Asia has been my backyard for almost 5 years already... It seems like it was yesterday and looking back through the fog of time I'm trying to find that old Marcio who arrived in Asia carrying a heart full of dreams and only two luggages! He doesn't exist anymore...
As you can see at the link above it is the largest and most populous continent on Earth and hosts 60% of the world's population, but what does it look like to live here on a daily basis?
First of all... people... Jesus, wherever you go here you are surrounded by millions of them. See the table below:
| Pos | Country | Population |
|---|---|---|
| - | Asia | 3,776,000,000 |
| 1 |  People's Republic of China [1] | 1,322,597,000 |
| 2 |  India | 1,131,043,000 |
| 3 |  Indonesia | 231,627,000 |
| 4 |  Pakistan | 161,998,000 |
| 5 |  Bangladesh | 158,665,000 |
| 6 |  Japan | 127,718,000 |
| 7 |  Philippines | 88,706,300 |
| 8 |  Vietnam | 87,375,000 |
| 9 |  Iran | 71,208,000 |
| 10 |  Thailand | 62,828,706 |
| 11 |  Myanmar | 48,798,000 |
| 12 |  South Korea | 48,512,000 |
| 13 |  Iraq | 28,993,000 |
| 14 |  Nepal | 28,196,000 |
| 15 |  Malaysia | 27,544,000 |
| 16 |  Uzbekistan | 27,372,000 |
| 17 |  Afghanistan | 27,145,000 |
| 18 |  Saudi Arabia | 24,735,000 |
| 19 |  North Korea | 23,790,000 |
| 20 |  Republic of China (Taiwan) | 22,935,000 |
| 21 |  Syria | 22,198,110[2] |
| 22 |  Yemen | 20,727,063 |
| 23 |  Sri Lanka | 19,299,000 |
| 24 |  Kazakhstan | 15,422,000 |
| 25 |  Cambodia | 14,444,000 |
| 26 |  Israel | 7,208,520 |
| 27 |  Hong Kong, China | 7,206,000 |
| 28 |  Tajikistan | 6,736,000 |
| 29 |  Jordan | 5,924,000 |
| 30 |  Laos | 5,859,000 |
| 31 |  Kyrgyzstan | 5,317,000 |
| 32 |  Turkmenistan | 4,965,000 |
| 33 |  Singapore | 4,436,000 |
| 34 |  United Arab Emirates | 4,380,000 |
| 35 |  Lebanon | 4,099,000 |
| 36 |  Palestinian Authority | 4,017,000 |
| 37 |  Kuwait | 2,851,000 |
| 38 |  Mongolia | 2,629,000 |
| 39 |  Oman | 2,595,000 |
| 40 |  East Timor | 1,155,000 |
| 41 |  Qatar | 841,000 |
| 42 |  Bahrain | 753,000 |
| 43 |  Bhutan | 658,000 |
| 44 |  Macau, China | 481,000 |
| 45 |  Brunei | 390,000 |
| 46 |  Maldives | 306,000 |
Out of a list with the 27 most populated cities around the world, 15 cities are in Asia. Take a look: The most populated cities in the world
I come from a city in Brazil, Sorocaba which has about 600k inhabitants which already made me fell claustrophobic sometimes, but in China for instance even though there are villages with smaller populations any city has easily 2 million inhabitants. Take a look at the table below. It is crazy!
City | Metro Area Population | Level | Administrative Area Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 上海 Shanghai | 17,000,000 | Municipality (National central city) | 18,884,600 |
| 北京 Beijing | 13,200,000 | Municipality (National central city) | 17,430,000 |
| 广州 Guangzhou | 12,000,000 | Provincial capital (National central city) | 15,000,000 |
| 深圳 Shenzhen | 8,615,000 | Special economic zone City | 13,300,000 |
| 天津 Tianjin | 8,200,000 | Municipality (National central city) | 11,950,000 |
| 重庆 Chongqing | 7,500,000 | Municipality (National central city) | 32,353,200 |
| 香港 Hong Kong | 7,055,071 | Special Administrative Region | 7,055,071 (2009) |
| 东莞 Dongguan | 6,950,000 | Prefecture | 8,300,000 |
| 南京 Nanjing | 6,800,000 | Provincial capital | 7,588,900 |
| 武汉 Wuhan | 6,600,000 | Provincial capital | 8,970,000 |
| 杭州 Hangzhou | 6,300,000 | Provincial capital | 7,966,000 |
| 沈阳 Shenyang | 5,060,000 | Provincial capital | 7,500,000 |
| 哈尔滨 Harbin | 4,750,000 | Provincial capital | 9,873,742 |
| 成都 Chengdu | 4,750,000 | Provincial capital | 11,300,000 (2007) |
| 合肥 Hefei | 4,650,000 | Provincial capital | 10,100,000 (2006) |
| 郑州 Zhengzhou | 4,360,000 | Provincial capital | 7,500,000 (2007) |
| 济南 Jinan | 4,000,000 | Provincial capital | 6,300,000 (2007) |
| 青岛 Qingdao | 3,800,000 | Sub-provincial city | 8,000,000 (2007) |
| 西安 Xi'an | 3,800,000 | Provincial capital | 10,500,000 (2007) |
| 南昌 Nanchang | 3,790,000 | Provincial capital | 4,990,184 (2007) |
| 大连 Dalian | 3,500,000 | Sub-provincial city | 6,200,000 (2007) |
| 太原 Taiyuan | 3,413,800 (2004) | Provincial capital | 4,000,000 (2006) |
| 汕头 Shantou | 3,200,000 | Special economic zone city | 7,600,000 (2006) |
| 昆明 Kunming | 3,055,000 | Provincial capital | 6,800,000 (2007) |
| 淄博 Zibo | 3,000,000 | Prefecture | 4,510,000 (2006) |
| 惠州 Huizhou | 2,900,000 | Prefecture | 3,210,000 (2006) |
| 贵阳 Guiyang | 2,720,000 | Provincial capital | 3,993,000 (2009) |
| 福州 Fuzhou | 2,710,000 | Provincial capital | 7,000,000 (2006) |
| 石家庄 Shijiazhuang | 2,600,000 | Provincial capital | 9,600,000 |
| 长沙 Changsha | 2,520,000 | Provincial capital | 6,103,000 (2007) |
| 无锡 Wuxi | 2,400,000 | Prefecture | 4,800,000 (2006) |
| 苏州 Suzhou | 2,400,000 | Prefecture | 6,400,000 (2006) |
| 长春 Changchun | 2,290,000 | Provincial capital | 7,400,000 (2007) |
Now just imagine to commute over there using its public transport, or trying to get a taxi, even the quantity of cars on the roads, its pollution, its needs for jobs, housing, healthy care, education etc... Everything must be seem in an exponential basis.
Now go a little deeper into the constitution of these populations: ethnics and religion plays a huge role to hold them altogether! Don't be misleaded by the assumption that China for instance has 1,3 billion of Chinese and that's it.
Even though Han Chinese makes up 91% of its population there are at least 55 other nationalities or ethnic groups recognized by the Chinese Government in mainland China and regular clashes in Tibet or with the Uighurs minorities have lately made news around the world.
One child policy
During the 1950s right after the formation of the People' s Republic of China laws banning birth control, sterilization, and abortion were repealed, and China started to mass produce and distribute contraceptives, including, condoms, diaphragms, and spermicidal jelly. It seems Chairman Mao Zedong believed that with a smaller population it would be easier for China to give the intended Great Leap Forward.
The result?!: Nowadays 70% is the rate of "Working age population" in China, but by 2050 it will be 50% which means half of its population will have to work to carry the aged other half on their backs... which could amount to 700 million people.
India
Now take a look on India with its population of 1,2 billion people and counting... It is so far the second most populated country but it is projected to surpass China by 2050 reaching 1,6 billion "touchi"* people...
* touchi: joking, but it is like Chinese refers to Indians. Touchi is a kind of black bean.
India has tried to curb the increasing of birth rates (2,76 children born/woman - China has 1,7), but has a strong tradition of arranged marriages before people age their 20's and start to have kids right after that. It is projected that by 2050 the rate of "Working age population" will still be around +60%. It gives it an edge compared with the dramatic challenge of China, but still India has a long way to go. Despite India's impressive economic growth over recent decades, it still contains the largest concentration of poor people in the world.
India has 80% of Hindus, 13% of Muslins, 2% of Christians, 5% others and has an even bigger number of spoken languages:
| Rank | Language | Speakers | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hindi dialects[23] | 422,048,642 | 41.03% |
| 2 | Bengali | 83,369,769 | 8.11% |
| 3 | Telugu | 74,002,856 | 7.19% |
| 4 | Marathi | 71,936,894 | 6.99% |
| 5 | Tamil | 60,793,814 | 5.91% |
| 6 | Urdu | 51,536,111 | 5.01% |
| 7 | Gujarati | 46,091,617 | 4.48% |
| 8 | Kannada | 37,924,011 | 3.69% |
| 9 | Malayalam | 33,066,392 | 3.21% |
| 10 | Oriya | 33,017,446 | 3.21% |
| 11 | Punjabi | 29,102,477 | 2.83% |
| 12 | Assamese | 13,168,484 | 1.28% |
| 13 | Maithili | 12,179,122 | 1.18% |
| 14 | Bhili/Bhilodi | 9,582,957 | 0.93% |
| 15 | Santali | 6,469,600 | 0.63% |
| 16 | Kashmiri | 5,527,698 | 0.54% |
| 17 | Nepali | 2,871,749 | 0.28% |
| 18 | Gondi | 2,713,790 | 0.26% |
| 19 | Sindhi | 2,535,485 | 0.25% |
| 20 | Konkani | 2,489,015 | 0.24% |
| 21 | Dogri | 2,282,589 | 0.22% |
| 22 | Khandeshi | 2,075,258 | 0.20% |
| 23 | Kurukh | 1,751,489 | 0.17% |
| 24 | Tulu | 1,722,768 | 0.17% |
| 25 | Meitei (Manipuri) | 1,466,705* | 0.14% |
| 26 | Bodo | 1,350,478 | 0.13% |
| 27 | Khasi | 1,128,575 | 0.112% |
| 28 | Mundari | 1,061,352 | 0.105% |
| 29 | Ho | 1,042,724 | 0.103% |
We just saw some details on the Population, Ethnics and Religion of two countries in Asia: China and India.
Even though Asia is much more than that I would say that their influences go deep into each one of the other countries here. With different extents there are always bounds with either China or India, sometimes with both of them.
Please, don't mention the Europeans cause even though there were some interbreed they came to Asia latest on the XV century.
I could be killed by saying that, but even Korea and Japan which are far in the Northeast Asia region can trace back their Chinese origins, not only Chinese for sure but they are not Caucasians right?!
Remember once in Seoul when having lunch with a wannabe Korean girlfriend she almost killed me when I mentioned her Chinese heritage... She was outraged but I said: "Look Korea is a peninsula which the only way in/out is by land though China. Your history dates back to 300.000 years and there were no boats by that time. Which is the logical conclusion?". She left me for good!
Coming back to myself
I lived the first 4 yrs in Singapore a country with a strong Chinese influence (70% of its population) even though it was part of Malaysia till 1965 when it self proclaimed a Republic, which makes me laugh, but that's another story.
If I could use a word to define Singapore, it would be "money"... it is all about money!
Ethics, Honor... what's that? Only words...
One must understand Chinese mentality. There are two basic characteristics:
- strong bound with the family therefore a huge cult over ones "ancestors"
- no welfare provided by the state: so things like public healthy and retirement don't exist
The immediate effect is that everything is based and provided by the family and its connections (mafia). Chinese people are prepared to count only on themselves and their network so they don't believe in Government, Justice or on the efficiency of Laws for their basic needs. If something goes wrong instead of looking for the police or lawyers they will head back to their family's connections, be it for a simple bureaucratic issue or to "punch" some bully.
Once they cannot expect anything from the government they save money... Their savings are the highest on the planet (50%). Which means every month at least 50% of their salaries are saved or invested. In Europe the average is 20%.
Within a Chinese family there are no secrets. Everything is said and discussed openly meaning that is also accepted some strong "warning" or "disapproval". The head of the family is the father: he has the final word in anything. On the lack of a father, the oldest brother and so on...
They were born for gambling. They love it and they always gamble for money. Westerners if they play cards is only for fun... for a Chinese this is a serious business. Which means they are very competitive and hate to lose. A Chinese will never lose, whatever it happens.
This naturally makes a Chinese mindset very different of their Westerners counterparts and one will have to deal with it in a daily basis. If there is a vacancy in the office they will bring you some relative or someone out of their connections: it doesn't matter whether you need an engineer and they bring you a teacher... that's not the point. The point is to make a favor to someone and have a credit for the future. For a westerner mind this is nepotism. I found in my job here lots of people working in key positions without the minimum background required.
Their values are different and one have to find its place among them from another standards, as a starting point. Forget your own beliefs and ethics if you want to make business or live with them. That's a cultural aspect and it doesn't mean they are the worse human beings on Earth, it is only their way of doing things and if their cultural values don't see it as wrong they don't have any problem with that. It is only a question of perspective. Just place yourself in the other side and try to understand how they see our values... you will be surprised with your findings!
China will rule the world as all predictions say. It is already the nr 2 Economy and will surpass USA as nr 1 soon, which means there will be a great change in the world's mentality and culture values once everybody will have to adapt to this new order... a Chinese new order... and I tell you, China has been humiliated in the last 5 centuries since the arrival of the Europeans. They will never forget that and they are ruthless, the most ruthless people I have ever seen. They can tolerate you, but you will never be accepted as one of them.
Trust me, I am in Asia for 5 year and I have a Chinese boyfriend whom I live with! They can be adorable, but they will never buy your values...
So, what all of this has changed on me?
That old Marcio who came to Asia, as a phoenix had to reinvent himself out of the ashes!
Nowadays my world is much broaden than before: People are a reflexion of their culture, environment, history and religion, but at the end we are all the same. We all want to succeed, to provide for our families, to live well among friends and families, to believe in something bigger than us and to be happy.
We all need to eat and go toilet!
We all are born and dye and what makes us different is what we do out of our lives between these two extremes.
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