Should the US defend Taiwan with military force?

[sdifox]

Well I could easily look at them (my own father was a migrant from South Asia, as is half my family), but the picture seems extremely mixed, depending on which part of "Asia" one is talking about, and what their background was back home - what economic class, and also rural vs urban (plenty of people from South Asia here have no such culture of 'studying hard', I've known many in that category and they vary widely in that respect, as is reflected in the relevant statistics).

Plus you have to factor in the fact that migrants are a specific group themselves, with both a selection-effect and particular incentives/pressures acting on them, that aren't necessarily applicable to all those who stayed back 'home'. What often happens with migration is that the first generation of migrants take a step down the class heirarchy as the cost of migrating, but their offspring retain the cultural (and socio-economic) values of the previous generations and soon climb back up again...but that doesn't mean they are especially hard-working due to purely cultural considerations, it's just class reasserting itself.

Fine look at those that did not emmigrate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/03/19/these-indian-parents-climbed-a-school-wall-to-help-their-kids-cheat-on-an-exam/?outputType=amp

You should see Taiwanese parents pushing their kids. I remember going to an English tutor in grade 7. He would not let you go home until you pass the day's test. My parents had to beg him to take me in and that is with an intro from his friend. I also had math tutor.
At school we had weekly tests and monthly tests on top of mid terms and finals. Everything in grades 7-12 was prep work for the university entrance exam. Sure there are students not destined for higher education, those classes are called "pasture class", they had a much easier life. My home room reacher had even "borrowed" physed class to do more exam drills.

Also, corporal punishment was expected. I had the fortune of being in the same class as a guy from a rattan furniture factory. His father dropped off a bundle of 4ft long two inch thick rattan and told the homeroom teacher to call him when she needed more. I think she went through two bundles that year.

My own seven year olds have math turors... They also have piano, swimming and Mandarin classes, all on top of regular school work.



And to bring this back on topic, Nixon was hoping to insert a wedge between China and USSR.

 

[Torn Mind]

I had no idea there was this much regional difference in China, thanks for posting.

I did a Google search to get more of an idea of the different varieties of language:



What are Cantonese and Mandarin?

Mandarin and Cantonese are both tonal languages (different tones indicate different words in the same way that pronunciation does). They both belong to the Chinese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are two clearly differentiated Chinese languages. They are separate sub-branches of Chinese, not merely dialects or local varieties, and they are largely mutually unintelligible.

Mandarin is the majority Chinese language in China (spoken by about 70% of the population). Cantonese is one of about six less-spoken Chinese languages with the same roots in ancient Chinese, including Wu (Shanghainese) and Min (Fujianese), which also each have about 6% of China’s population using them as a first language.

Cantonese vs Mandarin: The 7 Main Differences

Mandarin and Cantonese are different Chinese language sub-branches, not merely dialects. Find out the real differences between Cantonese and Mandarin here.

www.chinahighlights.com

To the mainland Chinese, what is called Mandarin is referred to as "common language", aka Putonghua. 普通話
Given that's it's the mandated language taught in schools, it's no surprise it is the most common. The others have to be preserved from parent to child, and the big daddy CCP discourages and suppresses the use of the many local vernaculars. Real deal Shanghainese is about as close to dead as the peregrine falcon used to be. The old generation are gray hairs(my mom included) and will be dying off soon. Modern Shanghainese has had outside influence and thus is not the same.

Same ancient "roots" really don't mean much irl. It's about the same as trying comprehend Spanish vs Italian, but even those language still have some vocal overlap because of Latin. The entire vocabulary and flow between different Chinese languages is practically incomprehensible. I personally don't like Mandarin that much. I find it rather "choppy". Now, I haven't learned much of it(only 3 years in high school).

There are many more languages. My mother comes from Shanghai and her preferred language is Shanghainese. She can speak Mandarin, but sometimes now in her old age, a little Shanghainese slips into the speaking. If there's a named city, there is a good chance that city probably has its own language and only other cities within the vicinity can communicate in the same language. .

My aunt migrated to Hong Kong via marriage during the dark ages of CCP rule. Her son(my cousin) grew up learning Cantonese and has not preserved his Shanghainese ability. He also knows English because Hong Kong was under British rule. Likely knows Mandarin because it is the state-established business language. So he is trilingual and could have been quadrilingual. When my aunt goes to the doctor in Hong Kong, her son has to come along and translate because the doc communicates in Cantonese. Complicated, is it not?

My family resided the province of Jiangsu. That province is about the same as Kentucky in terms of square miles but has a lot more people. Around the time of my mother's and aunt's birth, there were already 36 million. When they got out of there by the 80s, it was 60 million full Nowadays, the province is stuffed with 82 million. For perspective, the current population of California is 39 million, and Cali has much more sq mi. With so many people in a little area, there wasn't not much need to think about a "whole China" and the difference in language solidified differences.

And of course, people hailing from different areas develop a reputation of sorts.