[ceuk]

As a Brit, I struggled to get much interesting out of this considering how many times he mentions "Europe" (in that condescendingly general way that only US folks seem to manage).

He talks about "European" prospects and his trip to Denmark but then cites London as a representative example?

This almost broke my brain it felt so incoherent.

Never mind that (despite my personal wishes) we're not even part of the EU (which I assume is what he means by "Europe"). Surely he knows what an anomaly London is? It's not representative of anything except itself.

Referencing the extreme wage dispersion and severe housing pressure of London in a rant about Europe in general is a completely pointless endeavour.

He did say one thing I agree with. If you like good food, rich culture and great surroundings, "Europe" is indeed a lovely place to be for the most part.

Maybe I'll just keep that as my takeaway. It's too early in the year for doom and gloom anyway

[BrokenCogs]

It's pretty clear he meant Europe as the continent, which London is a part of.

It's very similar to "Europeans" broadly generalizing the US as one homogenous country, assuming everyone and everything in Chicago is the same as New York or Dallas.

Source: me, a brit, who has lived and worked in UK and US.

[kubb]

He’s a Chinese guy in the US. He thinks in terms of large monoliths. The nuance of 40 different cultures on a small continent might be lost on him.

That’s OK.

We all have some approximation of reality in our brains which is necessarily shaped by our life experiences.

[kankerlijer]

There is something very irritating seeing someone dismiss someone else on the internet using condescending therapy speak 'Thats Ok', nevermind the fact that calling him out as some ignorant Chinese guy while China has hundreds of cultures and languages, as if a Chinese person couldn't comprehend... Europe.

[ViktorRay]

Your statement here is pretty ironic.

China also has many different cultures, languages and so on for the over 1.4 billion people who live there. Why would the “nuance” of Europe be “lost” on a Chinese person?

[tshaddox]

> The nuance of 40 different cultures on a small continent might be lost on him.

I don’t know about the author in particular, but Americans are generally aware of the “nuanced” European history of near constant war between rival nations, states, factions, and religions.

[opjjf]

His wife is Austrian though, I would have hoped that adds a bit to his perspective.

[maxglute]

He's a Canadian in America writing about China. He writes about bloc strategic competition. EU+UK is treated as bloc in this context, individual European countries are generally irrelevant alone.

[DiscourseFan]

Since I’ve lived in the UK before, I will say that yes it is not the same as continental Europe, but culturally, socially, and economically it is deeply tied into Europe, is European. One could say the same thing about Ireland—except the majority of Ireland is in the EU. Does Europe stop at the border of Northern Ireland?

[hdgvhicv]

Northern Ireland is quite different to Great Britain, moreso than the difference between England, Wales and Scotland.

[tshaddox]

> Never mind that (despite my personal wishes) we're not even part of the EU (which I assume is what he means by "Europe").

Nah, Americans aren’t particularly interested in which Europeans are offended by being identified as “Europeans” this week. If we say “Europe” without qualification we’re probably just talking about the continent. (And no, we don’t even use the word “continent” as a distinction within Europe, except when referring to hotel breakfasts.)

Americans don’t really have much of a concept of what European identity is, and we don’t really care (other than being grateful for a few decades of relative peace after 1,000 or so years of near constant war).

[ceuk]

> Americans don’t really have much of a concept of what European identity is, and we don’t really care

Cool. Look, I made that comment with a lot of fondness, but if this is the case, maybe leave the European analysis to someone else..

[xixixao]

He’s writing about China and US. Sure, you can call Europe more diverse, but still it makes sense to draw some generalizations, and I don’t think he’s far from the mark (having myself lived in EU, UK and US).

[npalli]

Just like San Francisco and Dallas/Texas (from his article) are very different in the US, we should expect lot of differences in Europe (as others mentioned, he clubs UK with EU). Housing is a general problem for all major cities though, not sure why you think it is unique to London in the whole continent. Stockholm, Paris, Dublin, Lisbon to name a few, are pretty bad for housing in their own unique ways. Certainly shouldn't be "breaking your brain".

[verbify]

> Just like San Francisco and Dallas/Texas (from his article) are very different in the US, we should expect lot of differences in Europe

Dallas and San Francisco are both English speaking cities with a shared recent history of being part of the same nation. Most cities in Europe are as close as New York and Mexico City - Dallas and San Francisco is probably more analogous to Milan and Naples (different cultures, different histories, but now speak the same language and are part of the same nation).

[j7ake]

I found it the right granularity. He talks about USA, China, and Europe: within each have considerable diversity in culture, history, and identity.

He mentions Europe without more nuance for the same reason he mentions China without more nuance: he’s talking big picture.

[dworks]

>As a Brit, I struggled to get much interesting out of this

As someone who didn't study China's tech sector, but spent more than a decade working in it, my view is similar on Dan Wang's writing on China.

[yunnpp]

"Africa"