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Q: What is the biggest myth about the Chinese you've found is untrue since being here?
Mine is that they're hard working. There's a big difference between spending a long day at work and actually being productive. Most teachers are forced to spend long hours in the office when there's no actual work that needs doing and then on other occasions there's tonnes of it to get through. What I find most fascinating is how much more efficient a Chinese workplace could be if they simply disposed of the need to undergo so much of what must be unnecessary paperwork.
This must be the same with banking. I don't think I've met any foreigners who currently work in banking in China, but I've tried to send money from the banks both here and in Hong Kong to Australia, the US and New Zealand. I will never do any banking business in China. The bank screwed up my transaction, produced a false receipt from Deutsche Bank when the money was supposed to be sent to New York Mellon, and then kept the fee. It took them two hours to complete the transaction when it would have taken 8 minutes in the US or Hong Kong. The Chinese bank employees are masters of looking busy, but if you need them to do something, it takes forever.
I'm sure you have your own stories from various fields to validate my attempts to dispel this myth once and for all, but I'm more interested in hearing other myths that WESTERN people believe about China which went up in smoke for you.
Biggest myth for me is that all Chinese are living oppressed lives.
Next would be that all Chinese love their Government.
laowaigentleman:
I think you nailed it. They're basically just pussies with a tin pot Paul at the helm because they were never brave enough like the Romanians to throw out their kleptocrat Ceausescu.
That's the only difference. They have the work ethic of Mexicans and the courage of Italians.
manasyt:
We kicked out the communist government in Bulgaria too...no blood. Not that it's any better now 
I came with the idea that Chinese people would be very selfless, very much into solidarity. Nope... Maybe it was true before the early 1980's ?
I also have the impression that in China people would be quiet and overly polite... Nope, that would be those islands just in front ^^
On a positive note : the level of life was better than what I expected initially. It's confusing, because it can be very modern and complete 3rd-world wtf at the same time.
I always thought China was sort of a mysterious well-civilized society that just wasn't technologically advanced. Sort of like you see in the old Kung-Fu movies.
I learned that China isn't really mysterious so much as chaotic and society isn't really civilized at all. I think a lot of foreigners get caught in this trap as China really pushes this sort of image to the West (well at least before they held the Olympics).
Things I were told that aren't true-:
1. Living expenses are cheap.
2. Food is good.
3. Chinese children are well behaved.
4. Could easily move out of ESL teaching into something more prosperous after a couple of years.
5. The government is a severely oppressive regime. (Try going to the middle east for lack of freedom)
6. Clothes would be cheap and that I could buy good quality knock offs.
7. Girls are easy and go crazy for foreigners. winning my GF over was bloody hard work.
8. Lessons would be prepared properly for me and I would not need to spend much time preparing.
9. I can buy imported food if I do not like the local cuisine.
10. Many people speak English.
11. Local English teachers are friendly.
12. after two years i can speak chinese to ok conversational level.
SwedKiwi1:
Good list. I might add that Chinese students have great respect for their teachers.
without getting into anything too deep
what I have found and believe... most I have met are just plain nice people
can take all the good guys and all the bad guys, lump them together....... I avoid the bad guys, same like I do at home ... have some fun with the good guys...same as home ....what the hell is the difference?
In order:
1. Chinese are hard working. To be honest, though, Chinese AMERICANs (and probably Brits and Aussies and insert nationalities that break ou of the Chinatowns are). Mainlanders will do anything to get out of work. They will pour more effort into being worthless than making a modicum of effort on something.
2. Chinese students are respectful and diligent. Business English students are the odd one out here. Chinese kids are BRATs and university students are basically 10--entertain them, or they will rudely speak over you as you are delivering your lesson.
3. Chinese care about their children.The more I see of parenting here, the more obvious it is that Chinese care about themselves. As their kids are walking 401Ks, they will pamper them by extension.
.
4. Chinese language and culture are complex and mysterious. I seriously believe Chinese say this to pat themselves on the back. The culture is simple--assume people are half their natural age, and proceed. The only difficult part of the language is the sound system, and that the characters are relics from ages ago.
Edit:
--I think someone's comment got copied and pasted into mine somehow. Weird.
--It depends on the business English student. But, you don't actually have to shove the information through someone's skull while they fight you every step of the way, like in other venues.
coineineagh:
I could've sworn I wrote something exacly like 2nd part of your point 3 in another topic...
laowaigentleman:
If I teach business English the students will listen?
"Foreigners don't understand China." - what a conversation-stifling crock. Sometimes it feels that we understand it better than locals, because we've been educated about scams, social behaviourisms, herd mentality, commercialism, self-fulfilling prophecies, superstition, etc.
"There are too many people." - Why do I live in a 160m2 roof-terraced apartment then? Why are there so many ghost towns? Why is food so cheap? Why isn't market competition murderous? Sure there are many people coz it's a big country, but there are actually very few problems associated with overpopulation.
"Hello" - it's not really a normal hello, is it? But what can you do.
Ha ha. Sorry to answer twice. But my wife just reminded me.
I am the only Communist she has ever met in China 
laowaigentleman:
You're the only one I've met here too...
I swear that if they had attention spans broader than 15 minutes, they'd be eating up Atlas Shrugged and all its banal platitudes and adolescent "passion".
Going by the Chinese movies I've seen, this is not hyperbole.
ScotsAlan:
Yeah. It's difficult, being the only communist in China.
Back home people told me to fuck off to a communist country. So I did... sigh.
Not a communist to be found anywhere.
I post online, from China, and the capitalist right wingers tell me to fuck off to a communist country. Erm.... ok. where to go?
Faux news should give me a job as their token communist expert. I can make up stories as good as they can.
And Royce, after the election result.... Scotland are more left wing than China. And when I say left wing, I mean more socially conscious. The SNP MPs are left, right and middle.. but they all believe in fair play and equality. Good on them. Proud of them all 
ScotsAlan:
Ha ha Randal. I am good at flushing the capatalists out :) Its easy, because its basically anyone who is not me :-)
RandallFlagg:
Don't need to flush me out mate, i never hide or sugarcoat my political opinions although i don't go around boasting about them either. I like capitalism and think it's undeniably superior to socialism but i don't label myself a capitalist or wear a badge to that effect. 
No-one's said anything about the savings myth yet...
Stiggs:
What, that you can save money here, or that Chinese like to save money?
laowaigentleman:
I think one of the biggest myths are that the Chinese are great savers.
The Indians are great savers. The Chinese squander money like there's no tomorrow.
expatlife26:
Yeah that's probably the one i'd say too.
Maybe that was true 20+ yrs ago. I visited China with my folks a couple times when I was a little kid. Even in big cities there was nothing to buy, really.
I feel like nobody back then expected you to have anything so regardless of how little you earned as long as you made enough to eat and put clothes on your back what else were you going to do but save?
I spent a little over 6 months teaching when I first got here 3rd tier city in Anhui and I'd say the expats there were in a similar situation to local chinese 20 yrs ago. You might make <6000 RMB a month but theres literally nothing to spend it on. Theres no bars or nice restaurants you'd be interested in. Nobody expects you to have a car to prove you're respectable. No need to dress up or buy clothes. Only thing stores really have are phones. Basically expectations are so low you save by default.
But now for locals tons of pressure to own name brand stuff and electronics. If you can afford a car you usually have one. Now theres all this consumer crap and the world's great savers have become the world's great spenders. Shocking.
One of the things I look for in people's dialogues is interpreting inability as morality. Looking at someone who CAN'T do something and assigning some kind of positive moral value to not doing that thing. Like saying that an African farmer cares about the earth because his carbon footprint is close to zero. But that's not a choice he makes he just can't do it.
"Chinese girls are traditional" that was probably true 20 years ago, nowadays rare are the girls (at least in medium and big cities) who are going to wait until they are in the bridal chamber and they are damn right to enjoy life. At the time they get married most have had 2 or 3 different partners at least. I find Chinese men much more traditional than their women, it is not surprising as in most societies the traditions benefit the men.
Shining_brow:
Wouldn't a 'traditional girl' be married at 14, and have had 3 kids by the time they were 20? And never be allowed to set foot inside a university? Let alone have a real paying job that they can get their own money from...
Education, a lot is made of how good education is in China, and how the west doesn't stand a chance. I've taken part of my education here, and I worked in education (not as a teacher) and it's just not true. Education in China is awful.
laowaigentleman:
Why do you think it is that so many western conservative academics like Niall Ferguson think the Chinese are so wonderful? I worked here in primary, middle, high school and university and I find the quality so absurd I can't understand why anyone ever entertained such a proposition as one to the tune that the west was doomed. We need to hear the alternative and fact based argument so we can fix our systems and isolate these bastards.
That all Chinese were short and looked the same and all ate rice.
Big surprise.
Yeah, I know....I'm a racist.
laowaigentleman:
They need you to say that. Never say it. It validates their oppressive regime. Remember, commies killed more people than fascists because they were equal opportunities mass murderers.
Racism is nothing compared with what they did. If people channeled their objection to the activities of the communists rather than the sad Italians and Nazis the way people today do against the .05 % of the population who still don't fully get Darwin's work and seem to think such thick people's opinion holds any relevant weight the world would be a better place and the daft businessmen would have had to stay in their home countries trying to make my little pony sound exciting to people with critical thinking skills instead of uneducated peasants.
ScotsAlan:
That was our first answer.... but all to scared to say it.
That they can fly through the air, like in Kungfu movies
All myths about Chinese are almost already covered above though i had a assumption about westerners..
Presumption: The white folks have no problems whatsoever in China, they get everything served on a silver platter...
This assumption was pretty much cleared here on ECC... 
Iron12:
in China, you could be black, white or brown. As long as you are not Chinese, you are a foreigner.
there is a laundromat and a tailor on every block
laowaigentleman:
Korea is like that, isn't it? haha
Please don't shatter that illusion for me, I haven't been there yet.
Eorthisio:
laowaigentleman -> yes it is, i only stayed there 5 days and had to follow the guides but I saw many laundromats and tailors, also the people were very well dressed and classy, especially in Pyongyang!
That Chinese people were "elegant".
Chinese people are extremely clumsy and walk in zig-zags like they drive. I think "Elegant" would be the last work on my list to describe 99% of mainland Chinese.
That their bodies are different. Turns out they are not.
laowaigentleman:
Haven't progressed since the time of the Boxers, clearly.
As others have said, the behavior of Chinese children towards their teachers. I was expecting polite, respectful, hard working children who revered their teacher. Instead, 80-90% that I've encountered are silly, immature, rude, obnoxious and lazy.
I also expected less economic development. I started in a Tier 3 city way up in the north and figured it would be some kind of barren Siberian wasteland (was kind of hoping for that) but ended up in a sort of modern city.
i misunderstood the question the first time. myths that were disproven after coming here were:
"China is mysterious and fascinating." I hoped to be in awe of China, to learn more about an exotic culture. But it's all a bad copy of the west and old China, with very little substance.
"China's economy is growing rapidly." It's a void filling up with commercialism. They have some money now, but it's not used effectively. Heavy focus on export and real estate bubbles.
"Chinese people are educated and intelligent." Some students studying abroad create a false impression. Now, I wonder if some of their high grades weren't just bought with bribes.
Anyone who is planning to stay in China would benefit from reading the comprehensive, accurate answers to this excellent question. It would be a pleasure to see it from the other side of the coin, taking the subject to its completion with this question.
What is the biggest myth about the Chinese you've found is true since being here?
coineineagh:
- The myth that they are 'different'? They sure are. And proud of it.
I believed in the stereotype that most of the Chinese people are poor rice farming peasants or soldiers in the military. This may have been true before the opening of China to the world. But, things have drastically changed.
I love having this debate with my Chinese friends when they say "I am so poor" or "Chinese people are so poor". I scoff at them and tell them that they are not poor. I point out that they wear nice clothes, always buying things, have a nice cellphone, have internet and cable TV at home, more than likely they have an e-bike or a car, they have a nice new house, and so on. They are not poor.
It seems that many Chinese people have adopted the American "victim" mentality. Americans who want more and more point to the rich in America and claim that they want what they have, and it should be given to them. Chinese people see other Chinese people doing very well financially and think they can demand that they have that too. Just another American cultural import changing China.
Yinduoren:
Wait.... what? I am not sure I followed the comparison of American and Chinese... can you give another example of American cultural import?
coineineagh:
Victim mentality is not from the West. I'd say the East has mastered their own brand.
nashboroguy:
OK. How about the family unit break-up cultural import where everyone goes off and does their own thing. Families are beginning not to eat together as a unit, to name just one. Or, Keeping up witht he Jones syndrome (buying things because your neighbor has a better one). Building a house bigger and better than your neighbor. Or, becoming fast food and sugar junkies. Or, spending money you do not have or can not afford to spend, instead of saving for bad times. Plus many more.
