Mark Khalaf 17 hrs ago: Chinese citizens and consumers have growing needs as the country develops. Seems pretty straightforward, what’s the puzzling part?
Ying Xue 3 hrs ago: Thanks, you are right!
You wrote: .... Chinese citizens and consumers have growing needs as the country develops. Seems pretty straightforward, what’s the puzzling part? ...........
What's the puzzling part?
1. If you would review the message to which you've responded, you might notice that the "puzzling part" is specified. It is specified in a whole sentence, written with the sole purpose of specifying it.
2. If it the idea of ever-growing needs is "pretty straightforward" as it seems to you and to the Substack author Mr Ying Xue, then it implies that the president of the People's Republic of China repeats something that is straightforward, which according to the dictionaries means plain, obvious, banal. And that in turn implies that it is a _flaw_ in his speeches, and in the official speeches of the Chinese leadership.
That truly is an additional cause of wonder: that you both take as a basic premise that the Chinese leadership's official pronouncements constantly use a phrase that is more or less superfluous, rather than there for a good reason.
3. This is a Substack devoted to the spread of understanding of the Chinese civilization to people of cultures that are more or less different from the Chinese culture. In such an environment of communication between people of different cultures, puzzlement of one side, about what is straightforward to another side is something to be expected.
As the preeminent scholar of international cultural differences Geert Hofstede used to say, “Studying culture without experiencing culture shock is like practicing swimming without experiencing water.”
Puzzlement when articulated, is to be welcomed, and addressed with focus.
Anything otherwise appears to fall under the category 'dereliction of duty.'
Thank you!
Thank you for this exceptional article. As a reader, let me report my puzzlement over a phrase used frequently by your president:
..... the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.......
The puzzlement is specifically about the words 'ever-growing.'
And this puzzlement isn't momentary. It is persistent.
Chinese citizens and consumers have growing needs as the country develops. Seems pretty straightforward, what’s the puzzling part?
Thanks, you are right!
Mark Khalaf 17 hrs ago: Chinese citizens and consumers have growing needs as the country develops. Seems pretty straightforward, what’s the puzzling part?
Ying Xue 3 hrs ago: Thanks, you are right!
You wrote: .... Chinese citizens and consumers have growing needs as the country develops. Seems pretty straightforward, what’s the puzzling part? ...........
What's the puzzling part?
1. If you would review the message to which you've responded, you might notice that the "puzzling part" is specified. It is specified in a whole sentence, written with the sole purpose of specifying it.
2. If it the idea of ever-growing needs is "pretty straightforward" as it seems to you and to the Substack author Mr Ying Xue, then it implies that the president of the People's Republic of China repeats something that is straightforward, which according to the dictionaries means plain, obvious, banal. And that in turn implies that it is a _flaw_ in his speeches, and in the official speeches of the Chinese leadership.
That truly is an additional cause of wonder: that you both take as a basic premise that the Chinese leadership's official pronouncements constantly use a phrase that is more or less superfluous, rather than there for a good reason.
3. This is a Substack devoted to the spread of understanding of the Chinese civilization to people of cultures that are more or less different from the Chinese culture. In such an environment of communication between people of different cultures, puzzlement of one side, about what is straightforward to another side is something to be expected.
As the preeminent scholar of international cultural differences Geert Hofstede used to say, “Studying culture without experiencing culture shock is like practicing swimming without experiencing water.”
Puzzlement when articulated, is to be welcomed, and addressed with focus.
Anything otherwise appears to fall under the category 'dereliction of duty.'