Is Chinese culture a very selfish culture because of past events? Will it change?

Poverty caused a lot of social problems, but I cannot agree with you that Chinese culture is a selfish one from its root.

I hope you can read Chinese as well...

In old days, Chinese believed 百行以孝為先, it means children should obey their parents and take good care of them. (Nothing relates to the age, as in the old days, people got married when they were in their young teens and most of them were farmers, lives were very simple)

I hope you have heard of the 四書五經 (four books and five classics)

- the great learning (大學)
- the Doctrine of the Mean (中庸)
- The Analects of Confucius (論語)
- The Mencius (孟子)

Which in the old days, students had to study all these few books to prepare for the entrance examinations in order to be a civil servent..., anyway, the first book is "the great learning" .. and the main text is

The Way of the great learning involves manifesting virtue,
renovating the people, and abiding by the highest good. (...)
大學之道在明明德，在親民，在止於至善 (...)

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the
world, first ordered well their own States.
古之欲明明德於天下者，先治其國
Wishing to order well their States, they first regulated their families.
欲治其國者，先齊其家
Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons.
欲齊其家者，先修其身
Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts.
欲修其身者，先正其心
Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts.
欲正其心者，先誠其意
Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost of their knowledge.
欲誠其意者，先致其知
Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
致知在格物

Things being investigated, knowledge became complete.
物格而後知至
Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere.
知至而後意誠
Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified.
意誠而後心正
Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated.
心正而後身修
Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated.
身修而後家齊
Their families being regulated, their States were rightly governed.
家齊而後國治
Their States being rightly governed, the entire world was at peace.
國治而後天下平

From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must
consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides. (...)
自天子以至於庶人，壹是皆以修身為本 (.........)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Learning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What you have seen in the past 8 years in China are some bad examples of human nature which are not encourged by typical Chinese Believes / Philosophies.

There are always good and bad in the society, what you have seen some Chinese people are doing so, doesn't mean all Chinese people agree with those behaviours are right. (Besides, stiill there are not many Chinese can make their marriages or children's marriages as business arrangements or retirement plans! Unless you watched too many Chinese TV dramas!)

..., I hope, there would be changes on the horizon be fulfilled when China can manage her education system in better ways in next few generations! By the way, the labour laws changed a lot nowadays when compare to the past 8 years!

Let's look on the bright side!

I would have to say partly of past events and partly of poverty (some) and partly just a tradition being pass along. While I do not agree it is only applicable to Chinese people.

1) Children are normal to consider the future generation of the family tree. It is the duty of young generation to take care of the elderly, but in modern society, this thinking do not widely practiced in cities or urban culture, be it Chinese or not. And do you think parents purely think of kids as retirement and without any feelings towards their kids?

2) Sounds like minority groups living up in the mountain regions, not no offense to that.

3) Tell the Wall Street High flyers got caught recently. They don't look like Chinese to me.

4) Ask the illegal immigrants around the world. Indonesian, CHINESE, Mexican etc spread around the world.

5) Welcome to the real world, Chinese or not.

I think Tseol has been to China, and so have many of us.

The 5 points that you have mentioned sound more like common depraved behaviours of SOME human race.

Not just Chinese.

I wouldn't say it's because of past events because if it was, China would still be a very "Confusious/Taoism/etc" place that practice nothing but the ideas of these - loyalty, family, respect, etc.

1. Children have always been retirement plans. That's why boys were valued more than girls throughout history - sons can help out on farms and when they marry, they bring in extra helping hands for the house. Chinese parents invest so much time and money on the success of their children not just for "someone to take care of me when I get old" but rather, "someone I don't need to worry about when I get old". In a way, how successful you are as a parent depends on how successful your kids are.

2. Yes, arranged marriage is a business arrangement, but that's true for all countries that practiced arranged marriages (ie. back in the day, royalties in Europe...) Traditional Chinese families strongly believes in "wooden door to wooden door, bamboo door to bamboo door" - meaning you only marry within the same social level. In a way, it reinforces #1 above - how successful you are depends on how successful your kids are, and marrying within the same level or higher is one of the ways to measure "success".

4. Poor people are expendable - survival of the fittest. That's the basis of survival in this world. I think this didn't really became a "problem" until recent years when China opened its doors to the West. Local Chinese people began to see what the outside world is like and realized that in order to survive in the world, they need to get ahead like the West. The "poor people are expendable" thing has been in the West long in history - slavery, colonization, etc. is it not true? So, while some are fast learner and get ahead faster, there'll always be others who'll take a bit longer to get there.

5. Polite only to those who you can benefit from - I think this also comes from observing the West. China has been the "dumb rich friend" throughout history. Countries invading China, taking their riches, land, etc. I think that in a way created the fear of "being polite will only make you look weak". So, to protect themselves, people learned to be otherwise. I think we also see this in many African countries. For centuries, they have been taken advantage of their land and resources and have been mistreated. So, to protect themselves and to survive, they have to learn how to be "smart" and hence we see a lot of email scams originating from African countries.

Tribal thinking in any culture often leads to an overarching "us vs. them" mentality that can result in warfare and even wholesale lopping off of heads, as was customary 3500 years ago in the Shang kingdom. As local cultures have expanded geographically and economically to create cities and city-states, and when peace and stability has not been enduring, the social friction characteristic of the old tribal mentality persists. Because Chinese history, characterized best as typically in turmoil, yielded little opportunity for evolution from tribal agrarian roots, the old selfishness has long prevailed. In the current era standout examples of such old habits are outsiders from the countryside heard yelling when talking on their mobile phones in a crowd of people, or cutting in line ahead of possibly more sophisticated urbanites. But when given a chance to mature in harmonious, non violent periods, such as China has been experiencing since 1978, and rules and policies (like traffic lights and no smoking laws) meant to regulate individuals and groups are implemented and enforced, even country bumpkins become noticeably better behaved, and slowly learn how to respect the space and rights of others. Hence, a more polite, less selfish society emerges. This is historically true in all countries, including China. The question that interests me as a cultural historian most is how long stability--and progressive cultural evolution--will continue.

Selfishness is becoming the biggest social culture problems in China. However if you were born there living there, you'll find it's really they only way you can do to survive. Given example: you are in traffic jam on a toll gate waiting other cars to pay, many cars will try to cut your queue. That's also happen when you buy the ticket. There are simply just too many peoples, if you didn't cut then you'll not get your portion. Once I scold a guy cause he cut my queue, he doesn't bother and doesn't care, so I cut back his queue and he also don't dare to fight me. When girls find a husband, she will straight away telling him, she needs the man with car, house, and simply doesn't bother whether he already married or not, she's willing to be the second wife as long as she could get the benefit. Look at the housing price in China big cities, it's simply just affordable for common peoples's paycheck. So no wonder many are looking for an easy way. There is simply no alternatives for the peoples. This are just a fraction of the problems, as the economy is increasing, the yuan value kept at the lower rate, the inflation is booming, driving many expenses out of reach. The modernization of the city are so fast that make the expectation suddenly jump high, many are driven to do anything for their dream life. Marrying the rich is on of the easiest way for young and pretty girls. Social pressure is increasing as family is getting smaller, yet they expect their children to excel in education, getting married, have family, makes baby as soon as they are graduated. For young boy who just get a new low level job are pressured to buy house and car to get married, as the culture is usually the man's family responsibility to provide housing for their kids marital home. I really hate this thing is happening though, however what I can do anyway?

I'm not religious but "let he who is without sin cast the first stone"
No country is perfect, so lets not judge the way other people live. I do think the way they treat their elders is to be commended. Better than putting them in a home with people who don't care about them.

I think the past has caused some of it. However I think it is improving already.
I don't think children (or marriage) are seen as retirement plans.

Your points are mainly about money: some people really do struggle in China and it is very hard to get by there. But I think this is the same for a lot of countries and it is unlikely to be resolved in the future.

They didn't affect my Canadian culture at all.They keep their culture to themselves but you'll find china town here.In china town you can eat chinese food and find their stores.There are chinese stores outside of china town as well.We have nail salons run by some chinese people.........I heard that allot of chinese people settle in british colombia...........

No, but they are learning from the extreme captialism displayed by United States and UK during their industrial revolution. And they are continuing to learn from the US in the worst ways.

all the foreigners who lived in China for a real while have this kind of mood sometimes...

and there is one wise phrase that helps:
"the cows don't fly because they have no winds"...

present is the result of past while future is the result of present...
if you want to know why Chinese are as they are -- just look around...

mild climate, plenty of plants, tigers as the only significant danger...

what would be the reason for such features as self-sacrifice, future planning, responsibility, initiative etc?

orchids don't grow in the desert but here it's quite the opposite...

the only local trouble is that somebody will eat the fruit you could eat... so it's not selfishness, it's a natural development of events.