[kubb]

He’s a Chinese guy in the US. He thinks in terms of large monoliths. The nuance of 40 different cultures on a small continent might be lost on him.

That’s OK.

We all have some approximation of reality in our brains which is necessarily shaped by our life experiences.

[kankerlijer]

There is something very irritating seeing someone dismiss someone else on the internet using condescending therapy speak 'Thats Ok', nevermind the fact that calling him out as some ignorant Chinese guy while China has hundreds of cultures and languages, as if a Chinese person couldn't comprehend... Europe.

[kubb]

The way to respect isn’t through shaming people into it. It’s through demonstration of value, in this case understanding of nuance.

Instead we get an application of external logic and values which can’t be used to properly reason about the entity they’re applied to.

There’s no need for frustration. We take the stoic approach here. It’s OK. You are a product of your environment. Everything you’ve ever experienced told you this is the way to act.

[dalyons]

FWIW this comes across as very condescending to me too. Maybe try a different framing.

[kubb]

Interestingly, you’re demonstrating arrogance.

All you’re bringing to the discussion is “my feelings are hurt”. And you’re putting the onus to fix that on me.

You have the power to change your paradigm, but you refuse to. Others have to see things through your lens, you won’t have the flexibility to change yours for a moment.

Meanwhile I’ve started with a plausible explanation of why someone sees things differently.

From the get go, I had more willingness to understand than you did.

How’s that for a framing?

[meneliksecond]

Good framing

[booleandilemma]

Europe and China are quite different, historically and culturally. It would make sense that people from the two regions wouldn't know about each other. The world is full of detail. As someone who's lived in both the west and asia I'm still surprised by little differences I see every week.

[hahaxdxd123]

It's a European guy coping on HN.

That's OK.

They have no idea my sub-region of California produces the entire GDP of their country.

[ViktorRay]

Your statement here is pretty ironic.

China also has many different cultures, languages and so on for the over 1.4 billion people who live there. Why would the “nuance” of Europe be “lost” on a Chinese person?

[seanmcdirmid]

China mostly has a single national identity, and provincial differences are way too nuanced to be mapped in the same way that country differences in Europe would be. It would be like trying to get Americans to understand that "Henan man" is a meme similar to the "Florida man" meme.

[canjobear]

I thought it was Guangxi man...

[seanmcdirmid]

No, guangxi isn’t even technically a province (another weirdness), but having been to guangxi a few times (Guilin, Liuzhou, and Nanning), I don’t think anyone thinks much of it beyond it’s beautiful karst and southern culture. Anyways, there is actually a wiki article on henan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Henan_sentiment

[NooneAtAll3]

double ironically, your comment precisely answers your question

the two of you operate on different scale of unification - what you see as "many different cultures", chinese and americans see as "a single country". What they see as "Europe pulling in many directions" - you might see as independent national interests

perhaps the best way to recognize the attitude is to think what you feel about subsections of your country - while Scotland/England divide is common, it's rarer to hear in what Yorkshire differs from the Cornwall; and I bet not many people would guess what beef is there between french citizen from Normandy and from Nice

it is this kind of scale that allows China to build transmission lines through the whole country's diameter. It is that kind of scale that made americans scream at each other because of abortion high court decision - while said decision simply said "let states decide"

it's a lot of difference, and there's a lot of nuances "on both sides" - but simply of a different kind

[tshaddox]

> The nuance of 40 different cultures on a small continent might be lost on him.

I don’t know about the author in particular, but Americans are generally aware of the “nuanced” European history of near constant war between rival nations, states, factions, and religions.

[kubb]

I think they could do a better job communicating that, but I’m glad that Americans are educated and curious about other parts of the world.

[opjjf]

His wife is Austrian though, I would have hoped that adds a bit to his perspective.