China or Japan

I'm not discouraging anyone from visiting Japan. I only find it offensive because people are making uneducated comparisons between China and Japan, two countries geographically next door to one another but could not be more different.

 

:lol: I don't want to be condescending, but that's a little naive. The Japanese politicians, especially the right (Shinzo Abe is really an awful PM) tend to obscure everything. The press agency is hushed, education is deliberately censored, and corruption is rife. Not that China's better, but Japan has a system where you elect an MP, then have absolutely no idea what they're doing apart from how they vote. Japan is better than China in those terms, but it's still very far from acceptable.

 

Well compared to China, Japan is much more accepting.

---------- Post added 23rd Sep 2013 at 05:38 PM ----------

If you do get to go to Tibet, good luck with the time zone LOL

 

The Chinese have no idea who their president is. The Chinese can't go on facebook or youtube because they might find videos criticising China. Japan is far from America or Britain but you don't get arrested for going on youtube like in China. I've been to China. Not a fun place. Insanely polluted atmosphere, having to get bottled water because tap water can be poisonous, children using the bathroom in the streets, beggars "renting" children with disorders to get money, and let's not forget Tiananmen Square. Guards are all over the place. The tour guide had fear in his eyes as he told us not to say a word about what happened in 1989. I don't believe most of the Chinese are bad people, but the government is too twisted for me to handle.

 

I was born in Hong Kong and lived in China - Shenzhen and Shanghai as a child.
If I had stayed living in Hong Kong, I think I would have been a much different person to who I am


I wouldn't want to live in either of those countries, as they are now.
Japan isn't the quirky, fun paradise everyone seems to think it is; Japan is full of stressed out men who feel like cogs in a machine, stressed out students and youths. Tjats why they have so many suicides. Japan's government isn't flawless either. I know Japanese students who didn't know anything about WWII, and when they were told, they burst into tears at the shock.

China has its own faults: a ridiculous gap between wealth and poverty and impenetrable nepotism in all aspects of society. Corruption is everywhere. When I last went to China, I was overwhelmed by my family, and the culture shock was just so much, and made me realise how detached I was from China.

Of course there are countless merits to both countries, their rich histlries and cultures, and the growth and excitement and variety available in those countries. China isn't some crazy totalitarian society as some ofyou think, it's a wonderful place full of culture and most people are genuinely good people. Japan is such an advanced society and all that, but I just couldn't live in either, I don't think.

They are such interesting countries and I want to travel them but I'm too accustomed to Auckland.

Also, you'd have to consider what parts of China and Japan were talking about. China is a gigantic country: Tibet has a completely different culture, North and South, east and west have different ways of life, and the far west is part of Central Asia, closer in society to Kazhakstan than coastal cities.

Japan is the same, not to the same extent but there are still differences.

I dont think I can deal with the rigid societies of Asia. I think I'd freak out and be one of those people who end up killing themselves. I know a lot of people from Japan China and Korea who are like that.

 

Japan

 

Are we talking a permanent move? Neither if that's the case.

However I would be much more willing to spend maybe a year in Japan than China. Mostly for practical reasons, I know some of the language and culture. As an outsider it can be a lot of fun. However, the outsider status is what would also prevent me from ever moving permanently.

There's also little opportunity for a conventional life if you're gay in Japan. By that I mean things like marriage (or a marriage equivalent), family etc.