Obviously, these aren't good-faith questions, it's conclusions from decades of Sinophobic propaganda. But that does not mean from the outside looking in, it can't look a bit like this sometimes- particularly if we don't try to show evidence to the contrary.
I'll give it a shot.
I'll give it a shot.
>Why is China not creative?
This is more "Why does China often appear to not be creative in ways Western cultures recognize and value?"
I'd start here with this article I wrote way back for @hackaday
hackaday.com
This is more "Why does China often appear to not be creative in ways Western cultures recognize and value?"
I'd start here with this article I wrote way back for @hackaday
hackaday.com
A typical celebrated form of creativity in the West might be a novel design. A clever new way of doing something- that something else already does very well. "Reinventing the wheel" is actually something to be proud of for you- which I get, but understandably many Chinese don't.
Instead, a common form of creativity at the Chinese end would be redesigning that new wheel so it can be mass manufactured and is affordable- but that sort of iterative refinement is often not valued by Westerners (even though that's what Henry Ford did with the Model T).
Almost a decade ago, When I got started in hardware and posting my projects on Reddit, it was because I was angry- furious actually. I grew up in Shenzhen, I had worked doing translation for foreigners and I was sick and tired of their smug attitude that we could not be creative.
I was young, idealistic, and had a chip on my shoulder you could have whittled a canoe out of. I was going to show the foreigners that we Chinese could be creative also. The problem with this is China's creatives- like all the world's creatives- we're the eccentrics, the weirdos.
Disproportionately LGBT, undocumented (Heihaizi), academically uneven- we look weird, we act weird, and we aren't the face that China wants to show to the world. We're abnormal, normal is good. Normal is safe and predictable.
So if you talk to anyone who has lived here a long time- even the most vocal critics will talk to you about makers, artists and musicians- brilliant, weird and creative people they have met but who by and large are exiled to the periphery, tolerated, but generally not celebrated.
Creativity requires doing something new, and new is uncertain, and uncertain is risky- and we are risk averse. So the "right sort" of people are presented- men from the right schools, sons of cadre who own factories but don't do anything too disruptive with their innovation.
The sort of creativity foreigners would value is certainly here- but it's really not the face Chinese leadership, and so media, has chosen to present to the world. When you say "If China were a person, it has one fucking personality" that homogenous "normal" seems good to them.
Chinese are creative both in our own tradition, and in a Western tradition, but that is less valued than say- being an entrepreneur. Maker Faire in China had to create the idea of "Maker Pro" because all the speakers were CEOs who had never held a tool in their lives.
"NASA is planning a crewed mission to Mars. China is not planning to go to another planet to perform a mission but wants to beat the US on the same goal."
A space race is hardly a new concept or one that started with China. You set the mark, now the race will drive innovation.
A space race is hardly a new concept or one that started with China. You set the mark, now the race will drive innovation.
*Replies to this that are simply Sinophobia or shrieking nationalism will be blocked. I'm hardly defending official policy here so the usual accusations are, of course, a block also.
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