I was returning home from Starbucks today enjoying the beautiful Shanghai afternoon, which seem to be aplenty lately, and witnessed an occurance that made me realize why China is doing better than the rest of the world (Okay, so this might not be true, but lets just let it ride for now).  The sun was shining brightly and picturesquely being filtered through the leaves of the oak trees that line the roads of the French concession.  I looked up to see a fairly common sight on the Shanghai sidewalks, that of two youths in their late teens playing badminton.  There is no net.  There is no court.  Just two raquets, a birdie, and wild imagination.  What was intruging about this particular couple was the total and utter looks of elation on their faces.  They had found nirvana here on Earth.  I thought to myself, ‘They are just hitting a piece of cork with feathers attached to it, back and forth right?’

I knew then that the Chinese must be so much more socially and mentally advanced than us that there was no real questioning their greatness.