[Hexcles]

As a fellow Chinese who's been living in the West for a few years, I feel obligated to speak out against this:

Although I hold strong dissent against Chinese government in many aspects (in particular censorship, e.g. GFW), although I agree the traditional norm of Chinese culture and society does not commend rebellions, your argument is a slippery slope at its best. Essentially, you are exaggerating from both ends: a. going from political suppression and a humble (or even submissive, if you wish) culture to suppression on technical innovation; b. reading too much from the so-called SV culture and success stories, so much so to draw a strong equivalence between innovation and (social) disruption.

For (a), as many peer comments have already stated, there are many counterexamples. Japan has a much more submissive culture and Russia has similarly, if not more, suppressive political atmosphere. Innovations still happen in both places. And I also suggest you to read more history to see how many innovations were achieved in unwelcoming environment. Yes, these are obstacles and might affect the scale and success of innovations, but obstacles exist everywhere (if there were no opposition, rebellions even wouldn't be called "rebellions" in SV), and small (in the sense of domain, e.g. purely technical) innovations are still innovations, which leads to the second point--

For (b), "disruption" is really a buzz word loved by VC, and there is a trend of extending such buzz word to contexts we would not use this word originally, for example an invention in a particular domain is now a "disruption" in that domain, which makes a ripple sound like a tide. Fundamental, social disruptions can be significantly harder in China, but that does not prevent other innovations, or if you prefer, "disruptions", from happening.

In a nutshell, you are stretching these two ends to force them to meet: the negative effect of political/cultural suppression --> impossible to innovate <-- the "disruptions" of innovations

And finally, pardon my language, your examples and references are utter nonsense. I know where you are trying to go from them, but they do not prove your point by any means.

[LiweiZ]

As a native Chinese, I think the parent commenter knows China better (on the right track but far from being a real expert). The parent looks at this from an outsider's point of view with limited info resources. Now, many of us Chinese think we know ourselves better. But that's simply not the case. This age is one of the most reflection-less in our history. The progress of science constantly brought up different perspectives of the world and there is so little applied to how we Chinese look at ourselves and the world. And the groups reflect most are younger poor students and people involved in trading in finance. Those so called democracy movement leaders and thinkers/observers/writers are just jokes producing brain-dead bullshit begging for fundings from either the ruling party or its opponents, if not both. I ended up with giving up looking for real light from contemporary Chinese contents a few years ago since there was only silence. Probably talked too much here, haha.

[chaostheory]

Maybe I should have elaborated more on a really sensitive issue. I'm not saying that it's impossible to climb Mt Everest with an extra 50lbs on your back that isn't useful for mountaineering, but it's much harder. i.e. Innovation may happen but the rate of innovation is much lower as well as the impact

If my post is 'utter nonsense' then prove it with better arguments

These comments remind me of the time when I refused to believe that Mao was behind a famine or the Cultural Revolution after years of living in the West; it got to the point where I was arguing with a professor in class...

[Hexcles]

Well, I'm not saying your entire post is nonsense, but rather your choice of examples and citations. And here again, the example that you used to refuse believe Mao contributed to the famine or cultural revolution has nothing to do with this discussion. And in your original post, those random success "secrets" you cited really don't help your argument.

[sharun]

As an Indian all I can say is don't even bother addressing western delusions about themselves. Time will be the judge on the quality of innovation a culture built on celebrity worship, instant gratification and mindless consumption can produce.

[csa]

While I agree that your characterization of "innovation" might be accurate in terms of measures like column-inches or click-through rates in today's online media, I think history will look much more favorably on the lasting contemporary innovations from western nations that withstand the test of time.

While I have great hope for innovation in various Asian countries moving forward, I'm not sure that there will be many purely homegrown major innovations from these places for the next decade or three.

FWIW, I think that the catalyst for Asian innovation will be the exploration of areas that many religious westerners find inappropriate -- stem cell research, genetics research, etc. The question is whether then will be truly independent, or whether there will be a brain drain from the west that helps lay the foundation (much like Europeans did for the US in the twentieth century).

Regardless, we are in exciting times.

[muninn_]

Because people in China and India don't have celebrities or Facebook accounts? If you want to be critical, at least try to be fair.

[EliRivers]

It does seem to have worked out well for them so far.

[nihonde]

It's like knowing that the emperor has no clothes and letting him show his bare ass until the inevitable cold of winter claims him.