 This discussion is hot on the internet right now. Will being Chinese ever be considered cool? Let's talk about yes or no and also why everybody keeps asking this question You are asking the wrong question about whether or not you will ever be cool You should be worried about shifting a unipolar world to do also school We got to talk about it Andrew. There is a Reddit post titled and this is from a male perspective this time We covered one from a female perspective will China Slash Chinese ever be able to lose the negative stereotypes He goes on to say that people hate being Chinese even Chinese Americans of varying generations Seem to hate being Chinese everything from the traditional culture modern culture to everything We know about the negative stereotypes China does not have an upper hand with soft power with things like fashion pop music TV shows right now The biggest Chinese products exported overseas are text products and everything else Chinese is considered either a cheaper knock-off version or antiquated cultural products such as Gua Sha or TCM Long story short Andrew He basically says that Korea and Japan have their variety of things that are considered cool Whereas a lot of Chinese Americans feel a disconnect with China because when they were growing up They had nothing cool except what old-school things Confucianism Philiopiety Erhu Erhu music that's hilarious. He said Erhu music So my question is will China or Chinese ever be able to lose the negative stereotypes or will it just take several? Generations for people to see China just as normal people Wow This is a crazy question. We've talked about this before in different ways But I guess the question is yeah will being Chinese ever be considered cool and anybody who's cool that is Chinese What is it because they don't act or look Chinese, right? But anyways David? I guess I have an I have my quick answer before we get into our our comment section But why do people keep posting this question? Why is this such a burning question for so many Chinese in the West? You're saying because there's so many articles that have been written about it There's so many posts on a variety of platforms that have been written about it. It is because Chinese culture compared to Japanese Korean and even in some ways like Vietnamese or Filipino Even though the Southeast Asian countries are in a different situation like they just don't seem very adaptive to the West That's the easiest way I could put it It seems like Chinese things they tend to be so centered in things that were created in China that those things seem very outmoded outdated esoteric and on the downside and just woefully uncool in 2023 right now is it uncooled to be Asian because those things are very Truly Asian or it's just that those things are still outdated like is Japan Being more Asian than China is or Chinese culture. You know what I mean? Like I guess I guess You're saying because for example Japan and Korea they maintain a lot of the bowing that went away a hundreds of years ago in China right but they both seem like they have a better grasp of Western at least pop culture It seems like Japan in a weird way and especially Japan is both more in tune with its ancient side and in tune with the modern world Simultaneously, but I think you can even make some arguments about that They still use coins on the Tokyo subway system and things like that. There's some throwback things I guess nobody's perfect, but I guess David do you have an answer? Yes or no? Will it ever be cool to be considered Chinese? Listen guys, we're gonna get to the bottom of it I think the answer is extremely complicated. So make sure you like subscribe and turn your notifications However, you know what could make Chinese things cool or is a cool Chinese thing? Maybe you cannot shift this type of like global narrative Realistic this is trying to take the best parts of a Western finishing oil in a Chinese Mala chili oil small ah check it out very delicious tons of chefs and foodies like it Um as far as I've been alive Andrew being Chinese was never considered. Whoa. I'm not saying Bruce Lee didn't have a little blip For his time. There's a Chinese. You know what I mean? There's some icons that are as far as the 80s and 90s go You know, it was all Japan Japan was already cool. Obviously the last 15 years Korea's been hyper cool. Japan's like still cool But cooled off a little bit. So uh of the last, you know, my life 30 years. It's never been cool Okay, so what do you what do you think for the future? Will it ever be cool? I think that it's got a chance in another 20 30 years potentially But I don't think the people should hold their breath. I do think they're probably off better off Redefining what they think is cool not necessarily redefining what they think is cool, but finding the significance in the impact cool Because I mean it's just a very large and confusing country, right? And as somebody who like yourself you were the youngest child in a Chinese family probably the most Americanized you Might even have a different perception of it because I'm more I'm born deep in it You know what I mean? My first language was Chinese. Mm-hmm. Uh, you're born a little bit outside of it But came back into it. Yeah, I mean, I think the short answer is uh No, I don't think it will ever be perceived as cool and here's why I say specifically the word perceived as cool Because I think there will be many cool things to come out of China cool things on a Western level still whether it's clothes gadgets Even characters. There's gonna be some cool movies. There's some cool icons We have Bruce Lee jacket jam, blah, blah jelly these guys are cool and some of the new games coming out Genshin impact But cool game, but if you made me say on a a Average level of how the average person views it. No, it won't be cool And here's the reason why it's because China is such a big and complicated country And in the Western ideas, it is so hard to put it on a good or bad scale people in the West We want to talk about China as it is a good a bet It's China good or bad. Is it good or bad? Is it good or bad in it to be honest? It's complex. That's what it is It's both got some great things about it And it is a extremely powerful country and it's right up there with America as far as leaders in the world that are gonna Impact the rest of the world But a lot of people don't want to admit that a lot of people don't want to look to China for any sort of leadership Because China has certain flaws about the country that we don't like so you're saying America is the all-good super power China's the 5050 super power probably more on the downside in Russia is the all-bad super power But they kind of look white and I like the girl So that kind of makes me feel a little bit You know torn about it cuz I like Trump and Trump likes Putin. Yeah, so if I had to put it on the big countries I'd put America is viewed as good very good And then India is kind of like in a neutral zone. China is slightly negative and then Russia is considered very negative So that's how it's I think it's gonna stay in that order For a long time, right and those are your four essentially major superpowers Because complex identities and complex issues are very hard for the average person understand I'm not gonna lie like I'm not saying people are stupid I'm just saying that it is very hard to balance these things and a lot of people are not given and give it enough Empathy and thought to realize that it's just good and bad Right and there's people who even and or could be smart at their job But not dedicate a lot of brain power to thinking about this aspect of life So they can have blind spots where they're like hyper they're not a hyper simplistic person But their view on China could be hyper simplistic. Yeah, yeah, but I do think the image will get better I'll say this. I think it's gonna get better. I don't know if it's ever gonna be on cool level like Japan cool I don't know. That's pretty cool. Right. I think here's one thing Andrew You could look at the stuff that's coming up Andrew the EVs are coming up I don't know if they'll ever let the EVs in America due to the geopolitical beef The EVs are considered some of the top rated in the world Andrew the one plus open was considered the top foldable phone of 2023 Andrew I believe the verge gave the Osmo pocket three gadget of the year. That's DJI, right? You could film Netflix. You could film Hollywood movies on this DJI 4d camera now Shanghai Tang, you know, they're starting to do some stuff with the denim Chunshan's, you know, I'm not saying they look that great, you know I just think at the end of the day, you know Any great tech that comes out of China is gonna be perceived to be used as some type of Surveillance or hacking weapon against America, right? That's just how it's gonna be perceived. Maybe they do use some technology Well to hack America and maybe they don't like I I don't know but it's possible But I'm just saying that's how it's perceived. Right. Right. Right. That is the perception Somebody said it is largely because China's pop culture lacks emotional artistic or any sort of sex appeal Yeah, I mean, I think that that's the one aspect I see and we're gonna get into the comments section Andrew I think whether it's a modern day repression or even a historical repression back to the dynastic days There is something very old-school about the way Chinese process their oxytocin The way they have an oxytocin pool inside of the chest and the pipelines that lead to the oxytocin expression There is something that is very stifled about that and I think that that is probably the most overlooked aspect You guys will read more about it in my book later because I just might be too much to get into into a you know Into a video anyway, let's get in the comment section Somebody said it's actually been getting a lot better over the past two years a lot of video games such as Genshin impact Have Chinese themes. There's other ones. There's a new Sun Wukong video game coming out Everybody's shopping on T-Mool. Good Ali Express. She and she ends from China So I guess he's like well, what do you mean? I don't know like no A lot of people also on Instagram when they make it fun of something. They're like, yo That's when you get like Michael Jordan from T-Mool. Yeah, yeah Yeah, so it's kind of like both a joke, but also everybody buys it too. So it's like it's this rear weird thing It's kind of like fast food where everybody partakes in it But then they kind of still look down on it, you know what I mean, right? It's weird just like tick-tock, right? They're like everybody's like gosh You cannot find anything good on tick-tock because tick-tock is owned by Douyin But then it's like everybody's on tick-tock watch time. You still watch and tick-tock Somebody said, you know, it really comes down to the Chinese government for getting rid of soft power Getting rid of the freedom needed to create soft power Xi Jinping is really setting back China's image back to the Mao era China was improving a lot when Hu Jintao was in power because he was less strict. It's true Hu Jintao was probably less strict in Xi Jinping. So a lot of other people said, you know It'll probably happen, but it's gonna take 30 20 or 30 years And somebody said, yeah, we'll probably find it China will be cool around the same time We discover a true cure for male pattern baldness That's funny. Um, somebody said this Korean guy said, you know guys I understand what you're saying internally within Asians. You're right It probably goes like Korea Japan and then way way way below China in terms of coolness But he goes I found that non Asians don't really understand the difference So what anybody is feeling about China being uncool is an internal Asian thing Do you agree or disagree with that that like people this is like an internal Asian Like a tier A tier B tier C tier ranking versus like an external thing Yeah, I do think on the external even those non Asians who are into Asian culture and can kind of tell the difference I think that they may still show even more empathy Towards China's image and find the coolness in it even more Than other Asians do yeah, I would agree with that I would agree with that because they're not like tapped into yeah They're also not like yeah, they're not part of the rankings like they don't care Somebody said who cares about teenage pop culture that's silly versus actually being able to shape ships the geopolitics of the world Basically, this is a classic argument from like defensive Chinese guys being like, yeah Who cares about soft power hard power is more important Yeah, I mean you can definitely obviously in the big scheme of things I think most people agree that hard power is More important right like Jamaica's got a lot of soft power But I think we're just the reason why people ask this question all the time is because there's a lot of Chinese in the west Who are just frustrated and they're wondering when they can potentially benefit or they feel like they're slightly Suffering from the overall image of China right because they cannot benefit from the hard power here In fact that that hard power competitiveness can only hurt them and then the lack of soft power Exports or desire for China soft power also hurts them right so it's also in a weird way Living in the West both aspects hurt you like let's say China Has the most power in the world or whatever it takes over the world But then like people don't like it then they're still gonna view China as negative Even if China is like the most powerful, right? It'll be a backlash Somebody said the short answer is no sad to say but with the current negative stereotypes rising power of China Which is challenging the US and lack of social awareness. This definitely will not happen in anybody's lifetime Yeah, I mean this also this guy said the thing is I don't need people to like being Chinese to enjoy Being Chinese myself maybe start off with that, huh? They only love you if you're not a threat to them Do you want to be a pet to them or do you want to be a tiger? But a tiger that's hated essentially if people hate being Chinese they need to wake up Don't wait for white people to validate your culture. Wow No, that's a strong statement. I understand I think the truth is you have to just find the aspects of Chinese culture that you actually think are important and significant and cool and There are a lot to choose from so you can pick and choose But maybe you don't have to take on everything, right, right? And you don't have to like look at everything like it's a very intellectual place to be though to be able to balance it out And still like literally just see it for what it is or as best as a human can because all humans are subject to bias Somebody said they laughed when China was weak now. They say they're we're evil when China is strong Yeah, man stuff. Yeah This is more on a base micro level Andrew this guy said I'm South Asian It reminds me of a close female friend who said she hates being Chinese because the language sounds funny The food is spicy or not appreciated amongst Americans unless it's American eyes and she learned to speak Japanese and considers Japan superior Andrew this is a pretty common thing we ran into in church a lot of kids wanted to be Japanese growing up then later on in Church a lot of kids not all obviously there's a very there's a variance some kids really wanted to be Korean Nobody really want that's why it's important like if you want to support Chinese products that you think make Chinese culture look better or at least look more adaptive. It's important that you support You don't have to support everything, but you have to find the things or the personalities that you support if you feel like there are good representation if you think If you think it's Eileen goo or the fun bros or Whoever it may be for your own reasons You should figure out a reason to support them. Yeah, I know that you know We're talking about hard power soft power geo politics versus cool power Those things are completely separate, you know, like for example, Andrew We had this Filipino friend and his grandfather's name was Chino But I remember he always tried to tell me that his Asiatic side was Japanese and I always went hey, bro Did you know that if you were part Japanese and that's why your eyes look like that? It probably came from something really horrible happening. Whereas if you're actually just part Chinese, it's just gonna come through a happy marriage But he was just so locked into what was cool I think later once he got older he kind of accepted it But like we said people care about this cool ranking right like because we're sort of saying even though You can look beyond like being an American satellite state or not at the end of the day if you're living in the US None of that stuff matters, right? Yeah, so anyway, somebody said for those hoping and wishing China gets buddy buddy with the US forget it It'll never happen. Yeah, I mean, I Don't know. I don't know. Yeah, probably not for another 20 30 years. It's good Who knows though in the 20 30 years China's gonna be under different leadership. America's gonna be under different leadership Hopefully it's more chill. I'm still optimistic about it But but cautiously optimistic somebody said So a Japanese-American has to hang their hat on anime game consoles and hello kitty Like what about all the ancient stuff is that stuff matter too? And then but I guess Japan Andrew they also got the samurai stuff too So they got they got the ancient stuff and the modern stuff. They just got a whole they just got an era from 1925 to like 1945 that's bad Somebody said as a Filipino I see the true game from a bird's eye and I applaud China basically for challenging the West That's good. That's good. No, that's good. That's showing I guess Yeah, I guess it's showing appreciation But we're living in the West so obviously it depends on like how much we're supposed to be bought into the Anglo sphere and Anglo Dominance or whatever our US dominance somebody says it has to do with the scalability of bad news China is the biggest country in the world China and India are the biggest countries in the world and they have a lot of good middle and horrible things happening So anytime the Western news wants to dip into the horrible news pool It is a gigantic pool of news. This I think is a very very true comment. They remember this comment All right, remember this comment. This is a very true pooling scalability These countries are anywhere from three to four times the size of America I always say if you times America by four You know how many people would die of drunk driving accidents drug overdoses Gun violence like literally shooting each other not cops shooting bad guys like literally people shooting the other people How many people would die of like Being obese like if those statistics times for think about it in America would be ridiculous numbers So every country has its bad or good But yes, it is true that if you want to find something bad about China, it's not hard to find it Right, it's not right just because it's so big right There's a lot of terrible stories coming out of India to Russia. What do I see on tiktok of like? What only guys want to raise bears or fight each other that's a large country's Brazil Mexico I mean, it's lots of terrible stuff going on endless Yeah, I do think in a weird way and this is like a whole another video in a weird way like the white people who are really into Geopolitics tend to be like upper-class. They're not gonna count a lot of the bad things in America because they're like Oh, that didn't happen amongst our tribe But that's a whole another issue Somebody said they actually did demonize Japan in the late 80s and early 90s too But everybody forgot because America created the Plaza Accords dropped the Japanese economy Japan was no longer competitive with the US But when it was getting close Andrew, there was a bunch of time magazine articles making Japan look bad, too Like there's an article from I believe what is this? 1987 how Japan picks America's brain Basically about how like they're stealing US technology and innovating. Yeah. Yeah, Japan used to take intellectual property. I'm sure everybody I think that I Think the main difference is that when you met Japanese Americans or Japanese people in the West You didn't get that feeling no, even if the Japanese government is responsible over, you know last century for some pretty terrible things When you met a Japanese person it almost made you feel like they didn't do anything Yeah, in fact, the only guy to ever be killed for quote-unquote being Chinese was a Chinese guy Vincent Chittin. Yeah, so I'm saying Every time you met a Japanese people at the Teriyaki shop at the Japanese market when you seen them When you just met the international school students when you obviously if you watch like, you know Hentai and all that stuff Like you know, yeah JV that it just it just warmed you up to it Right, right, right and that goes to our final point somebody said listen guys all aspects matter Even at the height of US Japan economic war in the early 1990s Half of America was still really pro-Japan because they were obsessed with Kurosawa movies Sony Walkman's Ninjas and Samurai's so this is where the soft power comes into play where it's like Even when there's an economic rival if there is some soft power culture that the other rival loves it can soften the hatred No, man. Jeff Japan was kind of like that toxic Cool boyfriend that US dated or ABG. Yeah, but then became better But then you forgot about their toxic past but because they're just so good to you now It's like a hot bipolar girl dude people love hot bipolar girls Even though generally it's cuz she loves you now because the girl loves you now So you're cool with it and you're willing to forego like not really think about her past But she did some crazy toxic stuff. Well, she's gonna turn and if it ever goes down side She's gonna turn your life upside down. Anyway guys, let's just get into the takeaways. Like I said, these are a lot of comments They're not necessarily my thoughts. We're just responding to them I'll say this for the effective lifetime of the person asking the question Andrew I'm assuming it's a Chinese guy who is looking to date Eastern European women like like all the Korean guys are doing right now Sure, sure, probably not for another 20 30 years So it doesn't so it will happen, but not for their effective to see the narrative change. I Think it's gonna be tough. You know, I think that I'll say this. I think the people who can make Chinese culture seem cool and seem palpable are gonna be rewarded You know people who can come up with the products that people who can explain the culture the people who take after Bruce Lee and in being Philosophical in a Chinese way, but being able to deliver it in a Western way. I think those are really important roles But I think you just got focus on yourself and make, you know It's gonna be after interaction over interaction if everybody that was Chinese that everybody met was sweet and warm and nice Not I'm not saying you have to be that I'm just saying if that was that if everybody got a pleasant interaction Or a cool interaction with a Chinese person. It would change their perception But because that's not how we're necessarily raised. So yeah, no, I think that there's twofold Listen, there's a lot of factors that the teenage cool side and or that's obsessed with soft power They will never understand and the super geopolitical side That's basically saying it because China is challenging Anglo-Saxon hegemony over the past four hundred five hundred years Ray Dalio, etc Etc. They're changing in nations They're they're both sides are missing up an aspect Both sides are looking at it in a lopsided sense because I do think that the the oxytocin piping is probably like an issue That you know, Chinese need to take a look at I do think TCM is outdated great at one point for preventative medicine I do think it's outdated now. So I'm gonna end with this last comment. I read this somebody said this from a Chinese person By the way, he said people can start making a new Chinese identity instead of clinging on to the old ones And he was talking about how like yeah, like maybe we do need to look at TCM companies and be like They're not putting enough in the R&D clearly showing that it's not really Wing Chun masters that are making a bunch of I'm not just singlin Wing Chun, but I'm just saying Shaolin masters that are making exit X amount of money teaching people things But then when they get into combat, they're losing to Muay Thai fighters or Sancho or Sanda fighters I do think that there needs to be a little bit more accountability Yes, because just because you created a full-fledged culture that was completely outside of the Western world Thousands of years ago. It doesn't mean that you got to hold on to it forever, right? You know the West Andrew they mix and match a lot of stuff from the East to especially when it comes to MMA Why can't the East just mix and match back to the West? Anyway guys, let us know what you think in the comment section below very deep questions Like I said some of this stuff belongs in a book and perhaps I might be working on one Let us know what you think in the comment section below. We encourage the debate keep it civil until next time We'll hop on boys. We out. Peace