Play the Game of Life
Ryan Petersen's Blog

Unlike some of the previous posts comparing the two countries, these two reflections lean in favor of China.

First, Chinese people appear far more active than their Japanese counterparts. Parks are filled from sunrise till well after sunset with people of all ages doing all manner of strange exercises. Meanwhile on a Sunday afternoon during a three day weekend the most gorgeous parks in Tokyo were found completely abandoned. While temples and museums attract many Japanese tourists, I hardly saw anybody out and about just for the sake of pure physical exercise. Could this be a factor in the prevalence of gray hair among elderly Japanese?

The next small victory for China is the simple fact that there are more trash cans here--by several orders of magnitude. Japan has almost no trash cans on its streets, though recycling bins are everywhere. However, every single small business in China has their own little track bucket for use by passersby on the street. When you think about it, this is an amazing display of communal spirit in a country that is often criticized for lacking respect for the commons. If some critical mass of those shops were to remove their trash cans spontaneously, those remaining would see that they were now cleaning up everybody's trash, and promptly remove theirs as well. The fact that so many Chinese people display this civic-minded attitude is often overlooked and certainly something to be commended and built upon as the Chinese try to develop a more civilized and harmonious society.

Labels: china