5 ms·

The tone is honestly understandable. It pains me to bring up this cliched point, but is the US media not constantly telling us that China is hostile, China is p

by bllguo 7y ago

The tone is honestly understandable. It pains me to bring up this cliched point, but is the US media not constantly telling us that China is hostile, China is plotting? As someone with a foot in both worlds, US coverage of China is _at least_ equally warped. It's funny; to my parents and relatives in China I'm perceived as having a US bias, but everywhere else I get characterized as being too Chinese. It's hard for me to emphasize enough how little typical Westerners understand about Asia. It goes both ways but I think they're doing a better job of it - at least in my opinion, China appreciates US culture much more than the US appreciates Chinese culture.

txcwpalpha 7y ago
>It's funny; to my parents and relatives in China I'm perceived as having a US bias, but everywhere else I get characterized as being too Chinese. Haha, I can relate. I'm as white as they come but I spent some time living in Singapore and traveling the rest of Asia. In Asia I was obviously "the American", but when I got home to the US I can remember a few distinct times where I was called a "wannabe asian" or something similar just because I was talking about how phenomenal public transit is in major Asian metros compared to the abysmal state of US public transit.
- aussiegreenie 7y ago
  I am as "egg" as they come (white on the outside and yellow in the middle) but I am consistently abused by Chinese trolls. I love China but loathe the Chinese trolls.
  - crimsonalucard 7y ago
    These eggs are mostly 100% men, not women. I'm sorry to say but you eggs are probably fully aware of why only men are so crazy about Asia. Also (Hint) the Chinese trolls are also 100% men. No women trolls.
    - txcwpalpha 7y ago
      > I'm sorry to say but you eggs are probably fully aware of why only men are so crazy about Asia. I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to, but I can only imagine that you're referring to Asia's sex industry? I don't know where this stereotype comes from. Is it a holdover from older generations, perhaps? I've traveled nearly every East/Southeast Asian country, met hundreds of fellow male travelers along the way, and hundreds more otherwise, and only a handful (literally less than 5 that I can even think of) that openly partook at all in any kind of "red light district activities". Most looked negatively on it and it certainly isn't something that would cause men to be "so crazy about Asia". (If that isn't what you're referring to, please explain your comment)
      - MayeulC 7y ago
        It might be that the parent poster took your use of "egg" as the sexual orientation meaning [1], instead of taking the metaphor more literally. It probably depends on the circles one lives in, words are often contextual. The word was standing out a bit in your sentence, which made me wonder if that was the intended meaning for a sec. But I didn't quite get their post either, and now that I re-read it, the explanation I offered seems less plausible. [1] As per https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=egg https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=egg "Transgender person who hasn't come out yet"
rolltiide 7y ago
Americans are way more defensive in preserving their perception of China whereas Chinese are removed from the political machinations and marginally curious about US culture at best In other parts of “the west” nobody is deathly afraid of being disappeared by the Chinese government and just raves about how energetic Shanghai is I think Americans are the outliers here, over emphasizing the darkest parts of China and should consider re-evaluating.
nfoz 7y ago
> It's hard for me to emphasize enough how little typical Westerners understand about Asia. I bet the typical human knows very little about life and culture outside of their specific environment. A typical city-dweller knows little about rural life even in their own region, and vice-versa. It's weird how easily we fall into a trap of saying "look how ignorant x people are". I mean, of course, it's a big world, and we're busy, so it's pretty hard to not be ignorant. Maybe a bigger mistake is thinking that "Media" (news etc?) is an education system. It's not and maybe it's not supposed to be. We need to come up with a better system/expectation/culture around continuous education, but even in the best case that can only apply to the subset of the population that has the time and resources and interest to take part.
- txcwpalpha 7y ago
  > I bet the typical human knows very little about life and culture outside of their specific environment. A typical city-dweller knows little about rural life even in their own region, and vice-versa. I think this is certainly true, but at the same time, I've never met an American (even an otherwise 'uneducated' one), who was under the impression that London or Berlin are backwoods villages that struggle to keep the lights on, whereas I have certainly met people that think Hong Kong is. So then the question becomes "yes people are generally unaware, but what is it about Asia specifically that makes it seem like there is an even larger lack of awareness compared to somewhere like Europe?" In regards to the rest of your comment: I wholeheartedly agree, but I don't think it comes down to "time or resources". Some of it does just come down to personal habits/preferences. Without passing any judgement, there are plenty of people who spend their evenings watching The Bachelorette when they could just as easily be using that time to watch The Travel Channel (or Discovery Channel if it was still actually educational), but they actively choose not to. I think that's a societal thing much more than it is a time or resources constraint.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - ElFitz 7y ago
    Maybe it's because of historical ties to Europe, both a partially shared culture and history? As for the asymmetry. The US has been considered one of two, then the only, global superpower for the last 70 years, inundating the whole world with their culture the whole time. Reminds me of a course on models, where they talked about "celebrities". Those who are seen by and influence most people, but don't know and aren't influenced by most of said people (might need to clarify that)
jaaron 7y ago
This. So much this. I've spent all my adult life bouncing between the US and China. It's fascinating to see the biases from both sides. In some cases, it's outright propaganda, but most of it is just plain, simple lack of familiarity further fueled by otherwise benign nationalism.
AlexCoventry 7y ago
What are the biggest misunderstandings of Chinese culture you encounter from Westerners?
sevilo 7y ago
If I could I'd upvote this 100 times, it's funny to see people thinking their side is the "one true side of the story", be it the US or China. If you haven't lived in both worlds and understand values and cultures of both, don't be so quick on your feet to think your existing beliefs are the entire truth.
- DubiousPusher 7y ago
  Didn't you here? American capitalism/democracy won history and now it's over.
sunstone 7y ago
I have known and worked with several mainland raised Chinese and there is no doubt that the schools in China teach anti-American propaganda. Whereas America does not teach any anti-Chinese propaganda in their schools. This is really kind of weird since it was the Americans who provided the Burma-to-China airlift during WWII that allowed China to expel the Japanese from China. Furthermore, if you look at world trade balances since 1978 it is America, and only America, that has carried the burden of an imbalanced trade relationship with China of billions of dollars per year; year after year. I'm not anti-Chinese in any way, I've traveled through the country three times, but the facts are the facts.

by bllguo 7y ago

txcwpalpha 7y ago

>It's funny; to my parents and relatives in China I'm perceived as having a US bias, but everywhere else I get characterized as being too Chinese. Haha, I can relate. I'm as white as they come but I spent some time living in Singapore and traveling the rest of Asia. In Asia I was obviously "the American", but when I got home to the US I can remember a few distinct times where I was called a "wannabe asian" or something similar just because I was talking about how phenomenal public transit is in major Asian metros compared to the abysmal state of US public transit.

aussiegreenie 7y ago
I am as "egg" as they come (white on the outside and yellow in the middle) but I am consistently abused by Chinese trolls. I love China but loathe the Chinese trolls.
- crimsonalucard 7y ago
  These eggs are mostly 100% men, not women. I'm sorry to say but you eggs are probably fully aware of why only men are so crazy about Asia. Also (Hint) the Chinese trolls are also 100% men. No women trolls.
  - txcwpalpha 7y ago
    > I'm sorry to say but you eggs are probably fully aware of why only men are so crazy about Asia. I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to, but I can only imagine that you're referring to Asia's sex industry? I don't know where this stereotype comes from. Is it a holdover from older generations, perhaps? I've traveled nearly every East/Southeast Asian country, met hundreds of fellow male travelers along the way, and hundreds more otherwise, and only a handful (literally less than 5 that I can even think of) that openly partook at all in any kind of "red light district activities". Most looked negatively on it and it certainly isn't something that would cause men to be "so crazy about Asia". (If that isn't what you're referring to, please explain your comment)
    - MayeulC 7y ago
      It might be that the parent poster took your use of "egg" as the sexual orientation meaning [1], instead of taking the metaphor more literally. It probably depends on the circles one lives in, words are often contextual. The word was standing out a bit in your sentence, which made me wonder if that was the intended meaning for a sec. But I didn't quite get their post either, and now that I re-read it, the explanation I offered seems less plausible. [1] As per https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=egg https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=egg "Transgender person who hasn't come out yet"

rolltiide 7y ago

Americans are way more defensive in preserving their perception of China whereas Chinese are removed from the political machinations and marginally curious about US culture at best In other parts of “the west” nobody is deathly afraid of being disappeared by the Chinese government and just raves about how energetic Shanghai is I think Americans are the outliers here, over emphasizing the darkest parts of China and should consider re-evaluating.

nfoz 7y ago

> It's hard for me to emphasize enough how little typical Westerners understand about Asia. I bet the typical human knows very little about life and culture outside of their specific environment. A typical city-dweller knows little about rural life even in their own region, and vice-versa. It's weird how easily we fall into a trap of saying "look how ignorant x people are". I mean, of course, it's a big world, and we're busy, so it's pretty hard to not be ignorant. Maybe a bigger mistake is thinking that "Media" (news etc?) is an education system. It's not and maybe it's not supposed to be. We need to come up with a better system/expectation/culture around continuous education, but even in the best case that can only apply to the subset of the population that has the time and resources and interest to take part.

txcwpalpha 7y ago
> I bet the typical human knows very little about life and culture outside of their specific environment. A typical city-dweller knows little about rural life even in their own region, and vice-versa. I think this is certainly true, but at the same time, I've never met an American (even an otherwise 'uneducated' one), who was under the impression that London or Berlin are backwoods villages that struggle to keep the lights on, whereas I have certainly met people that think Hong Kong is. So then the question becomes "yes people are generally unaware, but what is it about Asia specifically that makes it seem like there is an even larger lack of awareness compared to somewhere like Europe?" In regards to the rest of your comment: I wholeheartedly agree, but I don't think it comes down to "time or resources". Some of it does just come down to personal habits/preferences. Without passing any judgement, there are plenty of people who spend their evenings watching The Bachelorette when they could just as easily be using that time to watch The Travel Channel (or Discovery Channel if it was still actually educational), but they actively choose not to. I think that's a societal thing much more than it is a time or resources constraint.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- ElFitz 7y ago
  Maybe it's because of historical ties to Europe, both a partially shared culture and history? As for the asymmetry. The US has been considered one of two, then the only, global superpower for the last 70 years, inundating the whole world with their culture the whole time. Reminds me of a course on models, where they talked about "celebrities". Those who are seen by and influence most people, but don't know and aren't influenced by most of said people (might need to clarify that)

jaaron 7y ago

This. So much this. I've spent all my adult life bouncing between the US and China. It's fascinating to see the biases from both sides. In some cases, it's outright propaganda, but most of it is just plain, simple lack of familiarity further fueled by otherwise benign nationalism.

AlexCoventry 7y ago

What are the biggest misunderstandings of Chinese culture you encounter from Westerners?

sevilo 7y ago

If I could I'd upvote this 100 times, it's funny to see people thinking their side is the "one true side of the story", be it the US or China. If you haven't lived in both worlds and understand values and cultures of both, don't be so quick on your feet to think your existing beliefs are the entire truth.

DubiousPusher 7y ago
Didn't you here? American capitalism/democracy won history and now it's over.

sunstone 7y ago

I have known and worked with several mainland raised Chinese and there is no doubt that the schools in China teach anti-American propaganda. Whereas America does not teach any anti-Chinese propaganda in their schools. This is really kind of weird since it was the Americans who provided the Burma-to-China airlift during WWII that allowed China to expel the Japanese from China. Furthermore, if you look at world trade balances since 1978 it is America, and only America, that has carried the burden of an imbalanced trade relationship with China of billions of dollars per year; year after year. I'm not anti-Chinese in any way, I've traveled through the country three times, but the facts are the facts.