One of several articles on this: https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-china-supercomputers-idCAKBN2R223O

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Yeah in Beijing and Shanghai there are streaks of elitism which were (maybe still are) pretty bad. It's the same kind of lib-brained elitism that you'd find in New Yorkers talking shit about Kentuckyans. Calling someone a 农村人 is contextually like calling someone a hick or a hillbilly.

    I think it's starting to get better now because there's a trend of young people on social media blogging about their experiences leaving city jobs and getting into farming getting big followings, but you know how these things are - it takes a long time to get over prejudices.

    As for whether or not it's a slur, I think it's one of those words that is contextually positive, neutral, or a slur. Chinese is a much higher context language than English, but the best analogy I can think of is "black". There's a big difference between "she is black" and "of course she stole that, she is black."