Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Chinese Society

SOC 3100 - Chinese Society - The Eastern trend continues. Biggest lesson learned in this class: I would consider living in China to be an unfortunate existence. Nothing in China is easy. Go ahead, assume I am spoiled, I am, but there are no excuses as to why people should be living the way they do in China. However, I did just say nothing in China is easy, that includes eradicating poverty and bringing some form of equality to this country. I am excited to read about so much growth in China, but I have some doubts about it because it seems that the elitists are simply getting richer and the percentage of people living at, or below the poverty level, is growing--this is no growth to be happy about.

An article in The New York Times a few months ago addressed the skyscraper sprawl in Shanghai. Apparently Shanghai will soon have more skyscrapers than Ney York City, but you won't be able to see that many of them through the smog. Industrial and commercial zoning is a disease in the new China that might one day suffocate all that makes China unique. They are already flying the flag of globalization. It is all good though, they are learning from the best.

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