession happened because Americans are stupid and don't know how to be thrifty when they take loans for a house or a car that is priced way beyond their means. So this led to the sub-prime crisis.

On the other end of the spectrum, it is kind of part of the culture here to be careful with your money; people would rather stay in a flat that they can own rather than in a landed property they have to take a loan for. It's also admirable to "have a million" in your bank account and dress like someone poorer, and old people commonly turn their lights off in the day to save on electricity bills. There is a sterotype that chinese tend to be calculative, but this is not without basis when you think about confucian teachings. Almost the whole chinese culture (at least, what we get in schools) is based on the idea that hard work = success. From this stems the idea that if you don't get the prize first, other people will, and the obstacles in your life are punishment for your wrongdoings. (please, please correct me if I'm wrong)