Since arriving in China for the first time in 2003 I have heard this, 'China is 5000 years old', at least 5000 times and I don't know why people here are so proud of that for at least two reasons.
1.) America and Australia are less than 300 years old and are more developed than China. So, there are countries that have accomplished much more than China has in just a fraction of the time......I'll admit that 'accomplished much more' is probably a bit too subjective on my part but no one can deny that Australia and America are both well ahead of China.
2.) Ok, China is a very old civilization....wonderful. By the way, how old is Egypt? How about Greece? India? Western culture/civilization? From my experience in the world China is the only country to boast (pretty much non-stop) about how old it is.
Ok, there's nothing wrong with being proud of one's culture but after a point it just kind of gets annoying/creepy.....and that goes for America as well.
Maybe it's because I grew up in California that I wasn't exposed to a lot of "America is #1 because...." or whatever that might be more common in other parts of the country.
Regardless, I've never been a fan of extreme nationalism because people who are fanatic about their nation make me a bit uneasy (and they just seem really ignorant and close-minded as well).
Of course, I don't want to over-generalize because you can find the same types of people in every country....I just find the people I've met in China to be the most hyper-nationalistic in the world.
Anyway, that's my rant for today.
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