On 8 Jun 2013, at 7:21, The Silent Seed wrote: > I sure hope there are no other people on here who love, or appreciate, the > Chinese, or China. I have some friends in China who would be appalled at the > mockery. I did not expect that on here. Or maybe I did. I know what you mean, > but can we be more diplomatic about our language? The unfortunate fact is that China now has an unenviable reputation as *the* source of fake goods, contaminated goods, everything you would expect where "making a buck as fast as possible, the devil take the hindmost, and damn the consequences" seems to be the prevailing attitude in business and manufacturing circles. One cause of this development is the ceaseless pressure from Western corporations (notably, but, I suspect, not exclusively, from Walmart) for ever lower prices. As one of China's government ministers said within the last few years, if Westerners want better quality out of China, they'll have to pay for it, that Chinese manufacturers cannot produce anything of quality for the pittances that the Walmarts of the world insist on paying. Thus we get ice trays made of the cheapest plastic which are brittle at ice temperature. Historically, this is at odds with the reputation of the Chinese as a people you could do business with on a handshake, to say nothing of the quality of many of their manufacturers, particularly anything in the porcelain and pottery line. Another, less admirable, historical characteristic of China has been corruption on the grandest of scales, which in the Imperial era reached some kind of climax during the reign of the Empress Dowager. Google "Chinese marble boat" to see the result of her embezzlement of funds intended for naval purposes. But fear not: China still produces many excellent products. A friend of mine is a creative cook and uses many Chinese sauces in his dishes. I once asked him how he decided which of the many brands of, say, hoisin sauce to buy. His answer? Simple: go for the most expensive. As he put it, "the Chinese are a pragmatic people and in dealing with them you get exactly what you pay for." The proprietress of the Chen-yi nursery might do far better in the long run propagating her wild-collected plants, growing them on, ascertaining their true identities, running an immaculately clean operation, and then selling them for considerably higher prices. However, I don't know if I'd have the self-control to do that myself, were I in her shoes. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate