this chinese thingy is both very itneresting and educational. Interesting in the sense that some actually is true, and educational in that it keeps our minds broaden to many cultures and its foundations/principles, not that to judge but learning about one of the most diverse groups of pple ont he planet.
And I do hope that no Samoan can just criticize or make fun of the Chinese cultral values and beliefs like most of us always do

As a Samoan proud of my cultural roots, I am also proud that China has provided economic and cultural richness to our people for the past two centuries. We all have at least one relative with Chinese roots that is a fact. Most people do not read much on China because we are in love with either the movies that come out of the USA or the hip-hop musice many of our youth imitate. But on a cultural level, Samoa has so much that is similar to Chinese culture. Some of it good and a lot that is good and seves as a foundation to our aganu'u. (1) Chinese and Samoan ancient culture highly valued the concept of children not be heard. To this day, this value is slowly fading for a good purpose, especially with the development and understanding of mental health and the sociall ills of suicide, domestic violence and child abuse. (2) Samoans value communalism - our lands are shared and not owned by anyone. Our fruits and fish that are catched are distributed on this concept... o le inati o le faifeau, o le mea tausami mo le sa'o o le aiga, ole me taumafa mo si lo'omatua e tuaoi etc. We look after our families and neighbors; this concept is also the very foundation of Chinese society. (3) Samoa values various characteristics we affiliate with various creatures, e.g., the vigilance of ants to harbor food crums, the beauty of our lupe from which many of our ancient proverbs were inspired, the tale of the rat and the octopus... etc. But the main difference is in the magnitude in which these tales are exposed... For example there are nearly 2 billion Chinese struggling to make a life on very little land compared to our 190,000 trying to make sense out of this capitalistic value system that does not jive with our communal life style. The Chinese have over 5,000 years of written culture compared to our 3,000 seafaring adventure that started off the coast of China... So the cycle continues..... We are actually one people, but due to wanderlust heart of our ancestors... they saw hope in the distant horizon, less wars, perhaps; more food, perhaps; more land to cultivate, definitely a hope to hold onto. When the first Chinese began to reach our beautiful Samoa in the 19th Century, they had manifested one of our proverbs, of families being separated and one day shall meet again through their descendants -- Chinese and Samoans. Although we have evolved into two distinct races, but our cultures still link us in commonalities and respect for our differences as well.

Well, the relationship now extends to our economic development. Many question why the Chinese have been so benevolent in building all these magnificent buildings for Samoa, then cancell all the loans for the Pacific nations, including Samoa's? Look at our cultural links and answer lies there.

God Bless the People of Samoa and the People of Mei Kuo (The Middle Kingdom) aka China!!!!!