[Sihanoukville, 11/7/23] When I visited Kolab, Cambodia six weeks ago, I could see the basic accommodations of any settlement. There was a market where food was sold, not just to take home, but to eat right there. With plastic stools at the crudest wooden tables, none qualified as a restaurant, but it was good enough for locals. Clothing, household goods and farming tools were also available at wooden stalls. Kolab’s most impressive building was its Buddhist temple, with a school attached to it. Everything in Kolab grew from the needs of its inhabitants, with their market the most essential. Should their eateries, temple and school disappear, they can still go on.
I can personally testify that many Chinese are inveterate gamblers. In our younger years, I would occasionally come home from work around midnight to find my Taiwanese wife hosting various acquaintances, playing mahjong. They would play long into the night. Though she only played occasionally, in games that were always for smaller stakes (perhaps fortunately, it was all we could afford back then), some of these people were fanatics and would play every day if they could scratch up a game. She told me about some of them playing for big stakes, where it was not uncommon to win or lose several thousand dollars in a single session. The games she would play in were for relative chump change, so obviously the lure for her fellow players was the action as much as the actual amount of money at stake.
I visited the occasional casino in my Navy days, but by the time I got married I had pretty much lost the taste for it. The last time I went to a casino for the purpose of playing was in the 1990s. Some are much friendlier than others. The Foxwoods Casino in rural Connecticut was one of the nicest, friendliest and most generous with comps. In addition to locals driving out there, I'd see the buses rolling in from NYC--they'd ferry them across from Long Island and bus them up. Lots of Chinese, too, I think they even had Pai Gow set up for them. They finally went belly up due to a new competitor opening up right next to the main highway. Can't ask a rabid gambler to drive 15 minutes through the countryside to get his fix!
Atlantic City was on the other end of the spectrum--cold and rude, put me off on my very first visit. It was almost like they were telling you to just leave a check at the cashier's case and save yourself the trouble of playing. Considering that you were supposed to be having fun in exchange for your inevitable loss, you wouldn't think this would be a very successful business model, but they seemed to be doing well enough.
Las Vegas used to be a cool place in the 70s when I first went there. But around 2015, a recurring industry conference I attended scheduled one of their meetings at a Las Vegas casino. It was the first time I'd been back to Vegas since the late 80s, and it had totally changed. Instead of the western ambiance it used to have, it was now a sterile high rise city that put me off completely. The casino itself felt like Atlantic City--all about money, and no concern about whether or not the customers were enjoying themselves. The room was set up to do everything possible to drive you out of the room and down to the casino--they didn't even give you bottled water.
I'm old enough to remember when anything other than nickel poker with a few locals was considered sketchy if not immoral, and gambling was illegal, supposedly on moral grounds. Then came the state lottery, and that argument went out the window. Now here we are, with Indian reservations and the occasional little burg "creating jobs" with their casinos. Another signal of Western decline, i guess.
The following book translated into French from the original Chinese 旧上海的烟赌娼 (Jiu shanghai de yan du chang) should be considered the definitive account of the place that opium , gambling and prostitution occupied in the national psyche of the Chinese people, albeit in bygone Shanghai.
But this passion and urge for gambling is still very much alive in today's Chinese psyche. I would think that this is the way the average Chinese person attempts to escape from the emptiness and despair of his life.
Many peoples have managed to find some form of spiritual solace, but the Chinese have only produced a form of materialistic and transactional superstition which translates naturally into gambling.
I'm no expert, but I suspect the difference between the Chinese attitude to gambling and the Western one may have a lot to do with the greater acceptance by Chinese of the importance of fortune (whether luck or fate) in life's outcomes. Westerners tend to believe that life's outcomes have more to do with one's own choices than with chance.
When I was younger, I had a more Western attitude about this. But as I have grown older I have developed a much greater appreciation for how much of my life was actually good fortune rather than good choices. Don't get me wrong--I do think I made mostly right choices. But as I ponder my earlier life's experience, I have come to appreciate how so many things could have gone so wrong, but somehow, because I was just lucky, they didn't.
Life for the common people of the old world, throughout the ages, has always been very harsh. Hence the need to find some form of "escape". While many peoples found that escape in a spiritual belief, the Chinese found it in transactional superstition, and after the arrival of the British, in opium.
While spiritual "escapism " aka religion, has had an uplifting effect on the mind leading to a more refined culture, gambling has no socially or culturally redeeming values whatsoever.
Karl Marx said, "Religion is the opium of the people". Marx was dead right. But for myself, I would prefer religion to gambling and/or opium.
Asians in general seems to be into gambling. The Japanese too. I don't know why. Genetic or cultural? As for me, I just went to Vegas a couple of times. Enjoyed the kitschy ambiance for what it was, and the free drinks. But I was never into gambling. I don't see much the point of it. I have no fun losing money, and you know the House always wins. From Scorsese's "Casino": "the longer they play, the more they lose".
Speaking of organized crime, one of the infinite number of things about which my fellow Americans are clueless is the central, foundational fact of crime as a building block of the USA. Gus Russo's "Supermob" (published 2007 I think) gives a reader at least some notion of it. I have said and will say that it is IM-POSSIBLE to make an "honest" buck in the US, regardless of occupation or profession.
Little wonder that Chinese have been likened to Jews. Indeed, they have the well-earned moniker of "Jews of the East". Except that Jews don't (are forbidden by Talmudic law) to scam other Jews, whereas Chinese do not discriminate.
I can personally testify that many Chinese are inveterate gamblers. In our younger years, I would occasionally come home from work around midnight to find my Taiwanese wife hosting various acquaintances, playing mahjong. They would play long into the night. Though she only played occasionally, in games that were always for smaller stakes (perhaps fortunately, it was all we could afford back then), some of these people were fanatics and would play every day if they could scratch up a game. She told me about some of them playing for big stakes, where it was not uncommon to win or lose several thousand dollars in a single session. The games she would play in were for relative chump change, so obviously the lure for her fellow players was the action as much as the actual amount of money at stake.
I visited the occasional casino in my Navy days, but by the time I got married I had pretty much lost the taste for it. The last time I went to a casino for the purpose of playing was in the 1990s. Some are much friendlier than others. The Foxwoods Casino in rural Connecticut was one of the nicest, friendliest and most generous with comps. In addition to locals driving out there, I'd see the buses rolling in from NYC--they'd ferry them across from Long Island and bus them up. Lots of Chinese, too, I think they even had Pai Gow set up for them. They finally went belly up due to a new competitor opening up right next to the main highway. Can't ask a rabid gambler to drive 15 minutes through the countryside to get his fix!
Atlantic City was on the other end of the spectrum--cold and rude, put me off on my very first visit. It was almost like they were telling you to just leave a check at the cashier's case and save yourself the trouble of playing. Considering that you were supposed to be having fun in exchange for your inevitable loss, you wouldn't think this would be a very successful business model, but they seemed to be doing well enough.
Las Vegas used to be a cool place in the 70s when I first went there. But around 2015, a recurring industry conference I attended scheduled one of their meetings at a Las Vegas casino. It was the first time I'd been back to Vegas since the late 80s, and it had totally changed. Instead of the western ambiance it used to have, it was now a sterile high rise city that put me off completely. The casino itself felt like Atlantic City--all about money, and no concern about whether or not the customers were enjoying themselves. The room was set up to do everything possible to drive you out of the room and down to the casino--they didn't even give you bottled water.
I'm old enough to remember when anything other than nickel poker with a few locals was considered sketchy if not immoral, and gambling was illegal, supposedly on moral grounds. Then came the state lottery, and that argument went out the window. Now here we are, with Indian reservations and the occasional little burg "creating jobs" with their casinos. Another signal of Western decline, i guess.
The following book translated into French from the original Chinese 旧上海的烟赌娼 (Jiu shanghai de yan du chang) should be considered the definitive account of the place that opium , gambling and prostitution occupied in the national psyche of the Chinese people, albeit in bygone Shanghai.
But this passion and urge for gambling is still very much alive in today's Chinese psyche. I would think that this is the way the average Chinese person attempts to escape from the emptiness and despair of his life.
Many peoples have managed to find some form of spiritual solace, but the Chinese have only produced a form of materialistic and transactional superstition which translates naturally into gambling.
Shanghai : opium, jeu, prostitution
Author: Perront, Nadine
P. Picquier, c1992
Other Title:
Jiu shanghai de yan du chang
旧上海的烟赌娼
https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB16822360?l=en
https://www.babelio.com/livres/Perront-Shangai--opium-jeu-prostitution/149954
I'm no expert, but I suspect the difference between the Chinese attitude to gambling and the Western one may have a lot to do with the greater acceptance by Chinese of the importance of fortune (whether luck or fate) in life's outcomes. Westerners tend to believe that life's outcomes have more to do with one's own choices than with chance.
When I was younger, I had a more Western attitude about this. But as I have grown older I have developed a much greater appreciation for how much of my life was actually good fortune rather than good choices. Don't get me wrong--I do think I made mostly right choices. But as I ponder my earlier life's experience, I have come to appreciate how so many things could have gone so wrong, but somehow, because I was just lucky, they didn't.
Life for the common people of the old world, throughout the ages, has always been very harsh. Hence the need to find some form of "escape". While many peoples found that escape in a spiritual belief, the Chinese found it in transactional superstition, and after the arrival of the British, in opium.
While spiritual "escapism " aka religion, has had an uplifting effect on the mind leading to a more refined culture, gambling has no socially or culturally redeeming values whatsoever.
Karl Marx said, "Religion is the opium of the people". Marx was dead right. But for myself, I would prefer religion to gambling and/or opium.
Asians in general seems to be into gambling. The Japanese too. I don't know why. Genetic or cultural? As for me, I just went to Vegas a couple of times. Enjoyed the kitschy ambiance for what it was, and the free drinks. But I was never into gambling. I don't see much the point of it. I have no fun losing money, and you know the House always wins. From Scorsese's "Casino": "the longer they play, the more they lose".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltURKC_V8Hg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNyAsdhG_Yg
Well...shit.
Get outta there, Linh.
What a place. I note the following anagrams of Sihanoukville.
The top single word out of the letters is 'villainous'.
he souk villain
I evil anus kohl
I slunk AI hovel
hullo snake vii
No wonder Sihanoukville is ghastly.
Speaking of organized crime, one of the infinite number of things about which my fellow Americans are clueless is the central, foundational fact of crime as a building block of the USA. Gus Russo's "Supermob" (published 2007 I think) gives a reader at least some notion of it. I have said and will say that it is IM-POSSIBLE to make an "honest" buck in the US, regardless of occupation or profession.
Little wonder that Chinese have been likened to Jews. Indeed, they have the well-earned moniker of "Jews of the East". Except that Jews don't (are forbidden by Talmudic law) to scam other Jews, whereas Chinese do not discriminate.
Yeesh
While I don't travel much, you won't find me visiting Sihanoukville. Thanks for the heads up.