Introduction

Much discussion between races has been on the black and white, but it’s much more nuanced, and thus perhaps more intriguing, to analyze the achievement gap between the west and the east.

Richard Lynn and J. Philippe Rushton have produced credible and data-backed articles that show how East Asians fare better in a host of traits, primarily intelligence. However, during one recorded session with J. Philippe Rushton, he seemed to be not able to answer the question about how eastern societies had not been able to develop to the extent the Western ones had. This popular conception that Asians fare better than Whites in terms of intelligence contrasts with how East Asian societies fare compared to Western ones, both past and present, and with how the Chinese had been perceived.

In 1894, Arthur Smith published Chinese Characteristics, a collection of twenty-six essays. The author had great credentials: he had spent roughly two decades in China. This is a fairly accurate book, although a lot of the content seems to be more negative than positive. Throughout the book, Chinese are portrayed as little better than savages, vastly different from the current view. Judging from the essay titles alone, the ills of Chinese society are named in the title of nine essays, although many more are sprinkled throughout other essays: (5) Disregard of Time, (6) Disregard of Accuracy, (7) Talent for Misunderstanding, (8) Talent for Indirection, (12) Contempt for Foreigners (15) Indifference to Comfort and Convenience, (21) Absence of Sympathy, (24) Mutual Suspicion, (25) Absence of Sincerity.

Those who are both very poor and very ignorant, as is the fate of millions, have indeed so narrow a horizon that intellectual turbidity is compulsory. Their existence is merely that of a frog in a well, to which even the heavens appear only as a strip of darkness.

Life consists of two compartments, a stomach and a cash-bag. Such a man is the true positivist, for he cannot be made to comprehend anything which he does not see or hear, and of causes as such he has no conception whatsoever. Life is to him a mere series of facts, mostly disagreeable facts, and as for anything beyond, he is at once an atheist, a polytheist, and an agnostic. 

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As with much of what I post, I do not necessarily agree with this author but find the topic interesting and his viewpoint refreshing. Cultural differences are very real as are genetic difference which are molded or honed by culture over the centuries. The whole world needs to do much more talking about cultural and genetic differences and similarities. The essay above may get some people thinking and inspire others to delve into this topic.

Trump has launched a response to China’s decades-long trade war against us. One factor at play was referred to the other day when Trump said of Xi, ‘I don’t think he knows how to make a deal’, or words to that effect. Having lived in China for many years, I have noticed that most of the time most Chinese see ‘deals’ as win-lose propositions and they almost always go for the win at any cost. There are exceptions but not many, in my experience. On the world stage, we are seeing that same zero-sum strategy being played by Xi Jinping and the CCP; the only difference between him and CCP leaders who preceded him is he is more ruthless, more zero-sum in how he makes ‘deals’. A tangential observation to this one is over the past 10-15 years I seem to have noticed a decline in the dating value of Chinese women in the West. If true, that may be due to their not knowing how to make relationship deals that are good for both parties. ABN