Being American, you’re taught most of your life that China and Russia are dictatorships where the people could never hope to live the life the average person in the US lives.
Now, watching the US devolve into an autocracy while my day to day life really doesn’t change it all, it’s made me wonder if the average random person in these countries is living the same relatively comfortable, happy life I am.
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idk about russia, but yeah chinese people are living pretty normal lives. Its definility different than the US, but its probably more normal than you expect.
Yes. Mostly everyone is just trying to live their lives. With the war, the poor are hit harder than usual in Russia right now, but in general it’s regular ‘life as usual’
I have a Chinese friend and what he tells me is that people in China is totally aware they are in a dictatorship, is just that they don’t care, and even are in favor of it.
They know completely they don’t have several freedoms we (in like Europe and the Americas) have, like free press, free speech or free association but don’t really care. And what’s is interesting is that they really see that as the correct way. As they see our societies as the ones with problems having violent protests, riots, crimes, high murder rates, ethnic tensions and conflicts, etc. Things they see as a by-product of a “free” society. Dictatorships bring -to their minds- law and order, and the price to pay is that. They don’t see why is “good” to be able to criticize the government and in exchange you get a day you have rioters vandalizing and looting your property.
(Notice that Chinese culture also bases itself a lot on Confucianism that promotes loyalty to the state and “right” order”).
In the case of Russia I think the dictatorship is more new and they also have a more Western culture, I heard many Russians who are worry and discontent with Putin and its authoritarian twist, but others do are happy. What a Russian told me is that indeed for supporters of Putin there are two main aproaches: one is that the West is a decadent liberal atheist society that is againts family values, God and other conservative ideals and as Russia is the main “valuart” of it they obviously want to see Russia destroyed, and the other is the opposite, that the West is ruled by literal neo-Nazis that hate Russia for its role in WW2.
> if the average random person in these countries is living the same relatively comfortable, happy life I am
Believe it or not, most people live their normal lives.
Most people are living regular lives, everywhere, throughout all of history. Though the definition of “regular” has changed. Before the Industrial Revolution, you could pick a random person anywhere on the planet and they’d probably be a farmer.
I lived in China for almost 20 years and lots of my friends still live there, I’ll say it’s pretty normal. I didn’t go into some kind of existential shock when I went to western countries, it’s just pretty similar
My grandma grew up in the USSR and…. for the most part, yeah. While there’s a lot of restrictions that affect daily life, esp for people targeted by the regime, most people still get up every morning, get dressed, go to school/work, have friends, etc. just like everyone else. It’s not an easy or even comfortable life, but most people are just regular ass people.
My grandma is Jewish, and the USSR was not kind to Jews back then but even if some aspects of life weren’t normal, you would be surprised at how normal life could be at times. Her father was wrongly arrested for an assassination plot that didnt exist, almost executed, a lot of my family history makes it clear that this was not a good place to live. But my grandma would show me pictures of her travels to her old home in Lithuania with a smile and talk about her memories of her old school building that was still there, where her old house was, her friends…life is complicated.
I also had friends who came here from china for school and while i heard from some that they really wanted to stay here as a way out of China (esp LGBTQ kids), a lot of how they described life there was pretty average aside from cultural differences that don’t have as much to do with the politics.
I, as a Chinese, am currently lying in bed, covered with a quilt, with the air conditioner on, drinking milk tea, and replying to this post. Yes, my life is normal and happy. No matter which country we come from, we are all normal people, and politics only plays a small part in our lives. Compared with issues such as dictatorship or freedom of speech, I care more about where to eat and what movie to watch on Saturday.
“Regular” as in going to work and home and consuming things, but they’re certainly not endlessly yelling about government and politics like Americans do. That would be a no-no.
Do you think they are being chained up in cages?
An ancient Chinese proverb says, “Heaven is high, and the emperor is far away.” Most people try to as normal a life as they can, although their government may intrude on it every now and then.
Well, congratulations on realizing propaganda can work both ways, I guess.
Yes, most people just live their lives, like whatever.
There are some quirks like you learn pretty fast not to talk against the establishment and just accept that they will do whatever they will do, but like you said, that part is not really different in US or anywhere else. Even in France people will protest and set cars on fire, but fuck all changes.
it’s probably similar to how some people think americans deal with school shootings and police brutality on a daily basis
politics and government don’t really affect my day to day life and it’s similar for the vast majority of people
Western media primarily focuses on geopolitical tensions in its coverage with China and Russia, which primarily include foreign policy and ideological disagreements. Daily life is not covered and is not that bad (e.g. look at the Human Development Index, or YouTube videos of tourists in both countries).
Yes? I know this is NoStupidQuestions but ISTG some people act like citizens from other countries are NPCs
the US is going through a shit show of all kind of sorts, and still think Russia and China are bad.
The average person, lives an average life in these countries. They go to work, socialise with friends, go out, meet family and live just like you or I. The people I’ve met from these countries have, with the very odd exception, been lovely.
Americans discovering the propaganda they were fed for decades is hilarious
Of course. My best friend is a gay man from St Petersburg
He’s here in the US now but when he in Russia he listened to Beyoncé and did all the same things normal 18-20 year olds do
I have a client in China who’s an influencer
Same deal. She listens to rap, choreographs hip hop dances and posts her shit on TikTok like every other American paid influencer.
What makes a big diffrence in lives of ordinary people is that level of corruption is much higher in dictatorship, if you get in conflict with someone well connected they can do whatever they want with you, even kill you in extreme cases, without consequences or police or other offical persons might extort you for money and you have no mechanism to defend or protect yourself. This things are much harder in western systems. If you dont get in trouble yea life is not that diffent, but when you do get in trouble its a huge diffrence.
I can’t speak for Russia because I have never been there, but I recommend people, especially Americans, to actually visit China and see things for yourself with your own eyes. China is truly living in the future, and the quality of life for the average citizen is great compared to the U.S.
My parents have worked and paid taxes in the U.S. for over 20 years, and they are retiring soon. Social Security only gives them around 900 to 1000 USD per month. The rent alone costs more than that on average. But if they go back to China, since they worked there for another 30 years before coming to the U.S., their retirement income is about 5000 RMB per month.
I am not talking about converting U.S. dollars to RMB, because people in China do not live based on currency exchange rates. The cost of living, especially for food and rent, is about the same and often cheaper. So if you compare 5000 to 1000 per month, it is clearly much more sustainable.
Everything is just so convenient. You do not live in a tipping system where many places automatically add 20 percent to your bill and leave you confused or annoyed. Instead, you simply pay the cost of your meal, like 10 dollars for a bowl of beef noodles, and that is it. People rarely use cash anymore. Everything is digitized and paid with a phone scan. Some places they just scan your hand and you’re good to go too.
You do not have to deal with gun violence every other day or feel unsafe walking alone at night as a woman. You are not constantly being catcalled or harassed, if ever at all. If your child is out late playing, you do not need to worry the same way either.
I literally saw a grandma in a rural area boiling water using solar power. There was no electricity or fire. She was using a big solar concave panel with a metal rod in the center. It looked like a regular wok size, and the kettle was placed right on top, boiling water with a metal rod. It was efficient, environmentally friendly, and it really worked.
People are very friendly, even if you do not speak the same language. They’ll invite you to their home and show you hospitality and make food for you. They use AI translation apps and hand gestures to help you and answer your questions. There was a tourist woman that lost her ring at the beach, and a lot of people came and helped her find her ring because she was crying.
The food is cheap and fresh, unlike the processed food you often find in America. I spend 20 dollars at a fast food place in America, and the portions are way smaller than they used to be. You’re basically paying twice as much for half the amount of what it used to be. Fast food used to be affordable with decent portions, but that’s no longer the case. The greed from corporations just keeps getting worse, as upper management purposely tells employees to give less food to customers.
You really have to travel and see it for yourself with your own eyes. Then you can make your own judgment and decide whether what the media is portraying is correct or not.
It really depends on the person. Remember those viral videos a few years back of Chinese people crossing through an open gap in the border fence in Mexico? They weren’t in the clip, but some of my aunts and uncles came through that same gap around the same time. They grew up in rural farming villages in China, part of ethnic minority groups, and there was no real chance to move up if they stayed.
When they got here, the only work they could find was massage parlors (NOT the happy ending kind). It’s hard work but it pays decent cash, and a lot of those places are mostly staffed by undocumented Chinese workers. Over the past few years many of them married US citizens, got green cards, and built more stable lives.
So for them, a normal life in China wasn’t really an option. In the US the beginning was rough, but they eventually found something better. And just like in the US, most people in China go about their daily lives without being too affected by politics. It’s usually the people on the margins who feel the hardest impact. The real hardships people face in China are not so different from those in the US, just experienced in different ways. In the end what counts as a normal life really depends on how you define it, whether that’s opportunity, stability, or just making ends meet.
Yes. This is true of most places. People went to work and did normal stuff in Nazi Germany (it was probably less normal when bombs started dropping, but until then). The extent to which you live a normal life or experience something awful in these regimes depends an awful lot on where you’re at in the social structures. You can think about it in terms of the present descent into something like autocracy in the US. Are you someone who has to worry about ICE showing up and disappearing you to a concentration camp or a torture factory in El Salvador? Are you someone who might be targetted for being queer or trans? Or are you someone who can just go to work and pay your bills without worrying too much?
Is this satire?
I can’t speak to Russia, but from what I know about China (it’s a LARGE country and it’s complicated I get that) including from Western people I know who live there – basically people don’t care about government overreach if they feel that their standards of living are improving, and their country is globally important. This is the case for now in China. Xi Jinping has become more authoritarian and the economy isn’t doing as well, so maybe things will change. But for the most part, many (not all, but this is the case for Western countries also!) Chinese people have a better standard of living than their parents and esp grandparents did, and that is huge. Most people aren’t waiting in breadlines or starving. That’s good enough. Also, there is a level of local democracy in China that exists, so people there still feel somewhat in control of their day-to-day lives.
Worth keeping in mind though that even in places that are war-torn and horrible (places like Gaza and Syria excepted), people have to keep living their regular lives and regular lives go on. People work, shop, date fall in live get married, etc.
Also, I have to say, a LOT of Americans assume that NO other country is as great as theirs, and they include other Western democracies with very strong economies and FAR better QoL outcomes than theirs in that equation, so yeah. Americans are extremely propagandized about how much better their lives are than other countries’.
If there are two things as of today you can not and should not trust then its the mass media and public education of politics.
90% of media is privatly owned and always conflicted with different agendas (good example would be the pedo Tom Artiom Alexandrovich which got next to no coverage even tho its recent and local)
Alot of things you learn in those is propaganda tailored to creating an specific image. For the US that still would be the demonisation of communism, labeling alot of people terrorists even tho they were allies of the US and then some of the parts the gov and their lobbies want included.
So absolutly people around the world live their best lives and many stigmas are either fabricated or omited. The only choise you have is to travel yourself. Btw: Iran and Russia are not that bad to travel to. The danger there are really attacks from foreign nations.
Sure you have a more limited participation in politics in China, but focus on the things you CAN do:
– Go dinner with friends;
– Go to cinema;
– Go to events;
– Go shopping;
– Go to music festivals.
Honestly, the list is endless, but you have the idea what I mean. People in America are told what we CAN’T do in China that you forget that there are many things we CAN do in China, Russia, America and anywhere else in the world.
“Never hope to live the life of the average US person”, very very true. Won’t last a day in Suburb hell without public transport and high speed rail.
I need my wonton noodles within 5 mins walking distance
As a Westerner who spent 11 years in China, the answer is, of course.
I guess you’re thinking like they have to attend mandatory brainwashing sessions daily, live in terror that they didn’t polish their portrait of the great leader well enough, or their ration of cornmeal will be cut because they stopped clapping for the party too early.
Well, it doesn’t work like that. The propaganda is very subtle and unless you’re a radical against the national government’s interests and a lot of people are agreeing with you over said government, your life is like every other person’s in the world. You get up every day, go to work, plan your vacation, etc.,. Culture is different, so you have to consider that but otherwise, they’re basically the same.
I was talking to a supplier on Alibaba the other day and he was asking about life in Australia. I mentioned about having to work 6 days a week and the percentage of my wage that went to food and rent, and he felt bad for my lifestyle.
You can just visit to see for yourself. Can’t say much about Russia but China is a big tourism hotspot.
I’m in Russia and just live my ordinary life, sometimes from paycheck to paycheck (but tbh I buy a lot more fancy food than needed), my household is two adults and a few pets. We are just trying our best, go to work, go to the cinema as entertainment, on weekends build our countryhouse by our own hands, planning to buy a little bigger apartment and a better car in the near future, planning what we will do in our retirement years.
What part of america did you grow up in?
Living in Russia. My life is normal by my definition of normal. Maybe poorer than the average American’s. I bought my house via mortgage. I have an abundance of choices for what to eat and what to do for my entertainment. I wake up, I work, I walk my dog, I feed my pets, I go to sleep. The only noticeable difference is that you guys had known more presidents than me – I feel like I’ve known Putin for ages. When I was a kid I thought his pictures were actually my uncle’s because they both were balding. Also I don’t get excited about elections, I guess
Yes. In Russia, unless you’re LGBT or openly political (on the wrong side of politics), you’re living a normal life. Only the Internet gets screwed up more and more China-style. But VPN works for now.
Generally the unspoken social contract in places like Russia and China is: if you don’t make any trouble (and don’t happen to be a member of some group the government hates or fears) then you’ll be left more or less alone. Speak up about something though, and things might get very unpleasant for you very quickly.
Honestly at the rate the US is headed it would not surprise me if China actually has better quality of life on average than the average US citizen.
I have family in china and yes, they have pretty regular lives. Given they live in a rather rural town and choose to farm. All the times I visited, nothing really seemed all that different generally, from the us. Dont let western media fool you into thinking it’s some dystopian, iron fisted rule. Of course the us wants their biggest competitions to look as bad as possible. Even if it doesn’t make sense.
Yeah why you think people in America aren’t? Depending on who you ask on reddit we are living under fascist rule? Why would it be any different else where
I just spend 6 months traveling in China and life seems pretty simar to that I Europe/US in terms of daily life. China makes much better use of technology and has better public transport but is also more polluted.
I moved from Russia to the Netherlands and was a little bit disappointed to learn that humans are humans everywhere. For better or worse. People just want to live their lives, its all the same.
Yep, most people living under authoritarian regimes are living normal lives. You are living a normal life, are you not?
I’m ethnically Chinese who was born in Asia and have been living in the US for the past 8 years, and have been to China. I admit there are some government policies I do not agree with from China, and how their govt handle certain issues.
But many people in China (can’t say bout Russia since I’ve never been there) are… pretty normal. It’s called propaganda. I’m sure it exists in China and Russia too. Just hang out with different kinds of people. Different culture, watch entertainment besides Hollywood stuff. Learn other languages.
US has one thing going for them. It’s that they won the war, and leveraged that to become the global superpower. That in turn attracted many talents or normal people (like me) to want to live there and make a living especially with the higher living standard and good salary (the strong currency of the US also helps). I also prefer the more liberal lifestyle in US (there are a lot of traditions in Asia, some are fine but some are outdated imo).
Just me though. I’m sure other people have other reasons.
yeah, kinda? right now I’m just doomscrolling on company time
there’s probably more russian people on reddit than you expect
I’ll never experience that white picket fence middle-class life, but I don’t know if it can now be called “average” for americans either
Can speak for a Russian from a big city – as long as you aren’t lgbtq+ or involved in politics, your life is not worse than in US, in some ways can technically be better – long maternity leaves, access to free health care, kindergartens and extracurriculars for children, relatively cheap medicine and therapies in private clinics. You want an ultrasound or an mri – you’ll have it today or tomorrow. Lots of emigrants visit when they need dental work or basic checkups because, per them, the price and quality of those in Moscow/Saint Petersburg/Kazan etc is better than in their new location. Cheap beauty services, deliveries within 30 minutes, ok-ish public transport, 4 weeks of pto a year plus big New Year holidays that many people use for having a second vacation. The vast majority of people over 35 own at least a part of an apartment, homeless people became extremely rare in the last decade in my city. Of course things aren’t great right now, politics aside, economy sucks a lot (though it seems to do it in quite a few other huge countries too), the laws get stricter all the time, traveling via planes got more complicated, though still widely used, and I’m sure the quality of medical treatment for serious conditions is much, much better in US. But if you are a healthy working person who doesn’t feel strongly about politics, you can live a comfortable life.
If you would like an interesting point of view in China or other countries, check out Mike Okay. He does a lot of hitch hiking throughout China, Pakistan, india, hell he even got to go into North Korea earlier this year.
There’s a great tweet about Americans being the most propagandized people on earth, and the fact most people think that suggestion is ridiculous is proof it works. This post reminds me of that.
TDLR: American realizes normal people live in countries outside of America
If you have money and live centrally you’ll be relatively comfortable and insulated from the worst parts, yes. And if you’re poor, does it matter if it’s the state or the market that limits your freedom or results in your suffering? Not really. The average russian has more affordable access to healthcare, free education (first uni degree is free), holiday and maternity leave (guaranteed and on par with European counterparts) compared to the average american. A lot of americans would gladly give up their free speech, free elections, and the ability of their fellow countrymen to be openly LBTQ for those economic benefits (it’s already happening but they won’t get those benefits).
I have some Chinese people including my last flatmate and they all go to China to visit their family every now and then, come back and nothing ever happens. Most of them have told me they’re trying to stay here because Spain feels good but ultimately wouldn’t mind going back to China and life there is easier for them (family support, friends…).
It’s honestly hilarious watching americans and older people in my country acting like china is some kind of huge rice field with people getting whip lashes and government terrorizing everybody. Then again my mom assumes every person with remotely any asian factions is chinese so what can I expect.
Yes.
For most people, life goes on as usual. Its the targets of the state that suffer most.
My family is from China, and my relatives in China are all just living their regular lives, going to work or university everyday, enjoying their time off, etc. Currently there is a growing frustration for the younger generation because finding work is difficult and a lot of stuff is getting more expensive, but that’s like everywhere on the world. Also what’s regular is just kinda a random classification, you have to consider that China has a bigger population than the whole Western world combined, so if anything the live in China would be the regular one and the one we live would be the deviation, lol
A Russian here. I guess, it depends on what exactly do you mean by “normal”.
If you mean “no extremes” then no, average Russians don’t live in shacks without toilets and don’t fight over bread while waiting for agents to send them to Gulag over anything other than praise for the Glorious Leader.
If you mean the standards of living, I haven’t noticed drastic differences with other countries I’ve been to, at least in the cities. Some things are better/easier/more affordable here, some are worse. On average, setting cultural specifics aside, everyday lives are more or less comparable. Moscow even surpasses most European and American cities in some aspects.
Rural areas are a different (sadder) story, but, on the other hand, 76% of population live in urban areas. And I guess some, let’s say, Appalachian shitholes aren’t exactly the paradise on earth either.
Not that the adverse effects of authoritarian government (especially during wartime) are non-existent. Heavy use of VPNs for circumventing the restrictions, watching your language in online spaces is also a thing, propaganda is annoying, etc. The absense of such things is the luxury the West still can afford. However, with legislation like the recent UK act, you’re set to outdo us in that regard.
Speaking about wartime situation specifically, a huge factor of the stability of Putin’s regime is that it managed to ensure that everyday lives of the majority aren’t directly affected by the war. If you don’t count inflation, of course.
Another thing to understand is that enough people not only perceive authoritarian regime as normalized, but as something arguably better than “democracy” as they know it in practice. Late 80’s and 90’s were a very, very dark harsh time for most people. I was a child back then, but even I remember that it was, in many respects, living in the survival mode.
Soviet Union had many flaws, and Putin’s Russia has even more, but at least an average Ivan didn’t and doesn’t need to worry about basic safety and basic needs.
I was quite active in grassroots politics when I was younger, so I am no Putin sympathizer, and even I can’t deny the obvious: life now is infinitely better than 25 years ago.
For many that’s enough to strongly disassociate “democracy” with anything good. Considerably less so for younger folks, of course, but still.
So yes, most of us live a relatively normal lives by most definitions of “normal”, I guess.
Holy propaganda. Yes, we live normal lives, just like you.
I’m from the Philippines; we had a dictator in Ferdinand Marcos and another one in Duterte. Yes, the shit that you are told about what happened under them is very very real but for a good deal of the population, they tend not to feel much of the impact because they lived more or less normal lives. That’s why it took a movement big enough to unseat Marcos so long to take shape because life went on as usual for most of the population. They thought there was no value add for them to resist as they were doing fine. Sure you had the cult of personality of the guy all around you but not everyone was being hauled off and disappeared in the dead of night. Life was good for them at surface level until the dictatorship threw their weight around and then it wasn’t.
I’m assuming you’re from America OP; you see this firsthand too right? You’re in the first year of the most authoritarian presidency your country has ever seen but it’s not like everyone’s being hauled off to concentration camps or being sent to Nicaragua right? Probably just for you all you can see is the price of eggs going up and your next door neighbor complaining about wokes and pronouns more than usual.
Dictators are evil but on the whole they’re not stupid. They are smart enough to understand that if you piss off too much of the population it will blow up in their faces. That’s why maintaining a false sense of security among the people is a big part of their playbook so that you have enough people on their side or neutral enough to not push back.
So I was living in China between 2011 and 2024, in Shanghai then Hangzhou, it was awesome, like living in New York manhattan island on teachers wages basically, at one point I was renting an apartment on top of a mall, in the city center overlooking a park, floor to ceiling windows, 16th floor, for like 900USD, sold 3 businesses while I was there, it was good times. Covid was rough with the lockdowns but in the middle of covid when every where else was locked down we were partying. It got a bit tougher in 2023/24 from a business and opportunities perspective, but yeah it was awesome living there; I didn’t even need a wallet when i went out just a phone and everything could be done my phone, now, I’m in south east Asia I feel like I stepped back in time… what is this paper money thing you refer to?
You’ve been brainwashed in the states. It’s better to live in any of the other industrialized countries. It’s actually crazy to talk to Americans on holidays and see their surprise when learning more. Especially when it’s their first time. Youre like babies going outside for the first time and realizing all the monsters your parents told you about aren’t real.
Russian here. Yes, most people here live normal lives, except those in regions directly affected by the war. Random people are not getting dragged into KGB dungeons in broad daylight. People who try to stand out (celebrities, activists) or try poke the system’s rotting belly sometimes recieve exemplary punishment. But those cases are rare. People who look like nice targets (big business owners, middle-high rank politicians) also do, but those people usually do enough in their career to deserve a sentence, so no sympathy here.
The hammer does not come crushing down to make life unbearable in an instant. It’s small things being stripped away one at a time. People who care have time to adapt. People who don’t have time to adjust. And life goes on still looking normal.
No. Most people in China are imprisoned in CCP harvesting camps where they are forced to spread CCP propaganda on reddit.
Seriously how insanely propagandised must one be to think people in two of the three most powerful countries on the planet aren’t even living normal lives?
I follow news from the US as I have family there, and it looks like an average American is quickly approaching how an average Russian lives. Prices go up. Healthcare is a problem. Housing is a problem. Jobs are scarce. The older generation supports the worst politicians and blames young people for everything. The government wants to make decisions for you, know everything you’re doing and impose an ideology on you.
People do live regular lives, but it’s a sad state of the world that all of this is the norm.
P.S. But in the 90s your assimption was true: Russians dreamed of having a life like an average American. Even those who knew exactly how Americans lived at the time (like my family did) dreamed of it. Here, there were poverty, crime, corruption, scams and backwards technology. There, you could have a modern life, safety and reward for your hard work. But it’s all becoming a homogenous authoritarian soup today in the world globally.
I’ve been to Russia and China and politics plays about as much of a role in day to day lives as it does in yours. Media and some other stuff is more restricted but ordinary people aren’t been thrown in prison for making a passing comment on public for criticising the government. People live quite ordinary lives and enjoy themselves like anywhere else.
I can’t remember where I read it, but some non-Chinese organisation did an experiment on what you can get away with saying online. It turned out that an individual criticising the government was just prevented from being connected to other people with similar views online. They care far more about large groups getting together to protest the government than a random person saying the president is doing a bad job.
Economically it varies a lot by region how well off people are, but at least in China everywhere is improving. Places that were extremely poor and underdeveloped not too long ago are doing ok now and major cities have a very high quality of life.
I’ve been to the US and it isn’t like how I see it online. If I based my perspective of how Americans live off the media I see I’d expect constant riots and police killings everywhere I look, but shocker it’s not like that.
Travel is the best way to get a realistic view of how people actually live. No news network anywhere in the world reports how a random person went about their day in another country.
As an American, we are definitely not taught this. OP thinks they grew out of stereotyping just to turn around and stereotype all of America. The only people not living regular lives and completely out of touch with reality are Redditors. Not Chinese, Russian, or American.. but Redditors.
My impression from meeting Chinese international students is the average middle to upper class Chinese person (hence can afford to travel abroad), lives a better life than their equivalent in the US Their infrastructure is newer, including extensive high speed rail. Its a pretty low bar to have better healthcare than the US. Food is cheap. Housing is cheaper (though technically no one owns land in China, they only lease it from the government). Violent crime and pickpocketing in east asia is basically non-existent compared to the west due some combination of culture, heavy surveillance, and heavy policing.
On the flip side, China (and most east-asian countries), suffers from extreme academic competitiveness (you need to be in the 0.01% of millions of students to get a shot at a top-tier chinese uni), degree inflation, not enough high-skilled jobs for the average level of education. Obviously political engagement is not very big there and will continue not to be unless the government screws up badly. Freedom of speech is limited more. Social pressures are much higher as well.
A lot of this is also built on a extremely cheap labor costs that will probably not be sustainable. For example, it is common for Chinese university students to have dinners where they spend all night ordering food delivery as they feel like it, which is unsustainable if the delivery people are not being paid very little. Heck, sometimes people in China order food delivery to get food while sitting in a different restaurant lol (usually to get drinks or something).
Whether you see this as a good or bad thing, being too rich or too influential in China will also probably put a political target on your back (see jack ma). While this definitely political repression, I think Americans will agree that perhaps billionaires have too much influence over our politics these days.
“Regular lives”
Their lives are regular for them.
Just as you as an American will have to get used to your racist police state as it develops, people in other countries also learn to live around their circumstances. I was born in a very violent country, and even if we had to constantly keep in touch with everyone so they knew we were safe, we still went out and partied, still got up early to go to work, still went to the beach, ate out when we could afford it, went to the movies, etc.
Sure, we had to make sure not to be out and about after 8pm without an exit strategy. Sure, all of us got robbed at gunpoint at least once, or had a friend that got shot. That was just life.
Now I live in a more stable country in Europe and I could ask the same about Americans. The idea of living in a place in which any of the many many weirdos around me can be carrying a gun is alien to my current way of life. Being scared about a random medical procedure costing me half my savings is alien to my current way of life. Working 50h a week and having to go without pay if I want vacations or need to visit the doctor is alien to my current way of life. How are Americans living regular lives?
Yes. People live normal lives, work, make families, have kids, go to school etc. I grew up in part USSR and then Russia. Times were hard when the USSR fell apart, but then got better. My family still live in Russia and are also living normal human lives.
Depends on the wealth of the individuals and location. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Hong Kong are very different.
Pretty much every person on this earth is just trying to live their lives. turns out we all need and want pretty much the same things.
I have the same question for Americans (from the US).
I’m in China right now… in a small city. Yes. It does seem people here are living normal lives like they would anywhere else. The big glaring difference is that people aren’t divided politically like they are in the US.
One of my close friends is Russian and he just got back.
He said he partied hard in Moscow, went skiing, went to many restaurants. Did a road trip to the south. Spent a night a nice lakehouse with friends, partied hard there.
He showed me several pics, looks like a proper ultra modern city, there are TONNES of sky. scrapers being built.
He said there’s almost zero indication that a war is going on in Moscow, however, if you drove closer to the border, he said you start seeing a lot more miltiary presence.
His friends and cousins there say the economy is booming, jobs are easy to find and pay well. HOWEVER, the consequence of sanctions are definitely felt.
All US internet services are banned, including YouTube, Gmail, etc. But VPNs work, and Russia has tonnes of replacement services.
Imported goods are crazy expensive and mortgage rates are astronomical. Basically only cash buyers can buy and everyone else is saving to buy.
Yes. We’re told that places like that are horrible dystopian hellscapes and everyone there is miserable and sad, but that’s not true. There are good and bad things about every place.
Id recommend Downloading rednote and seeing life in China for yourself
i want to go on holiday back to china. its awesome
Most people in every country everywhere just live normal lives.
Questions like this are why it’s so important to travel at some point in your life. Get out of your own bubble.
Western propaganda is as strong as that from dictatorships. Even more so, because you grow up thinking we have free press, which obviously is a lie, because all relevant media are controled by large corporations.
“normal” is a very subjective term. The problem you’re going to face is that the people you really want to hear from are not going to have Internet and, if they do, this post will likely not be accessible. So, draw your conclusions from that
What are most Americans doing as their democracy gets weaker and weaker each day?
I went to China recently, and brother they got Cheesecake Factory there
I’m an American that visited China and things seemed different but normal. They definitely have better food than us though for for cheaper, it was the only time in my life I haven’t felt constantly sick 😭 (I may have ibs though investigating currently)
People live normal life with one exception- if you say something bad about government or beloved leader, you go to jail.
Something that will never happen in the US(sarcasm)