When I first read this article, my first thoughts was a Mao-hugging foreigner exporting leftist ideologies back to the US. But I was wrong. Even having lived in Hong Kong, this phenomenon is hard to understand. When Ben Ross returned to America and attended a Christmas party, he was asked what his greatest cultural shock was, to which he didn't mention food or clothes or obese Americans. Ross simply said, "left-handed people." And when people argued that left-handedness is genetically inherited through automation, he replied, "Chinese kids all write with their right hands because they are taught to."
Does that imply that either 1. hand dominance has nothing to do with genetics, or 2. we are all ambidexterous in nature? Yes, Ross says, because in China there isn't a system to facilitate the people, but rather a system to force the people to facilitate to a single system. Take for example hand dominance. In America, we have "left-handed desks, left-handed guitars, and all sorts of other left-handed devices," but in the land of 1.3 billion people, resources aren't rich enough to make two of everything, hence the people have to learn to use their right hand to survive.
It's been said that left-handed Americans are usually overachievers and left-handed Chinese are usually underachievers. Also, some even believe that Chinese cannot be written with a left hand. What do you think?
"there isn't a system to facilitate the people, but rather a system to force the people to facilitate to a single system."
Isn't that the ultimate definition of "Harmony" ?
Posted by: Bill | February 26, 2008 3:55 PM | Permalink to Comment