...watching my cousin play up to six hours of the Sims 3 every day trying to fulfill his goal of getting his hot-shot sports star character to score with every single woman in Simtown.
Playing video games, I think, is the only therapy available millions of Asian kids every year. What would you do if you had to begin studying out of your mother's womb? There's no sense of community now that the city has exploded in its growth, simultaneously sending friends away and conveniently trapping one in his own private room, so hanging out is just too out of the way to happen. Kids are forced to memorize and regurgitate information that's tedious and completely uninteresting. Real psychological therapy isn't even an option. It reminds me of my own boring, lonely, really-into-math childhood. Hell, I'd choose being a Level 40 warlock over that life, no contest. Or a rich government bureaucrat.
One of the college students in Zhenjiang explained it to me well. After recalling some friends that had to drop out of school for playing too many video games, he framed it (at least in my mind) as almost as a race to escape from real life by either playing too many video games or by becoming ridiculously rich (by Chinese standards, anyways) as compensation for having their asses beaten by chemistry textbooks.
Anyways, maybe one of the reasons that the Chinese can be stereotyped for being selfish is because they had their childhood stolen from them.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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Everyone finds a way to deal with real life, some choose video game as a way to escape. Is this an issue for many Asian kids, true. But is also an issue for many others. Video game stads out in Chinese society simple because of the lack of social venues, for better or wrose. While it's easy to find excuse to escape - in every society - many may find it a regretable moement, a period coined as "wasterful youth". Worse, if it extends to a wasteful adulthood.
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