Hi friends and family

Last week I came back from a fantastic, month-long trip with Xi to China.

Now that I am back, let’s restart the weekly newsletter!

In this first one after the break I am going to share some personal thoughts about motivation, wealth and cultural norms related to this trip.

Let’s go!

1 Month in China

First of all, the trip was fantastic. I met many wonderful and kind people, especially Xi’s family and friends. I also had a lot of fun experiences and made great memories. You can get some impressions on Instagram here.

Some of the places we visited also caused me to reflect on my own life, actions, and motivations. Let me briefly talk about three of them:

European Colonies & Motivation

The first places I want to mention are some former European colonies we visited: Hong Kong (British colony until 1997) and Qingdao (German colony until 1914). Isn’t it a curious thing that people from past eras celebrated such colonial efforts, but today we mostly see them as acts of unfriendly aggression and oppression?

I’m agreeing with the critical view of most people today, thats not the point. What I find interesting is that the things we care about, that we celebrate, and that motivate us as a society and as humans can change so completely after just a few generations.

As human developments are only speeding up, what does that mean for our society today? Will people a few generations after us also look down on some of our collective value judgements so harshly?

For example already today, a significant part of the population here categorizes bosses and bankers with high salaries as greedy and evil. (just read almost any left-wing newspaper if you don’t believe it)

Other people might say anyone who eats meat is causing animal suffering and is thus also evil.

In such a rapidly changing world, who can say what is good and what is bad in a few decades? For us today Chinese colonies might appear far away, but on a civilizational timeline, 28 or even 111 years are just a blink of an eye.

Chinese Countryside & Wealth

China is a huge land with big contrasts. Some cities are wealthy, but other areas are also still very poor. During this trip I had a chance to see some farm village with mostly elderly people where the toilet isn’t much more than a whole in the ground.

In China there is a relentless competition to improve the social status of oneself and the family. People see themselves in a status hierarchy and care a lot about their place in the pyramid. Personally however I can’t say that people I met that are relatively higher up in the pyramid where necessarily happier. Some of them just work endlessly and are still just stressed and worried all the time, because competition never ends and there is always more to aim for.

When I see this kind of poverty in China, it just makes me aware how rich even the poorest people in Switzerland are when comparing on a global level. Even the lowest paid job here creates income that is barely conceivable in China even for graduates of the best universities.

Guilt vs Shame Cultures

Another big difference that I notice each time I go to east Asia is how people evaluate their actions. If you allow me to oversimplify a bit, we in the west tend to evaluate our actions by an inner moral compass. In east Asia on the other hand people primarily evaluate their actions based on how others judge them. Ruth Benedict wrote about this in her book ‘The Chrysanthemum and the Sword’ (the book focuses on Japan, but it applies to China equally).

In China the term ‘face’ is often used to describe the importance of the impression one makes on others and it has an importance that is hard to grasp for an individualist westerner like me.

For example, presents are exchanged endlessly even though they can be very expensive and it’s not certain the receiver actually needs the gift. That’s because ‘face’ and the perceived intention count more than the actual utility of the present.

That’s of course the western lens. The reverse criticism would be that focusing on ones own needs can appear selfish and shallow and reduces opportunities for meaningful human interactions, which are an important part of a strong society.

Anyways, these were just some thoughts and reflections I had during and after this fantastic trip to China.

What a great time it is to be alive and experience humanity in such diversity and with much greater prosperity than ever before in history!

Let’s hope we can build an even better future for humanity in all its diversity on Earth and beyond over the coming decades.

Making some tiny contribution towards that is what I think is most meaningful for my life; but I’ll continue my reflections on my personal goals and developments again in my future newsletters.

Have a great week everyone and greetings from Olten,

Gregor