Sometimes I’m not sure at all whether people coming to China actually know that the country they’re going to live in is neither some jungle outpost nor a squeaky clean western colony.
I get to hear the most mind-boggling remarks from the foreigners I meet, whether they are students of mine or mere acquaintances.
I don’t get insulted easily, talk like this simply amuses me and makes me wonder how the PRC is portrayed abroad. I hope you don’t think I’m prejudiced or trying to bash laowais. I beg you not to misunderstand me and be offended, instead I’d like you to laugh alongside me.
Example 1:
Just this morning, one of the people I tutor, an expat’s wife, mentioned her utmost surprise about the fact that there are ROADS in China. Um, duh. We’ve been familiar with the concept of streets for quite a while now…
Example 2:
For the umpteenth time, one of my friends complained to me how backwards “we” are because there are *still* squat toilets in China. I’m not partial to dirty toilets either, but I’m sure that everyone can get accustomed to them. Someone who has lived here for more than three years shouldn’t be blowing his top each time he has to use a squat toilet.
Example 3:
“It’s outrageous! They can’t even speak English!” This is a particular favourite of mine. I’ve overheard this kind of sentence being uttered countless times. Makes me wonder how proficient these people (usually tourists) are in Chinese. Or Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese…Most of them don’t speak any foreign languages, at least they are no more successful at than the average Chinese citizen. Just a few times I went to the bother of asking them which foreign languages they actually speak. For example, one US-American answered: “Uh, I..had some German in High School” Great. Why don’t you go to Germany, then? Just to see how far you’ll come with your knowledge and how enthusiastic people are going to be there about some arrogant bloke who dares to talk down to people who are at least making an effort.
Example 4:
“They don’t even speak Chinese.” This might seem like a variation of the above, but in fact the problem is completely different. Sorry guys. Even I didn’t grow up in a standard-Chinese environment. (In fact, I’m familiar with putonghua and three regional dialects. Can’t really speak them properly, but understanding them is ok. I’m not talking about accents, though! That’s child’s play in comparison to the dialects. And yes, they are “Chinese”, it’s just that they aren’t “Mandarin”.)
Example 5:
And, finally, there are those pseudo-intellectuals why love giving lectures about propaganda but don’t realize they get their fair share of that as well.
Hi Jasmine
I don’t think you are prejudiced. I also find it funny when people criticise other cultures and can’t understand why other cultures are not the same … in that case why are you travelling.
btw I think you mean to type ‘umpteenth time’ in example 2. I had to look up how it was spelt as well
thankyou for your insites.
呵呵 Yeah, that’s what I meant. I knew something wasn’t quite correct but I couldn’t work out what. My English used to be better, the other languages I am studying interfere with it, and so does correcting the sometimes abysmal writing of my students.
I think the Chinese attitude to “domestic” variations (i.e. differences between regions) goes along the lines of “Hey, funny, that guy has an accent and cooks differently” and then we shrug and get on with our lives. Your hear occasional jokes about farmers and Shanghai girls, but we usually don’t make fun of people from other regions whereas this seems to be a rather common theme in most western countries, albeit in harmless way.
Then again, from time to time we react in astonishing ways to foreigners, watching them intently. They just value their privacy too much, otherwise they wouldn’t be complaining about being stared at and their landladies wandering into their flats day and night!
On the topic of Example 3, this is just a common idea among Americans at least. When I tell people I am studying Chinese the usual response I get is, “Why? Everyone knows English anyways.” There is a huge expectation among Americans that everyone does, or should, just know English. I’m not really sure why this is though.