the other reason foreigners consistently get goggle-eyed over East Asia is because they go to the nicest and most modern bits, whereas at home they've probably been to, like, your average city. i was very blessed by getting to spend my first year in China in Shijiazhuang.
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Replying to @BeijingPalmer
I will push back on this a little and say that one of the things that makes Japan feel like the future is a high standard of living even in remote places—some space vending machine standing in a field, above all the sense of things working by default, and people doing their jobs
3 replies 1 retweet 54 likes -
Replying to @Pinboard @BeijingPalmer
I don't consider myself infatuated with the country, but this specific sense of everything "working by default", and the fact that thought and care is put into almost all things, from consumer items to public spaces, matters far more than fast trains or general wackiness
2 replies 1 retweet 28 likes -
Replying to @Pinboard @BeijingPalmer
I think this aspect of Japanese life can be praised and emulated in a crowded world without having to turn a blind eye to the country's many faults, especially as you point out the horrific sexism, work culture, and inability not to wrap everything in 42 layers of plastic
2 replies 1 retweet 24 likes
I can't speak for other places, but there was a similar sense of stuff "working by default" in Hong Kong, despite a different culture. Care was put into maintaining a shared world, and no one wantonly destroyed it, which made the protest-related property damage later so shocking
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