Am I the only person who sees the perhaps inherent conflict between the liberal impulse for multiculturalism and its vision of racial and gender equality, in the sense that <i>a liberal, Western perspective on gender and race is not a culturally neutral perspective</i>?<p>As a Chinese-American, I feel whipsawed when on the one hand, well-meaning generally liberal people make lofty paeans about how we should respect other cultures, but then turn right around and judge those same cultures and find them unworthy for not adhering to liberal Western cultural norms.<p>In this case, the position is even more tenuous, because a substantial portion of Western society does <i>not</i> fully agree with liberal norms for gender equality. This is basically exporting the West's own culture wars, fought since the 60s, to other societies.<p>There are of course tensions between the genders and sexes in China, like in any other society, but it's interesting to read the entire op-ed and not find an attempt to actually ask Chinese people what they think about the issue (the author notwithstanding), just a string of accusations with the unspoken presumption that 'if it feels wrong to us right-minded people, then it must be wrong'.<p>To be completely blunt, paternalism is very deeply embedded in Chinese society, and its roots go back a couple thousand years to Confucianism. I don't see anyone seriously acknowledging or discussing that fact, nor the major changes that have happened since the 50s (often under an explicitly Communist ideology, where the only allowable conflict is between the classes).<p>TL;DR - We respect all cultures and viewpoints, except all those which we judge wrong and sexist.
Here are some other dirty "secrets" about China:<p>* No free and fair elections.<p>* No freedom of speech and of the press<p>* One party rule<p>* People imprisoned for their political and religious beliefs<p>* Nobel Peace Prize winner died in Chinese custody<p>* Freedom of travel can be fairly restrictive, especially if you are trying to leave the countryside<p>China embraces the open market purely from a utilitarian perspective as to what will help them become and stay a superpower. There really is no big commitment to an individual "rights" based foundation for society. Because of that, it is not surprising that they discriminate against women.
It’s not a secret. The general discrepancy — of differing cultural norms — is also not unique to China.<p>Amazing how many people fantisize about a globalist utopia, accepting of all cultures, except the “offensive” cultures.
> companies like Alibaba have published recruitment ads promising applicants “beautiful girls” as co-workers, labeling them “late night benefits.” While tech companies tout themselves as progressive to the rest of the world, these disturbing recruitment strategies show how deeply entrenched discrimination against women remains in China.<p>How is promising that the work environment is full of girls an example of discrimination <i>against</i> women? If they promised that girls were rare, that would presumably be an improvement?