Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
You're listening to Roundtable with myself, He Young.
I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Ding Heng in the studio.
Coming up, curious about social shifts, tech twists, or the mysteries of life?
Let us talk about it.
Email us at roundtablepodcast at qq .com.
Emails are fine, but voice memos get extra love.
And while we love to say no question is a dumb question, but deep down, don't we sometimes roll our eyes when someone slows down the conversation with a basic ask?
This sentiment is captured by the popular internet slang called dumb phobia or yan chun zheng in Chinese.
But what if our impatience isn't just mood, It's bias.
Let's dig into why we bristle at obvious questions and whether it says more about us than them.
Our podcast listeners can find us at Roundtable China on Apple Podcasts.
And now let's have a moment of heart to heart.
You ask, we answer.
answer. Roundtable, heart to heart.
First up today, we have a lovely voice memo from Meixi.
Hello He Yang, Steve Hartley, Lai Ming, and the hosts regarding the studio today.
My beloved host, Spareva, and this is Meixi.
I've been listening to Roundtable for so many years, And I can't even remember exactly how long But this is the first time I'm emailing you Truly because I can't contain my excitement Yay Last year, I got to know the story The Echoes of Kulion's Roundtable And I was listening to it while driving Laughing and crying all the way yeah maybe the car is passing by um thoughts the driver was a lunatic needless to say the story has become one of my all -time favorites and this year my absolute favorite children's square the one voice children's square i don't know whether everyone knows yet and one was children's
square let me just emphasize that again one voice children's yeah it's coming to china in july yeah the july is already here and they're going to recall the song cool young cool young in fuzhou oh it's such a coincidence right after sharing the podcast link with them i rushed to email you just i want to spread the joy and share this excitement with you love you all the time well thank you so much meishi and for sharing this with us Steve, what do you have to say to our lovely listener?
When you mentioned the One Voice Children's Choir, I had never heard of that group before.
So I had to look them up.
And what I learned was they started back at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in Utah in the United States.
And ever since then, the choir's grown into this really unique force in the entertainment world.
world they've performed on television numerous times they travel countries and they have over four million subscribers on YouTube they're so good they're so good and I didn't know that they had come here to China I don't know if they're touring now I don't know if they're gone already but they were doing Shenzhen and Guangzhou and Shanghai and Chengdu and Beijing and if you've not heard of them before please go and check them out just like may she um introduce them to me they're really really really good hello may she uh this is dinghan here um yeah so i think i really agree the echoes of coolium
is indeed a masterpiece really produced with a great sense of love and humanity and i'm glad to hear that it's your all -time favorite i also listened to the whole drama over the course of last year, sometime last year, for me, because I knew it was produced by my colleagues, by a team of my colleagues here, so I roughly knew the plot beforehand, but still, tears naturally streamed out of my tears as I listened, out of my eyes, as I listened through the drama.
So, yeah, crying and laughing, indeed.
And while you were driving, Macy, now that's the kind of storytelling that hits deep.
And yeah, that was the story about cross generation, cross culture, China and America, and really interwining personal memories, a chapter of shared history between China and America, and timeless friendships.
And I, as well as a few people you hear regularly on Roundtable, we played different characters in that audio drama, and it was great fun doing it.
So I think, yeah, this is really heartwarming.
And we're really happy that it brought you so much joy and a couple of tears as well.
And I love the enthusiasm, Meishi.
Don't be a stranger, you know, keep telling us what's going on in your life and what you think about the show.
And we so appreciate listeners like you to reach out to us and be so generous in sharing your voices with us.
We love that. And coming up next, we have Wesley, Wesley, Wesley, sending in a voice memo as well.
Hello, this is Wesley from Shanghai.
I'm now currently working as a progress advisor in a young learner English institution.
And I heard you talk about 恋爱 now, I kind of think I'm kind of that person.
In my love experience, I'm kind of too active sometimes, so I can't push that person away.
I think I have improved a lot after several experiences, but now I'm seeing someone, I don't know what's the future.
i'm quite positive a few days ago but right now i don't know but i will do my best to be myself thank you for listening i love your voice i've been listening to your show quite a long time but this is my first time sending the word message thank you thank you wesley and And I believe you're referring to a roundtable show aired on April the 25th.
In the second part of the show, we discussed the multiple scenarios of being lovestruck or having that so -called love brain or liainao in Chinese.
knees and in recent years you know being love struck this thing online has been sparking waves of skepticism which is kind of unfortunate i i might be what you call a romantic and i just feel it's we talked about on the show as well it's kind of unfortunate that That the overwhelming, loud majority of opinions seem to be, at least online, to tell people, forget about being love struck and be more rational and don't let love dictate your life.
So also, sorry, I just want to say, Wesley, I really appreciate you being so honest and candid in admitting something that might actually attract criticism online.
line but also hey i mean this is the beauty of a radio show right nobody knows who you are can see your face and and some of our lovely listeners really treat us like a confidante or like a tree hole but actually what you share is can have an impact on millions of people so yes thank you for for sharing that with us wesley and steve you wanted to respond so the chinese term refers what What was it?
Liao Now? Liao Now.
Liao Now. So that refers to, like, does it refer to coming on too strong in the beginning?
Because you fall so deeply so quickly?
That may be part of it.
It's more like letting romantic love, the thought of that, dictate all terms of life.
So I'll give you an example.
And this is being scolded by internet users.
If you put love before, let's say, a good job career choice you you you so you're let's say abandoning this uh career promotion for being with some guy or or girl you wanna be with then that's considered as how could you make that stupid decision how could you do this don't share this online because you will be chided and and that's just really unfortunate sometimes yeah so that's a sentiment yeah i i i totally agree it's a little bit unfortunate i think uh in some ways it's quite good to have this kind of uh love struck brain i heard nowadays many university students in china they choose not to
be in a romantic relationship during their four years because their study is so competitive leading to their sense of burnout so they deliberately choose to set themselves in a kind of uh like power saving mode so i think that's not necessarily a good thing for your university period i think that's very sad if you are a youngerster and if you have this kind of lie now in many ways that's That's good.
In a relationship, you can't always be rational and always do this kind of math or calculation regarding your gains, your losses.
No, that's not the essence of love.
So not Li 'ai now, it's Li 'ai later.
I would say, Wesley, don't change.
You'll meet that right person.
Maybe it's the right person now.
You said you're dating somebody now and it seems like things are going well.
It's all about matching.
It's all about timing.
But don't feel like you have to be a different person for somebody else.
That's not good. Yeah, love struck gets a bad rep, but without risking a little heartache, you'll never know what real connection feels like.
So I'd say go ahead.
Love boldly, but bring your brain along for the ride.
We can't do this segment without you.
please send us a voicemail or drop an email at roundtablepodcast at qq .com.
We'd love to hear your thoughts and share it with the world.
Coming up next, we joke about not suffering fools, but when does that line turn into intolerance?
Spotlight on the internet slang, dumb phobia.
Are we too smart for our own good or just too quick to judge?
Stay tuned. looking for passion how about fiery debate want to hear about current events in China from different perspectives then tune in to roundtable where east meets west and understanding is the goal now let's dive into something that's been making the rounds online dumb phobia or or 厌蠢症 in Chinese, is not a clinical diagnosis, but a tongue -in -cheek way to describe what some call stupidity and tolerance in the workplace and beyond.
You know, that reflects the eye roll when someone asks what seems like an obvious question, that flush of irritation when a teammate just doesn't get it, or that quiet judgment you feel toward people who seem well well just clueless.
We're calling that dumb phobia.
And here's the twist. What if the dumbest person in the room is the one who thinks everyone else is dumb?
Let's unpack the sneaky little bias, figure out where it comes from, and ask what does our impatience really say about us?
Before we judge the term, what even is dumb phobia?
Yeah, so this is a buzzword circulating online here in China.
It's not a real medical thing, by the way.
You're not going to go to the doctor and say, doctor, I feel like all my coworkers are idiots.
And he'll say, oh, well, you must have dumb phobia.
No, it's not like that.
This got popular because some people, they use it online term, they use the term half jokingly, right?
But also half serious, I think, in these online spaces.
And they're describing a feeling when someone says or does something so clueless that it annoys them for example if someone asks you in your daily life oh africa yeah i've heard of that place that's a country right um or the earth it's i i think it's flat i agree with that group of people you could just be like why is this person breathing oxygen it's a waste um that would would be like outside in the workplace you know you might have some questions from co -workers and you make it makes you feel like how did you get a job at this company how is it that you got to be here how did you get hired
um they'll ask questions where you think like you could simply plug that into the internet and find the answer well that's being lazy yeah yeah yeah and some people get really frustrated by that people don't like to talk about uh have conversations with those people and that's where this term dumb phobia came from.
Well, I think that's a really good question to ask.
How did they even get hired?
Because I'm just going to be a tad serious here.
The tougher the labor market, the more rampant is nepotism.
And if you think that person is so dumb but is sitting right next to you in this job, then maybe that person has a very good reason for the company to hire it's just not the reason you think it is maybe this person is the son of the top boss or the epitome the top client or you know like and the workplace is a very complicated place I don't necessarily think always the performance or merit is is the only ticket to promotion or to the job.
And sorry to break it, but that's just a fact of life.
What do you think, Ding?
What do you think about this?
Yeah, of course, it might sound funny in a social media content, for example.
But when you really think seriously about it, it might be harmful to certain individuals.
I think it has the potential of making people less patient and more judgmental.
That's no good. It can also lead to social exclusion, social isolation and less empathy.
And sometimes it's not even about the level of intelligence.
It's about power. Because one thing seems to be funny about this phenomenon is is most people who claim that they cannot deal with dumb, their dumb phobia, are not actually genius themselves, right?
Maybe they are genius, but...
Yeah, but rarely really is the case.
And I think it's just that if we keep on using this word dumb, I really, I don't like the word, but I think it's just the dumbest thing to assume that everybody else is dumb because that usually, it's like when you're, not you, you but you know there's that saying we mentioned a while ago on the show like if if you think like everybody else are terrible old persons like jerks then maybe you're the biggest one of them all i think it's just it takes a little self -awareness come on to grow up and to mature and let's not take this too seriously i mean have you ever been the dumbest person in the room i
have i went to an event at a Canadian embassy in Seoul in Korea once, right?
And the guest list was so impressive.
There were high up Canadian military people there.
There was a president of an airline that I met.
The ambassador was there.
Other dignitaries were there.
I was no doubt the dumbest person in the room.
I met one older man and I asked him about his company and he said he started it from scratch. He was the CEO. I won't mention the company name, but you would know it.
It's an international one.
And he said, so what do you do?
I said, well, I'm a radio announcer.
And he said, oh, cool.
What was on your show today?
And I said, well, we played a game where you needed to guess which year it was.
So that was fun. And he was like, cool.
I was like, I think I need to go home.
What I mean is we don't need to take it too seriously.
This is an online kind of fun term that people have generated for conversation, I guess.
And we all feel that way from time to time with our coworkers.
Sure, I agree, Jing Hung.
If it's taken too seriously, it can go too far sometimes.
So I guess keep it in mind that maybe you're not as smart as you think you are if you're on board with this.
But also, you know, it's meant to be tongue -in -cheek.
And also there's one part of the sharing apparently comes from the bosses.
This is all online.
You can, you know, go free to look it up, okay?
OK, so some bosses say that, well, they suffer from dumb phobia and they think that their subordinates just don't get it.
And then how do you feel about that?
You need to reflect.
OK, like, yeah, I think.
OK, so, OK, maybe because I'm not the boss, but my immediate reaction is, hey, boss, you probably have the most terrible communication skills.
because if why are you the boss you're usually the one with more experience right and maybe you're quite smart or whatever it is but people get promoted for various reasons but at least you probably have experienced this before and then you're in that position but just saying that oh how come my uh subordinates don't get it well are you teaching or are you imparting the knowledge and experience in a way that people can can really can get you know we've all probably went through our fair share of bosses who do not know how to talk to people and communicate clearly i totally agree some bosses are they're
really poor in terms of their communication skills i have experienced this before and really in and i think when we talk about dumb phobia it really captures some certain feeling that at some point people have experienced but don't have a word for Right.
Like there is a feeling that people might experience when somebody around you just don't seem to grasp the most basic common sense.
And even worse, they mess up something simply because of a seemingly silly mistake.
So I don't know. Yeah, I agree.
we need to take it less seriously.
But this kind of phenomenon and occurrence does exist in our workplace.
Sure. And it's all over the world, too.
Going back to the bosses a little bit, I was going to jump in and say, is it a boss's job?
Yeah, it's a boss's job to motivate and be a great leader.
Sure. But is it a boss's job to teach everything all day, every day?
That That feels a little hand -holding to me like teacher -student.
So bosses oftentimes will delegate when you've got their trust on certain things.
But expecting them to teach you every little thing about every little thing shouldn't necessarily fall on the boss's shoulders, should it?
On the top bosses? Maybe, maybe not.
I don't think so. But also to be realistic.
Yeah. I mean, this is the bunch of people you're working with.
No matter you're the boss or the co -worker, how are you going to try to make your life easier?
And I don't think just assuming people are dumb is going to help anyone.
Let's shift from judgment to action.
How do we respond when dumb phobia shows up at work, at home or in ourselves?
Well, we live in information cocoons, right?
And that makes us impatient with people, I think, who perhaps don't agree with our opinions or don't think the way that we do.
and we've heard that term before I think it's called confirmation bias where you tend to consume content and have conversations with people that will kind of go in line with the things that you think so when we don't encounter those people at work then we get frustrated with those people at work and we tend to assume that they are wrong and we are right but being open to to their ideas, and listening to people talk might help you out with this issue.
Yeah, I think at the end of the day, communication out to prevail over humiliation, right?
Humiliating people.
That's terrible. Maybe the real danger isn't ignorance, it's arrogance.
The dumbest move we can make is assuming everyone else is dumb.
Because the moment we stop listening, we stop learning.
And if we can't imagine why someone else thinks differently, currently it's not their understanding that's limited it might just be ours and that brings us to the end of today's show thank you so much steve hatherly and dinghong for joining the discussion i'm hyang we'll see you next time
