While I do admit to being just as tired as the next guy of hearing the "five thousands years of history/culture" cliche, it also bugs me when people say things like "the Chinese do this..." or "Chinese philosophers thought that...". Both geographically and historically, China spans an inordinately large space. It's important to specify who in China is releasing the new computer chip, or when the Chinese believed that man's health was intertwined with the well-being of his deceased ancestors. I wonder if the USA may have gone through the same process with Japan: I seem to recall reading a lot of books about "the Japanese" that gave me the impression of being very antiquated. So now, let's not make the same mistake with China. And at least one person on Slashdot agrees with me.