Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
I spend a lot of time speaking with my mother in law about the cultural revolution and life before, during and afterwards. One thing she has spoken of frequently was how prior to the revolution families living next to each other would be very neighbourly and would share openly with each other and take care of each other, but that during the years of the revolution people learned not to trust anyone outside their closest family because you didn't know anymore what a person could say about you that might end up with you being shot, having your hair shaved off, being publically shamed or punished in some other way. I often wonder how responsible that is for the difference in thinking about family vs. others that there is now.
The article Pylon posted in the WRGMG thread was very good for this too.
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Absolutely true, but I'm really wonder which of the two reasons (one child policy/cultural revolution) has more of an effect on the seeming lack of empathy amongst modern mainland Chinese. My grandma says the same thing before they fled to Hong Kong where the social fabric remained intact.
More than 30 million people died during the cultural revolution and the social trust between people were destroyed. Mao's communists pitted everyone against each other and really taught people to look the other way when others were dragged away kicking/screaming/killed. But did those parents pass on these traits to their children (who are more than two generations removed from those events) or are modern mainland Chinese this way because of the one child policy or a combination of both? I'm not really sure. Either way Mao's corrupted communism is responsible.