hughmacdougall.com

The blogs on this site are in categories and the pages are either independent, with no relation to the blogs, or they are an introduction to a category.

China is a huge country that has been one of the most significant areas of the world for centuries. Her population is also enormous, currently at least 1,300,000,000. The terrible suffering of Chinese people in the twentieth century leaves it’s effect on the behaviour and mood of the Chinese people today. How can the national psyche be unaffected when in a short period of one hundred years it saw an Empire cruelly being torn by Colonial vultures; an attempt at Republic riddled with corruption; a horrific invasion; a Communist State making staggering mistakes that cost millions of lives; a back to basics movement that filled the land with fear and decimated the ranks of its most brilliant citizens; an ‘opening’ to domestic hard-nosed, amoral lust for money and the rise of billionaires on the backs of the poor; plus an open door to the new Imperialism of multi-national companies?

That’s what forms the background of all the things I complain about in my blogs and my hope is to shine a little light that can reveal areas where positive change and healing is needed.

If China builds on the good that dwells in her, the wisdom contained in the hearts of her honest and true people, brilliantly perceptive scholars and quietly waiting wise men and women, China will be as great as she has always claimed to be.

I have lived in China for three and a half years now, working in English language related jobs. My typos will probably make this hard to believe, but some of my work here has been in proofreading the products of Chinese translators. I’m a communicator and exchange thoughts with many people. I have restricted my thoughts until this time of writing to what I have observed myself or been told by a Chinese citizen, with few exceptions. None of what I complain about is different from what I hear from the most upright and loyal Chinese people I meet. My complaints are also theirs and if their Government chooses to put massive resources behind efforts to improve conditions they will rise up cheering to support those efforts. There is lots to love in China and I want this country to be great with true greatness and not just the shallow glitter of money.

There are some good books which are very much to be recommended if you are even thinking about trying your luck in the complex world of business in China, or with China. I picked the best I could and put them into my Amazon store. There is a link in the right hand column. There are also books on Chinese culture and you will find if you are a foreigner who actually knows something about the traditional culture of China it will surprise and amaze Chinese people you meet. You might even know more than they do. Unfortunately, many young Chinese people have little real knowledge about their own heritage. Many are astonished that I read the Tao Te Ching in my student days and try to save face by muttering things about it not being the ‘real’ Tao Te Jing because it was not read in Chinese. Most have not even attempted it because it is written in a style that is only accessible to scholars. Our translators have probably made it much more accessible to us. http://astore.amazon.com/chichiandthes-20/105-6159943-8789255?node=0&page=2