Kind of an interesting (somewhat) Rockets/Yao Ming-related picture

That's an interesting take. An entire culture shift not because of Yao Ming the person, but because of the connection he facilitated. We have to wait for the rest of these kids to finish school to see what they can do. Stay tuned.

 

Chinese government has problem with the balance with the rapid economic development and cost of our earth (including our lives, environment, etc)

2012 is coming to all of us

 

kind of like how David Hasslehoff brought down the Berlin Wall with the awesome power of his electric FOnzi jacket?

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you're reading too much into things. that dude might have had nothing else clean to wear that day. there are pictures of guys in Adidas gear rioting in Egypt OMG FACEBOOK AND ADIDAS: disseminators of democracy!

the liberalizations of Yao's generation, like all of China reflect the accelerations of reforms and the unspoken social contract after Tiananmen. the government crushed the protests and tacitly promised greater prosperity in return for stability. the people went along expecting things to get better. this is especially true of hardliners like Li Peng who desperately tried to burnish his legacy through economic reform so as to not be a complete villain in future Chinese history

The typical MSNBC/Comedy Central viewing American sees Tiananmen as the end of freedom in China while to Chinese it's the beginning. as most things it depends on perspective whose vision is correct. today day to day life in China is as open as in the US, except maybe with fewer PC taboos and moralizing than you get here. as long as you dont directly challenge the legitimacy of the government you can do whatever you like. but it's not like you can go around advocating succession in California or diverge from historical convention concerning Nazis in Germany either. every country has those limits, specifically in china in regards to the government it's tighter than in the West.

pretty basic stuff, which is the conventional academic interpretation of the past 2 decades among American China wonks. Pick up a book. Profit.

 

this is definitely true.

unfortunately they still pollute less and consume fewer "cost of of our earth (including our lives, environment, etc) per capita than the US

I'll be glad when Nigeria and India pass the US and China in population. Coz I'm sure they'll do a better job. get a nice Obama shade fella in charge over there and they'll take care of business.

 

D&D, here we come.

 

+1

Well put.