I know I said I was going to talk about wacky times with the latest group of friends to visit, but there's something very poignant in my mind I'd like to write while it's fresh. I want to emphasize that this is my current opinion based on my sample size of ~10, in a population of 1.4 billion. Simply put, this sample is not statistically significant, and is just a snapshot of a small number of people in a small town in a huge country.

TL,DR: I'm full of shit.

As to be expected living overseas, you gain a different perspective on your home and the world. Part of it may be "the grass is always greener" type of thing. And I don't expect me to be some guy that goes back home and starts wearing American flag capes. But I have gained a greater appreciation for the States and western life in general. Not to say that the eastern way of thinking is bad - in fact they have some very good ideas. I think we could learn a lot from China. But something I think we excel at, and it's not something you really think about, is that we encourage creativity.

I know that sounds like something incredibly innocuous. "Well yeah, it's important. Why not?" But even with money being diverted from art programs, I think you'd be in the minority if you said creative arts are a pointless waste of time compared to playing around with Angry Birds. We encourage uniqueness and what makes you happy, as long as it's not to the detriment of others.

That just doesn't happen here.

And the effects were unnoticeable until I started looking for them. There are thousands of restaurants in my city. Small, mom and pop type of places serving up Chinese food at all hours. 99% of them are exactly the same. You know how many Thai restaurants there are? 0. Indian? 0. Italian? 0. It just doesn't exist. I use restaurants as an example, but the Chinese really do not have much of an entrepreneurial spirit that we are encouraged to have from a young age.

And speaking of young age, the school system.

As you may have expected with a country consistently at the top of international ratings, it is extremely rigorous. I think maybe only South Korean children work harder. The Chinese get up at 5, 6 in the morning after staying up til midnight doing homework. On weekends, they attend cram schools or are strongly encouraged to study. Their lives are work, work, and more work, with play taking a backseat. While we do value hard work, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. These kids have no time to be kids. They are under an immense amount of pressure at all times. They need good marks to get into a good grade school. Good grade school marks to get into a good middle school. And all the way down to a job. Yes we have that in the west, but its nowhere near the extremes it is here. There is only one path - the national exams. Where you are expected to memorize #1 is A, #2 is C, #3 is B, until the end of time. It's easy to see then, why they're good at subjects like math. Math is consistent. There is almost always only one answer. But what about applying it? Saying 2+2 = 4 is all well and good, but somehow you're going to have to come up with an idea on how to use it.

I want to stop it there, because otherwise this already long blog post would be a book. I hope I gain more perspective on this, and it's something I want to more fully understand. But towards the end of a conversation I was asked a question that got me thinking. I'll leave the same question with you as well - Where are all the Nobel Prize winning scientists from? When's the last one you heard about one from China?