>The Chinese value the appearance of working hard, not actual hard work.
It's very interesting how deep this type of behavior is ingrained in their culture.
For example, western cultures have Aesop fables (e.g. Tortoise and the Hare) which tend to celebrate hard work and punish laziness. Eastern cultures have fables that tend to celebrate being clever or manipulative (e.g. The lion and The Rabbit).
It's also interesting to see how this plays out today. The Chinese Happy Farm (original Farmville) was a huge success in part because it allowed users to steal crops from their neighbors. This type of behavior is considered okay as long as you are clever enough not to be caught.
Lets not get crazy and read too deeply into things like how game mechanics reflect social values. You can maraud and raid in any popular iOS game for Americans as well, such as Clash of Clans.
This is textbook confirmation bias. You're ignoring the writings of every Chinese philosopher valuing hard work, the tendency for Chinese schools to value rote memorization--a very work-intensive activity--over creativity, the fact that American railroads were basically built by the Chinese, and the fact that you're likely reading this on a device made by hard-working Chinese hands. Your willingness to see East Asian culture as inherently underhanded because of an internet game is somewhat telling.
>western cultures have Aesop fables (e.g. Tortoise and the Hare) which tend to celebrate hard work and punish laziness. Eastern cultures have fables that tend to celebrate being clever or manipulative (e.g. The lion and The Rabbit).
Aesop fables valuing cleverness: The Clever Sheep, The Crow and the Pitcher, The Ass in the Lion's Skin, the Fox and the Sick Lion, the Fox and the Mask... there are others. Ancient Greek heroes are constantly clever and manipulative.
Well-known Chinese fables celebrating hard work and punishing laziness:
磨杵成针 (Grinding an Iron Pestle into a Needle)
Li Bai was fond of playing when he was young, so he was always absent-minded in classes. Today he would catch little birds on the hill, and tomorrow he would pick dates on that hill. One day, he saw an old lady sitting at the riverside when he was crossing the brook. The old lady was grinding an iron pestle without fear of tiredness. On seeing this, Li Bai laughed at her and said: "People who do this job are fools." The old lady answered kindly: "I am determined to grind the iron pestle into a needle even if the iron pestle is so thick and hard. "Li Bai took the iron pestle and felt tired after grinding it for a minute. Then he complained: "Oh, how long can I get it done? I quit." The old lady shook her head and sighed: "The pestle can be grinded into a needle, as long as you keep working hard." The old lady’s words moved him, and Li Bai remembered them by heart. From then on, he spared no pains to study, and eventually became a great poet.
精卫填海 (Jingwei filling the sea)
Originally the daughter of the emperor Yandi, Jingwei perished at a young age in the East Sea. After her death she chose to assume the shape of a bird in order to exact revenge upon the sea by bringing stones and small twigs from the mountains nearby over the sea in an effort to fill it up. Jingwei has a short dialogue with the sea where the sea scoffs her, claiming that she wouldn't be able to fill it up even in a million years, whereupon she claims that she will then proceed to take ten million years, even one hundred million years, whatever it takes to fill up the sea so that others would not have to perish as she did.
守株待兔 (waiting by a tree stump for rabbits)
In the Spring and Autumn Period, a farmer in the State of Song was one day working in the fields, when he saw a rabbit bump into a tree stump accidentally and break its neck. The farmer took the rabbit home, and cooked himself a delicious meal. That night he thought, "I needn't work so hard. All I have to do is wait for a rabbit each day by the stump." So from then on he gave up farming, and simply sat by the stump waiting for rabbits to come and run into it. The saying satirizes those who wait for strokes of luck instead of working.
Please don't project your confirmation bias onto me. How you got that from one comment is more than just a bit absurd, especially considering I said most, not all, so there are definite outliers as you mentioned.
I also specifically said eastern cultures, which are not limited to Chinese, and the example I gave is in fact a Panchatantra fable, making it Indian in origin, not Chinese. But don't let that stop you from making assumptions and blasé accusations with your alt Hacker News account.
This is not my alt account. I'm just not that active. These are not outliers, you are simply incorrect. If you believe your assertions to be anything but assumptions and blase accusations of entire cultures, I'd be happy to read your published work on the matter.
It's very interesting how deep this type of behavior is ingrained in their culture.
For example, western cultures have Aesop fables (e.g. Tortoise and the Hare) which tend to celebrate hard work and punish laziness. Eastern cultures have fables that tend to celebrate being clever or manipulative (e.g. The lion and The Rabbit).
It's also interesting to see how this plays out today. The Chinese Happy Farm (original Farmville) was a huge success in part because it allowed users to steal crops from their neighbors. This type of behavior is considered okay as long as you are clever enough not to be caught.