American Vs Chinese Entertainment

I grew up at a time when China was closed to the world. My exposure to Chinese culture came in the form of Singapore Broadcasting Corporation series and shows such as Jack Neo's 搞笑行动. See an example below. Note how the individual in green appears on screen digging his nose. It is supposed to get laughs.

I cannot laugh. I get irritated. I found all these Chinese language shows very vulgar, and stressful in their vulgarity. I hated the way these people talked aggressively in jest. I don't get the jest. I get high anxiety from their fake aggression. I get disgusted by the exuberant display of bodily functions. There was absolutely no subtlety in the acting, nor the humour.

I am Chinese but I concluded that Chinese speaking folks were vulgar and low brow.

At that time, I had the privilege of reading in French and English. I read up on England's history and France's history. I enjoyed British humour and French humour. See below Tom Lehrer's song on nuclear war.

Then, China opened up. It became possible to access really high quality entertainment. Compare the following comedic skit with Jack Neo's skit herein above.

With Netflix, we are also getting a taste of the entertainment fare currently popular in the USA. I came to the realisation that a lot of American productions also reference body parts and body functions. Even Ronnie Chieng (originally from Malaysia) is bending to the pressure to be vulgar.

Why? Why? Why?

I cancelled Netflix. 

The thing is, what we see on Netflix is not necessarily indicative of the American people. To have popular appeal, shows must needs appeal to the lowest common denominator. In every country, there is a lowest common denominator. 

The Americans I know don't spout vulgarity with every sentence. In the past, French movies screened at the Alliance Française had explicit nude scenes and sex scenes. One might think that French people tend to licentiousness. Yet, some of the French families I came to know in France were very conservative.

It is just such a pity that America now has a President who also appeals to the lowest common denominator of people. His vocabulary is limited to "great" and "not nice." He speaks like an American teenager who works part-time at the dollar store in small town America, and believes that bleach should be injected into the human body. I suppose he got voted in because he appealed to the lowest common denominator in the USA.

The upshot of all this is that Petunia can now read Chinese! I can also understand spoken Chinese a lot better. When time permits, I will learn Chinese calligraphy. So fun! So much I don't know! So much to learn and discover for the next 20 years!