Lin Yutang is awesome. After reading "My Country and My People" he became the only favorite author I've ever had.

In China's case, I think there's a lot of good in letting it go. I'm sure the Chinese themselves could simultaneously criticize the problems in efficiency that it causes and its connection to corruption, and also defend it as having served them well enough for a couple thousand years and being a deeply ingrained part of the Chinese psyche that shouldn't be naively meddled with. In Russia, I honestly have no idea. I had a couple Russian friends before going to China who used to confuse the hell out of me by seeming to have contradictory political opinions and snapping at times that I couldn't predict, but having since seen some of the ways in which China is misunderstood and misrepresented, I would now perhaps be more openminded.