Ok so recently i have been researching China's ecconomy and wealth system and what i don't understand is why the gap between the poor and the weathy is so huge; i mean, what good does it actually do for China's ecconomy in the long run and why is the goverment so seemingly reluctant to sort it out?
Sorry if this seems realy basic stuff to you guys but i am still learning so much about all this kind of stuff and i would be realy grateful if somone could explain it to me realy simply
Thankyou for you time and for reading my post and any info is much appreciated

China? Boy you come up with some tough ones Tokis. What you have always had in China is a predominantly rural population. Very poor peasants who can't get educated. No access to guanxi (influential friends and relatives). Lately they have been gravitating towards the cities to find work in construction, factories etc. Things are getting better for them but they can never really catch up. My impression of the Chinese is that they are industrious people who like to work. The government is interested in keeping the population busy in the cause of social stability.

This is the best I can do at the moment.

Cheers for the info woww
I still find it difficult to understand though, surely if China supported their peasant communitys more there would be more growth and stability for the economy in general, no?

Asian societies generally speaking are less egalitarian than what you are used to Tokis. You might even consider them corrupt. Don't worry. The Chinese are doing OK. There is plenty of growth and as long as they are working they are fine. Their problems are more to do with pollution and overcrowding.

Yeah i suppose you're right; i just real sorry for the peasants over there and wanted to understand their situation a little bit more. Yes i do consider China to be corrupt in some ways, but then again most countrys are.
On a different topic, i am considering learning japanese or chinese in the future; politically speaking in your opinion which do you think is the most useful language to learn? I have a feeling that it is Chinese, but japanese is more of a language that i am at home with.

Chinese (Mandarin) is quite easy to learn if you just want a vocabulary of a few hundred words. It is difficult to read and write though. I don't know about Japanese. Never tried.

Both languages would be useful for somebody your age to learn. I don't know what kind of career you have in mind.

Yeah, China is a curious country and society.
It doesn't really fit into the stereotype of a communist, egalitarian state, as very few states do, actually. A few thousand years of history and culture are more important than what any politician may say principles of governance are based on. It's a vast and diverse place.

I am learning about China, too.

I believe it will take its place as a major player on the world stage in the near future, possibly become a military and economic superpower on par with the US, which will be a welcome development for most of us who are tired of listening to propaganda about 'freedom', while the US invade and submit one country after another.

China is a huge country with several languages, which one were you thinking of, Tokis?

I am not sure yet; to be honest i didn't know there were 2 languages, is it like they have an "old" Chinese language and a "modern" version like the Japanese?

A long time ago when i was doing my GCSE's i started to learn Japanese which i actually found quite easy but i had to give it up due to lack of time, plus i was at full-time boarding school and my teacher couldn'y make it there.
I have been living on my own for 3 years now and i finally have the time to take a language up again so it is why i am considering the 2 options; before hand i wouldn't have even considered Chinese simply because i didn't know anything about their culture but since i having been researching their culture, history and politics/modern day society the prospect of learning Chinese has become more appealing.
One of the issues i am facing right now though is the more i learn about China and Japan, the more i realise how much the two countrys hate each other...I read news articles all the time from both sides and there seems alot of predujice/hate between the two countrys. I know this may sound a little farfetched, but basically one day i want to visit both countrys; what if i learn Japanese for example but go to China i fear that i will not recieve a very hearty welcome...

I would like to learn both languages both i fear it will be a long time before i get to learn just more than one of them, so this is why i am facing this decision as i want to learn the most "useful" one first.
Some of the other reasons so far for learning Chinese is that i am also considering taking back up a martial art i used to learn called "Wing Chun" which is Chinese in origin; alot of the moves in it have Chinese names and learning Chinese helps you get a better understanding of the moves you perform.
Also, i am becomming more and more in Chinese history which also goes for Japanese history as well.
The reasons for learning Japanese is that i have always been interested in their culture and my Aunt and some of my cousins are Japanese so i think i would be showing respect to them in being the first non-japanese member in our family learning the language. On the ther hand i only get to see them twice a year.

I realy can't decide which one to learn so i was hoping you guys can give me some insight on the matter, sorry about the long post !

They have Mandarin in the North and Cantonese in the South. Then they have over 1,000 smaller language groups. China has been an imperial power for quite a long time and has absorbed quite a few nations in that time.
Both Mandarin and Cantonese are written exactly the same, though.

Japanese letters were borrowed from Chinese, so they look the same, although the sounds are different. I don't know a whole more, though.

Japanese pronunciation is easy, although the grammar is horrid. If you are counting you need completely different numbes if you are counting ducks, cars, doors, plates of food, etc. Not counters like many languages have, a different counting system.... ICK!

I dunno know about Chinese pronunciation - I don't even know if its tonal or not. I've a feeling it is...

Another thing about Chinese is that it has an influence on the neighboring languages, sorta like Latin. So you'll find neighboring languages easier to learn.

China has been trying to invade Japan since forever - the word tsunami comes from a major invasion attempt by china that was thwarted by a big storm. I doubt that as a gringo/geyjin/farang etc that learning japenese vs chinese will make a huge difference. Learning anythng at all is better than nothing. I know I get props here in hailand for knowing Spanish. (at least, I used to)

Cheers for the info expat i found it realy helpful; i think i am going to learn Japanese first.

hello,Tokis-phoenix,
I hail from China,
what expat said is almost approaching the truth,
everyone in China can speak Mandarin,though someone in the south are good at Cantonese. if you controled this language you can communicate with every Chinese in the world,included the people in taiwan,Singapore etc. even you can communicate with the people in Japan and Korea by writing.
so my suggestion is that after being familiar or fed up with Japaniese try to learn some Chinese ,soon you will find it is not very difficult and so beautiful ,the poem,literature,philosophy and the faith of peace will make you can't stop.
as expat said "Learning anythng at all is better than nothing" I hope you will get what you want quickly!
by the way you are welcome in China with any language.

Cheers for the advice Wang the difficulty of the language is not realy a problem as i now have the time to learn such languages and even though i bad at learning languages in general i find languages like japanese and chinese quite easy to pick up compared to others; im hoping to go on holiday to Japan or China or maybe both within the next year so learning the languages would be very helpful in getting around such countrys; i am going to try learning them both at once now and see how it goes(i will probably leave the hardest language to later to learn) .