[dragonmum]

As someone who has actually lived and worked in Shenzhen and Beijing, I'm surprised by this article. It doesn't reflect the reality I experienced.

"Beijing might be of historical importance for the creative forces often associated with Silicon Valley"

I note he never explained that sentence. No data was given to further that statement. Instead he makes points about cheaper engineers and cheap housing and food.

" it offered us cheap housing and food, a network of experienced mentors that were happy to take the time to help, steady access to some of the world's greatest engineering talent at a sixth of the cost of a junior engineer in Silicon Valley "

He also says: "Beijing seems to attract large numbers of truly driven, creative and interesting people". Yes, people here are truly driven. But creative? Nope, I didn't experience that. I won't mention how the drive people exhibit here is typically negative. In the US, negotiations are rarely zero-sum, in BJ/SZ it was always Walmart style: are we screwing the partner/customer/supplier to the max.

"Beijing is a city with its eye on the future and a place that you can help shape."

The whole of China is controlled by a small (percentage wise) elite. They and they alone decide the whole future. If you're not part of the future they determine would benefit "their" China then you're out. If they decide suddenly that whatever you've built is something they want, and they can get away with it, they'll take it. Creative people don't thrive here. Ask 100 creative people in China if they'd like to move to Silicon Valley, and you'll likely get an 75% migration rate. That's even higher than the percentage of rich Chinese who want to leave. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/09/15/almost-half-of...

[alexssung]

Agreed.

I grew up in China for ~5 years and I felt that the cultural mindset in China does not breed creativity nor greatness. The social culture there conditions people to be conformist and one-dimensional. The censorship is absurd. People there generally lack a higher overall perspective. Everyone tries to screw each other over for a dollar, not understanding the concept of the Prisoner's Dilemma and how it affects society as a whole.

There's a lot more to it, but basically in my opinion China is still far behind America and will not catch up any time soon. China needs some sort of cultural revolution before that happens.

This is all coming from a Chinese-American who wants to see China succeed. But reality is reality.

[drzaiusapelord]

>I'm surprised by this article.

I really think he's the kind of guy who fetishizes the exotic. Old school geeks did this with Japanese culture, Japanese media, Japanese women, etc for decades and it was more than a little embarrassing. Its all vaguely racist or at least insensitive and has a "grass is greener" feel to it. China, and to a lesser extent, Korea, are the new Japan for geeky males.

China has a great deal of social problems (many of which are long solved in the West), but I imagine someone with a pocket full of USD, which go very far in China, a white face, and an EU password is immune to it all. The suffering and human rights issues of the locals is just an abstract given to him. Yet somehow the homeless issue in SF is very concrete to him.

I really think this article shows off a questionable brand of millennial economic tourism and is more interesting from that perspective.

[nilspihl]

Haha yeah we get a lot of those here, but less so than places like Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong. I plead not guilty, for what it is worth, but I understand if you find that unconvincing. Perhaps I do have some rose-tinted glasses that make me partial to places that feel like frontiers, but being excited about the unknown and the future is not the same as being excited about ninjas and tentacle porn.

[salmon30salmon]

The problem is, you are ignoring the very real social and political problems in China, either because they are hidden from your view or they do not impact people like you. San Francisco has social problems, but they let their social problems live on the street, as opposed to jailing them and beating them.

It seems that you prefer a world where social problems, mental illness and poverty are hidden from your view by an ethereal force. That is fine, you can live in that pleasant fiction, but don't for a single minute pretend that beating and jailing the homeless is utopia, or that Beijing is anything other than that.

[ersii]

> a world where social problems, mental illness and poverty are hidden from your view by an ethereal force.

To be fair, he did disclaim at the top of the article by mentioning that he's from Sweden.

It is not like Sweden has solved any of these problems either, it's just quite well hidden from plain sight - as you mentioned in a more eloquent way.

[stevenwiles]

> Perhaps I do have some rose-tinted glasses

Yes, that would be your enormous wealth that is tinting your view. If you weren't rich, I guarantee your experience would be different.

[magic_beans]

Could not agree more.

[LiweiZ]

Wow, not sure why you are downvoted by telling some truth here. Upvoted.

[paradite]

> Creative people don't thrive here. Ask 100 creative people in China if they'd like to move to Silicon Valley, and you'll likely get an 75% migration rate. That's even higher than the percentage of rich Chinese who want to leave.

Use assertion as some statistics and compare it with another statistics? That is not how to prove a case.

[elbear]

I'm always baffled when people are downvoted for asking for more than anecdotal evidence.

[specialist]

I'm always baffled when the commentariat is expected to provide rigorous reproducible double-blinded academic, multiply sourced, incontrovertible hard evidence for their opinions.

This is a comment board, not a pendant's paradise.

[bogomipz]

Agreed. I'm also baffled that when people are downvoted for meaningfully trying to take part in a discussion.

[stevenwiles]

If I had to guess, I would say the person who wrote this article is a lot more rich than you. That would explain why his experience in China was better than yours - being a rich white guy makes him one of the elite in China.

Funny how having a shitload of money can change someone's perspective on a topic, isn't it?

[nilspihl]

You'd guess wrong :)