Chinese Workers Abandon Silicon Valley for Riches Back Home

I am a Norwegian in Silicon Valley that have spent most of my career with Chinese colleagues, both in academia and industry, and my anecdata seem to indicate that my highly talented China-born colleagues are sadly leaving because;

- China has great opportunities for riches

- Getting a US VISA is hard and painful when you come from a populous country like China or India

- My China-born colleagues seem to in general be more conservative, and Silicon Valley has become violently intolerant of anyone that holds an opinion different than the predominant view

Only the first reason is somewhat objective, while the two others cause stress in their daily life as their ability to provide can at any time be removed due to what is perceived as arbitrary reasons. Everything being equal, many of them have told me they would prefer the less crowded Silicon Valley.

> My China-born colleagues seem to in general be more conservative, and Silicon Valley has become violently intolerant of anyone that holds an opinion different than the predominant view

What exactly does this mean? Are they evangelical baptists, libertarians, reactionaries, nationalist, homophobic, misogynist, racist, anti-atheist, pro family-values, pro corporation, skeptical of global warming, pro fossil fuel energy, war hawks, or something else altogether? It's really quite difficult to interpret your statement as anything meaningful without clarification, and there are ten thousand different ways to be "conservative".

And to be clear, "conservative" is anything but a dirty word or something I'm trying to critique here--just a context-sensitive one. It could be a pejorative or a value.

Otherwise it doesn't add much to the conversation--it is itself a reactionary statement.

>> My China-born colleagues seem to in general be more conservative, and Silicon Valley has become violently intolerant of anyone that holds an opinion different than the predominant view

> What exactly does this mean? Are they evangelical baptists, libertarians, reactionaries, nationalist, homophobic, misogynist, racist, anti-atheist, pro family-values, pro corporation, skeptical of global warming, pro fossil fuel energy, war hawks, or something else altogether?

That's a long list.

    baptist: no
    libertarians: definitely no
    reactionaries: depends on what you mean
    nationalist: yes, beyond your wildest dreams... btw fuck Japan
    homophobic: no, disapproval of homosexuality is likely, but not phobia
    misogynist: rarely, but routinely sexist
    racist: yes... especially vs Japanese
    anti-atheist: of course not
    pro family-values: absolutely
    pro corporation: yes
    skeptical of global warming: no
    pro fossil fuel energy: not on the radar
    war hawks: only if rightful and historical claims are not respected
    something else altogether: many, many things

Silicon Valley is strident to the point where it's annoying, even for people invested in entirely orthogonal worldviews.

Do keep in mind, of course, that not all Chinese people are the same.