By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Is it fair to say that most foreigners in China don't understand Chinese people?
By understand I don't mean language barriers but attitudes, thoughts, ideology etc.
No it is not fair to say. A lot of foreigners have been in China for some time and has a good understanding of the people.
I think it would be fair to say that most newcomers will no understand people for the first months/years.
As Scandinavian said,for the new comers or short-term ones,yes,for the others,probably not.
How is it possible for anybody to fully understand such a large and diverse population and culture? I doubt Chinese people from different regions fully understand each other's ways. I think that I understand what I need to. That is factors that have an influence on me directly.
The Chinese people are not so hard to understand, though it can be very trying at times.
The Chinese government I find impossible to comprehend. They take stupidity to a level I never thought possible, then keep surpassing that level.
Amonk:
It's easy to understand once you realize the main goal of the party is to maintain the party, basically douse Nixon in soy sauce and that's all you gotta know.
Bottom line is that most Chinese are just worldly IGNORANT ...they have no clue about the world............... changing in a hurry with technology but for the most part, they haven't got a clue........................... I love living here and wish not to know about what silly things the world is up to ...........I'm goofy too!!
I think something that many people miss is the enormity of the numbers involved in China.
If for instance 1% of a population are antisocial, or even sociopathic in a nation such as UK (pop circa 60million) thats 600,000 people, spread over the whole nation they will often go unnoticed. If you have the same percentage in China (pop circa 1.4 billion) that's 14,000,000 that equates to almost two cities the size of London. That many people are much more likely to be noticed.
If you then add in lower education and poverty then the amount of 'surprises' out here shouldn't really be that 'surprising'.
Scandinavian:
There is something wrong with your math skills. If I go to the UK and say "Hi" to 100 people, I will meet 1 antisocial person. If I do the same in China I will meet 1 antisocial person.
Hugh.G.Rection:
Now, you've got me confused! 
I don't think my maths are wrong, what I was saying is that 1% of 1.4 billion is a LOT more people than 1% of 60 million.
What percentage are antisocial was really not what I was alluding to. The numbers are vast and so tiny percentages and rare occurrences happen much more often here.
Traveler:
But the distribution is still the same - 1 in 100, spread over a proportionately larger population, and a much larger area. I think China has a lot more than 1% as well, simply because of the indoctrination and brainwashing that the entire population is subjected to, and other adverse social factors that aren't as pronounced in the west.
Hugh.G.Rection:
I disagree, the distribution is very different. I think perhaps you are confusing averages and percentages. China is much more densely populated and therefore those antisocial elements are more likely to be met.
Take as a simile Cosmology, a star goes supernova in about 10 billion years, so on that scale it is a VERY rare occurence. However, there are such a huge number of stars that supernova events happen almost daily.
boqievents:
Chatting bollocks.
Average population density?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_population_density
UK is twice as densely populated as China.
Amonk:
Hugh- if you 'meet' the same number of people each day, then you will encounter the same rate of antisocial people. Suggesting that you will encounter more people means that your absolute number of people encountered in a day is increasing, not the rate of antisocial people. On the other hand, proximity can make the effects of an antisocial person acting out more pronounced. As an example, if a crazy person jumps off a bridge in Beijing then many more people will notice than if he did it in Xinjiang, amplifying the noticeable effects of his action.
And boqievents- those numbers don't take into account the population distribution in different parts of each country. Living in NYC and Nebraska will be entirely different- same as most people in China live along the east coast in tightly packed, centrally planned cities.
Hugh.G.Rection:
Amonk, thank you, you made my point much better than I did. As China has many more people and they are much more concentrated in the cities than the UK it is likely that you will encounter many more people in the course of a day here than you would in the UK. Therefore you are much more likely to encounter unusual people doing unusual things.
boqievents: In your usual rude arrogant way you are missing the point. In the UK there is a net migration from the cities into the countryside the population is much more evenly spaced across the entire UK. In China the migration is FROM the countryside into the cities and especially the tier one cities making them some of the most densely populated places on Earth. As an example, the city I live in, Nanning a tier 3 city (at best), has a population in the greater city (i.e. including the 'attached' villages of about 6 million. In the entire UK there are only two cities with that many people, Birmingham and London and I would guess that even there the population density is much less than the larger Chinese cities.
DaqingDevil:
Traveler - right on! Don't forget Newton's law here. I find most Chinese make no attempt to try to understand us so the opposite reaction is why should we bother? But, having been brought up in a different culture we make the effort.
I would say so....you have to understand the country had been isolated from the outside world for many years until not so long ago. They didn't want to get so much influence from outside from the neighboring countries or beyond. So it's fair to say that it would take some time before understanding each other actually becomes a reality!
First "General" I have lived in five different countries and find that the average American has very little knowledge of any foregn country. Chinese are difficult to understand because of the importance of face. Myths are rampant. If there is no myth regarding a subject the Chinese will invent one. Chinese are braught up with Chinese culture, which is very different to Western. It really takes years to understand the Chinese, but I am trying. Franck3
