China's Diversity and Uniformity

China.

Foreigners often tend to lump China together when talking about it. Chinese people, Chinese language, Chinese cuisine, and so on. When I first started working here, a Chinese friend told me, "Saying 'China is like XX' is like saying 'South America is like XX'."

Thinking about it, they were absolutely right. The size, the population, the culture, and the language too. Not only that, but there are also many overseas Chinese around the world. There are many "ABC"s, or Americans born to Chinese parents. And then there are those born in China who study abroad and return home. When you think about it calmly, lumping together a country with a population of over a billion people is absurd
Even if you combine the populations of the three major metropolitan areas—Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou—it's less than 5% of China's total.

The same goes for cuisine. Foreigners often have conversations like, "Hmm, what should we eat today? Italian? Japanese? Okay, let's go for Chinese." Chinese people's answers are a bit different. "Let's go for lamb skewers," "Let's go for hot pot," "Let's go for beef noodle soup." It's the feeling of going to eat dishes representative of specific regions – whether it's Northeast, Sichuan, or Hunan. As a friend put it, "There's such a huge variety of food within the country itself that there's little need to go out of your way to eat foreign cuisine."

The astonishing penetration of digital technology into daily life is another facet of this country. On the streets, in restaurants, in offices—
scenes, people of all ages and genders are constantly staring intently at various content through their smartphones or tablets. It must be causing a sharp increase in people with stiff shoulders or tripping over things. You start to wonder if they only lift their gaze to film events happening on the street or to take selfies.

Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent—the three major internet conglomerates—integrate and provide everything from search engines
They integrate and provide everything related to daily life: social media, app stores, e-commerce, games, music and video entertainment, payments, travel, taxis, and more. For consumers, it's incredibly convenient. In China, where diversity was once the norm, digital development has given rise to standardized services and values.

Diversity and uniformity. At first glance, these two seemingly contradictory aspects are effortlessly mastered by Chinese society. For them, perhaps they aren't contradictory at all; they're simply combining and utilizing the best elements. Looking ahead, one can't help but feel hopeful that new innovations will emerge from this very dynamic in the near future.

(Supervised by: Global Business Center)

Terracotta Warriors. Though uniform in appearance, each face is distinct.