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If you are personally associate with something, be it a person, a school, or a country, then there’s a valid reason to notice, highlight, or discuss its limitations. But the negative focus is often obsessive, distorted, one-sided, out of proportion, driven by a projection of self-inferiority.

The pattern — whichever group I find myself in, I tend to worry about its calibre and quality.

A important sub-pattern: those who chose me

— My Physics and math positions in HCJC .. I considered myself a second class top student from China, so if HCJC picked me to represent the school, it’s only because HCJC was also second class…

In reality, HCJC probably produced some of Singapore’s top math and physics students of the year. They were my HCJC classmates.

How about Java/c++/c among competing languages? These are respected, upstream tech skills.

— individuals who praise my English … (spoken or written) There have been many over the years. I tend to cast doubt on their judgement, and their own standard of English.

When I was more fluent in British English, I often felt British English was losing ground to American English.

When I went to U.S. and became more fluent in American English, I started feeling that American English was lower in /standard/ and quality due to detrimental influence of immigrants speaking improper, imprecise and broken English.

Projection? my self-inferiority translates to a lower opinion of the style of English I have acquired.

— I also felt occasionally inferior about my parents’ professional standing… Some classmates seems to have “greater” parents in Shiyan, but now I don’t recall anyone in my schools.

— I also felt occasionally inferior about my kids’ physical development, athletic/artistic talents…
In reality, they are very good. Even if they are mediocre in everything, the inferiority deserves no place. There’s no need for any competition with other kids.

My son’s talents tend to get similarly played down, such as his talent with gadgets, maps, piano, bi-lingual,,,

Projection? My kids’ talents are diminished because they are my kids. The same talent in another young person would not get dimissed likewise !

— my chosen country ..
As a Chinese citizen, the inferiority was a national malaise. Remember [[丑陋的中国人]]. Similarly, I think Britons feel a national malaise, as their nation’s standing declines over the decades.

As an immigrant, after you choose U.S. as your new home you may also start to project your inferiority. Look at R.Xia and others.

Limitations? Every country has limitations. When we are outside our home country and describing it to to a non-countryman, we need to be fair to our country. We can criticize it, but we need to avoid bias.

If I’m a CAD patient in Japan, I may worry about my country’s quality of medical care. I would worry that Japan doctors are not fluent enough in English…

— Beijing relative to other big cities .. My own inferiority is frequently projected to my beloved birthplace, a city I’m associated with _forever_.

When I’m feeling inferior (like half the time 🙂 I tend to focus on its limitations esp. relative to Shanghai and Shenzhen. Every city has limitations. It’s hard to be fair to Beijing, but I still feel attached to my birthplace.