THE CULTURE DIFFERENCE
Last couple of weeks ago, I came across an article written by Ray Dario where he states that most Western observers had tended to not believe that the Chinese Communist Party’s usage of capital markets.
Well, I am not too surprise to that averment because I experienced myself first hand when I was a student in Australia. There is so much culture difference between the East and the West. It is not easy for an English-speaking (or educated) person to understand China when your main sources of information are from Bloomberg or CNN. Most of the reporters or even the news anchor there do not even speak or read Chinese.
WHY THE WESTERN DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE EAST?
The simple answer to that is HISTORY.
Confucianism has rooted deeply in China for several thousands of years. It still has its influence on all aspects of politics and economy in China. Confucian thoughts have been the most basic mainstream value of the people in China and other nationalities in East Asia all through ages.
One of the most interesting teachings or ethic of Confucian is filial piety. It is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. Filial piety is considered a key virtue in Chinese and other East Asian cultures. Confucian ethics do not regard filial piety as a choice, but rather as an unconditional obligation of the child. The pre-eminence of filial duty is demonstrated by a Chinese saying: Of all virtues, filial piety is the first (百善孝为先). Now you can roughly understand how important it is for filial piety in Chinese society. From such ethics and also to read filial piety in a broader sense, hierarchy, authority and obedience become important aspect of the practice. Most of the time, the junior is unlikely to challenge the authority of the senior.
However, in the West, people believes that liberty (of FREEDOM) and EQUALITY are the most important aspect of life. Parents and children have the equal right at home. It is also very common for children to live an independent life when they turn majority age or when they are able to do so. To read equality in a broader sense, Westerners treat liberty, freedom, democracy and equality above all, focusing of “humanism” whereby “man is the measure of all things”. Thus, the financial or economic system and liberation are constantly advocated by the West.
LEARN, LEARN, LEARN
There you go. Now you can see the difference between the two. Under the tradition of hierarchy, authority and authoritarian form of business, it seems that it did not create democracy similar to the United States and European countries. But one cannot deny the fact that such policy making process creates a relatively fast and stable progress as the implementation can be moved on the ground instantly to increase its efficiency.
The former Premier of Singapore, the late Lee Kuan Yew ever said:-
“Democracy does not bring good government to new developing countries. What Asians admire is not necessarily what Americans or Europeans admire.”
I am not here to debate or to make a judgment on which system or culture are more superior than the other. Who am I to judge?
I am here to express my humble views and to show you briefly the difference of the two as sometimes they can be confusing by just solely looking at certain event without thinking or applying their deeply rooted cultural background.
Despite the different, what is more important is how we should learn from each other and the people of both cultures can respect and accept each other’s values and educational system. To the very least, learn how to be a HUMAN.
PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE
As of today, my portfolio for current month of August is down 1.04% mainly due to the bearish stocks in Chinese companies that I have invested in $BABA (Alibaba) , $03690.HK (Meituan Class B) and $0700.HK (Tencent). But my portfolio is still able to withstand the bearish sentiment from China because of diversification in the US stocks.
Since the inception of our fund in May 2020, we have been up close to 43.62%. We are still able to maintain our risk level at 3 or 4 as can be seen from the “average risk score”.
Happy National Day, Malaysia! Stay safe.
MNMLH
31.08.2021
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