There is, then, a philosophy of “life” in Spinoza; it consists precisely in denouncing all that separates us from life, all these transcendent values that are turned against life, these values that are tied to the conditions and illusions of consciousness. Life is poisoned by the categories of Good and Evil, of blame and merit, of sin and redemption. What poisons life is hatred, in­cluding the hatred that is turned back against oneself in the form of guilt. Spinoza traces, step by step, the dreadful concat­enation of sad passions; first, sadness itself, then hatred, aver­sion, mockery, fear, despair, morsus conscientiae, pity, indignation, envy, humility, repentance, self-abasement, shame, regret, anger, vengeance, cruelty. . . . His analysis goes so far that even in hatred and security he is able to find that grain of sad­ness that suffices to make these the feelings of slaves. The true city offers citizens the love of freedom instead of the hope of re­wards or even the security of possessions; for “it is slaves, not free men, who are given rewards for virtue.” (Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy)

Ah, to be a [neo-puritan] pilgrim…

PS how’s Twitter treating you on that front?

… modern Chinese people’s discussions of Chinese philosophy have not gotten on track.Feng’s History of Chinese Philosophy, for example, does not even touch on the core questions of the successive periods in the development of Chinese philosophy, much less say anything of value. The existence of such a book, even without its being universally recognized by East and West as a representative work, shows that Chinese people of this era are so lame that they are a disgrace to our ancestors and a disgrace to the whole world. It is a humiliation for all the people of China.

(In my, admittedly extremely germinal, study of Mou Zongsan so far, I have not found a single flaw in his judgement on any issue. Communism, btw, he describes as ‘demonic’, and he sees its extirpation from Chinese cultural life as the country’s immediate great task.)

Most of this perception comes from my experience of a very small subgroup- young Shanghainese women who spend a lot of time reading western news sites and blogs, and totally Americanized Chinese (by which I mean born in China, but sent to US high schools and colleges) so that could be skewing things.

But it’s augmented by the strange fact that, aside from “white people”, Chinese seem to have become singled out as the one nationality that it’s perfectly acceptable for white people to say anything they want about. If you look at the comments on many “China blogs” and western news articles regarding China, people say things that would get them lynched (or at least twynched, ala Pax Dickinson) if said about blacks, Africans, or nearly any other nationality. And while the wumaodang types will – ineffectively – try to defend themselves, Shanghainese, Hong Kongers and Taiwanese will happily join the whites in a chorus of self-derision (well, not necessarily self- they don’t consider themselves to be part of the faction they’re deriding at all…)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japaneseism

While not as widespread or institutionalized, a similar ethno-mascohism has existed courtesy of some New Left maniacs.

I don’t know how you could fail to notice how self-hating Chinese frequently are; the inculcated nationalism of the wumaodang is often counterbalanced by other factions, often partially educated abroad, or educated locally in English and self-educated via the Internet, who seem to hate everything about modern Chinese culture (and sometimes historic Chinese culture, Lu Xun, or perhaps even Bo Yang, style). It’s a different sort of ethnomasochism- rather than guilt, it’s self-hatred for a perception of being inferior to Europeans, Americans, and sometimes other Asians. I have several Shanghainese acquaintances like this; they’re constantly on about how barbaric their own country is, and seem to be oddly swipplified in their tastes.

I see a bit of it in my wife (Shanghainese, though lived in Europe for several years)… while she’s learned enough to know that the grass on the other side isn’t quite as green as she might think, there’s still an element in her that frequently rails against her own culture.

Whether or not Koreans or Japanese experience anything like this is beyond my pay grade, though I’ve never seen any indication of it. As for SE Asians, the ones who I’ve met in China are so thoroughly Americanized and cosmopolitan that it’s tough to even think of them as being typical representatives of their nationality…