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Q: What stage are you at in the "Do you like China?" game?
We all get asked daily. Sometimes they really care, often its the only sentence they know, but the next week I go through without someone asking me " Do you like China?" or " Do you like Chinese people?" will be my first.
With years and patience I have managed to defeat the boss at the end of each stage and move up to the next level.
Do you like China?/ Do you like Chinese people?
Stage 1: Yes!!! - And you mean it! ( Year 1)
Stage 2: Yes - You dont mean it so much anymore but are you really going to tell them the truth? Let it go man ( Year2 )
Stage 3: Yes, But with a caveat- Now is where you give your far too thought-out psychoanalysis on social problems in China ( Year 3&4)
Stage 4: *Looks at the ground uncomfortably* Taxi! - ( Year 5 )
Stage 5 Nope! and you dont give a shit who is sitting at the table with you begging you to just lie. ( Year 6 -Present)
Which stage are you? I cant leave for a while and stage 5 feels just right for me, so did I finish the game? Or are there more levels?
None of those, no one has asked me that in years.
I don't work with idiots who ask me questions like that.
I don't hang out with idiots who ask me questions like that.
I don't know what you guys are all doing wrong where you have to interact with lame, small-minded people fishing for compliments for their country. It can be avoided I swear it.
xinyuren:
Do you take taxis often? Meet new people on the train? Travel to meet friends in other cities? Chat on QQ? I do all of the above and get this question quite often. Must be nice being able to choose who gets to talk with you.
mike695ca:
i know what your saying, and im pretty closed off, but i have to talk with ALOT of chinese for my job. Plus, riding in an elevator. Anytime anyone hears me speak chinese they want to chat. So sometimes it just happens.
expatlife26:
That sounded much meaner than I meant it, and for that I apologize.
I guess outside of work I don't really interact with many locals, and it's mostly the same people I've known at the office for a couple years now.
I dont' have QQ, i do have wechat but i'm protective of who gets it to the point of paranoia. I have anything where people I don't know can find me disabled.
I'm not actively against the idea of having local friends, but theyd have to be able to run with me and my friends in conversation and frankly they usually can't.
My and my buddies like to trade good books around on our kindles and then really pour over them in depth over a few drinks. I mean it's not intentionally exclusive or racist or anything, but really if we're having an in-depth 5 hr talk and drink about a book on the American Civil War it would be really hard for any local to have the background necessary to take anything away from that.
Nothing against them, hell a lot of foreigners probably find us all shallow and pedantic too. It's not like i'm going out drinking every night either...when I do I just want to hang out with real friends I have a lot to talk about with.
mike695ca:
Hey man, no apologies needed. I get it. Of course your close friends dont ask dumb ass questions like that. But i get it from random people. A lady in the checkout counter, the wifes friends mom ect. I have some chinese friends. 1 who im very close with. He can keep up. Im not saying he would take anything away from a discussion on the american civil war, but neither would I haha. But topics that we do enjoy, say cars for example, he can more than keep up. But i find myself lucky to have him.i know hes rare, so i have no judgements of your self imposed exile here. Do what keeps you happy and sane.
I've been in China for 9 months. About two weeks in I went from level 0-1 to level 5. Actually, like some of the posters, I'm probably more level 6-7. I live in Haikou, Hainan which should explain my answer to those who've ever been. I am a one-man etiquette squad, dispensing unwanted suggestions in English (have barely picked up a few words in Mandarin) about not driving electric scooters on sidewalks, allowing me to exit the elevator first, and no cutting in front of me in a line, among other infractions. All of which is completely ignored, but I always feel self-satisfied after venting. Besides, I think the locals should learn some English profanities.
Leaving Haikou for good in a month. After a summer break back in the U.S. I'm giving Shanghai a whirl. Been there a couple of times and was amazed to discover that pedestrians rule the sidewalks. Imagine that!
I know plenty of people that have been here for years and love it here... I'm one of them!
Trebek:
Yes, I'm a Westerner. Many of us Westerners enjoy living in China. Most of the people who enjoy living in China rarely spend our spare time complaining about everything we find annoying. Yes this is a noisy polluted place with a large number of people who appear to be rude or lack manners. To me the odd things we see and experience here only make it more interesting. I think that most Chinese people are quite kind. I'm glad to be here, if I wasn't, I would just shut up and leave...
This September will make 5 years I've been here. I've been in AnHui most of the time, but I've traveled a good bit too, BeiJing, first to start work, then almost every year for pleasure (BadaLing, Summer Palace, Forbidden City,..), WeiFang, for pleasure, YiChang for pleasure (spent my first Spring Fest), ShangHai (visa and other business), WuHan, for a Jay Chou concert in 2010, ShenZhen on visa trip to HK, NanJing and HangZhou (the only city where drivers respect the pedestrian crossing) for pleasure, and tourist sites like Huang Shan. So I've had lots of good times. I probably stayed at stages 1 and 2 until last year when I went to teach in a small dirty county north of XuZhou, JiangSu. Dirty and no sign of common sense (chang shi).Litter everywhere, and people let their kids squat and take a crap just outside the shops or in the middle of the sidewalks. I had a 20 minute bike ride to school. I chose a small street we'd call and alley in the States because it was less chaotic than the main streets. Of course there were cars and trucks that would come through sometimes. Every roadway is crowded with elderly people, mostly women riding every form of wheeled vehicle imaginable, and no one knows how to drive. They're constantly getting into 4 way traffic jams, stuck with no clue of how to get unstuck, until a genius among them decides to recede and let someone else go ahead. It must hurt so much to let someone else go before them! Or when I'd lose it and yell "Shang Ke! Shang Ke!" And I'd move through. I think Dr. Seuss must have had China in mind when he wrote The Zax! I was there from September until last Spring Festival, and I went straight to stage 5. I've been married for two and a half years, and my wife felt the same about that city as I did. In fact, she's often told me that she doesn't like the way Chinese people are these days. We went back to our AnHui home for the holiday, and as Spring Fest was getting closer to ending, I knew I wasn't going back there. I went to work in another part of AnHui, but I'm still at stage 5 or 6 because no matter where you go here, you still have the same ignorant, rude, careless behavior, and a serious lack of common sense. I've only been back to the States once, after my first 4 months, and never missed it until last year! But I'm thankful that I have a wonderful wife and the sweetest in-laws anyone, foreign or Chinese could hope for, and some very good friends back in our "hometown." Also, almost all of my students are good, and most of the teachers I work with are nice..
