I was recently introduced to a Shanghai blogger over here, who said the following in so many words:

"All or most foreigners in China are hoping China will fail." It wasn't clear whether he specifically meant the Olympic Games, or more broadly as economic failure, but the difference is only one of scale; the sentiment is basically the same.

In fairness to Shanghai Diaries, there are a certain number of foreigners here (from every corner of the world) who enjoy the run-down backwards parts of China for only one reason: it shows and reminds them of their own country's superiority. This is the case even with some people coming from countries arguably worse-off than China itself. So yes, for a certain number of foreigners here, the "failure" of China in any number of ways would probably serve to boost their own sense of self-worth. There's a chengyu for this, but it escapes me at present.

However. That certainly is not to say all (or even a great many) foreigners think like that. This is provable with a single simple fact: most foreigners living in China rely on the economic health of the country for their own livelihood. It doesn't matter if they're teaching, doing business, or studying, they all have interests dependent on the future safety and development of the country. So to off-handedly suggest most non-Chinese living here are secretly wishing for its collapse seems a little out in left field to me. For such an assertion to be remotely considerable, I would demand of him some evidence to the contrary.

Because of the lack of evidence, I suppose he made the statements after a quick analysis of the people he knows and from his own psychology --- plus a certain amount of desire to get people riled up and blog about him (hrm...). Who knows, but as for myself, I'm always hesitant to make such all-encompassing generalizations about groups of people: they're almost always flawed, and serve only to perpetuate old stereotypes that are better left to history with the conflicts they gave rise to. So my request of Shanghai Diaries is this: if you have a sentence beginning with "all", "most" or "every" then please also provide evidence in support of your claim.

Oh, and this gem: "The majority of people here don't like their life here." Look, if you don't like your life, change it, but don't involve half of Asia with your life-crisis. I love every minute I spend here, and while that doesn't mean I agree with everything going on politically, I AM willing to give China some slack.

And also, I enjoy your blog but dislike the Fox News-like "war room" feel you sometimes add to the issues. A cool head and a fair mind will solve almost anything.

I've got exams coming up very soon, so updates might be slow in coming for the next week or two. I'll try my best though, and please remember that I might not have time to respond to every e-mail I receive, but I can promise I do read them all.

Picture: Yeah.

Chris