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Q: What's the most insane Chinese stereotype about foreigners you've heard?
People in the US get into gun battles on the freeway every day.
Foreigners know nothing about real medicine. :D
giadrosich:
Or they think that every arrest by police ends in a shoot out with the killer falling from a 10 story building or grain elevator. "Thanks, Hollywood!"
All native speakers of English make excellent English teachers.
If a foreigner doesn't understand you just speak slower and louder. (Hang on, I've heard that somewhere else tool.....)
Dunno about insane but from what I gather from the people i've spoken to, most of which have only ever met a handful of Englishmen, all Englishmen are tall, like football and are perfect gentlemen. Come to think of it that describes me in a nutshell (or case). Wait, no it doesn't, I can't stand football. Oh yeh, and London is always foggy. That one comes out of old Sherlock Holmes novels. I must have seen fog about 15 times in the 35 years I lived there.
Xpat.John:
That is okay. We all know that the UK doesn't play football. They play the kids game, soccer. :) Only Americans play football.
mArtiAn:
Yup, gotta go with my fellow countryman on this one XJ, American football doesn't hold a candle to rugby in terms of men's sports, they're padded up like girls. Rugby players just wrap some tape round their heads to keep their ears from getting ripped off.
GuilinRaf:
Though I am American, I am afraid I must agree with mArtiAn on this one....
derek:
Ok then...can we all at least agree that soccer/football is a kid's game?
mArtiAn:
Well the amount of players who drop to their knees crying and pretending to be hurt so that they can claim a foul against the other team, supports the idea that it is a game played by small boys with over-inflated balls.
You can't be an American; you have brown hair and green eyes. Americans should have yellow (blonde) hair and blue eyes!
Do you have a big penis? (both sexes have asked me this)
OK maybe not insane.
mArtiAn:
Yeh, they ask me too. I say, "How the fuck should I know? I've never seen his penis."
One that I've heard over and over is that all Americans own guns.
Another insight came while watching the Olympics during the table-tennis matches when China was playing Germany. The camera scanned the crowd, and a Chinese person I know very well turned to me and said, in a matter-of-fact tone: "See all those foreigners in that crowd. They are all wishing the Chinese guy looses!" I had run into the ever present "everybody hates China" stereotype.
GuilinRaf:
I had two guns. A Walther PPK for work and a Sig Sauer 232 which was my personal weapon...
mArtiAn:
I used to have a really cool sling-shot but the elastic on it broke.
mArtiAn:
I swear to God, i'm not doing my trademark 'pucker-up for China' routine, but in 8 years here, I have 'never', EVER, had a single person suggest that I hated China. This stuff makes me wonder whether i'm even 'in' China. Rice and noodles, right? Statues of that bloke Mao all over the place? People setting off strings of explosives at 7am because they've just opened a new shoe shop? That 'is' China right?
Speaking of Mao, I used to live near a library where they had a large statue of him holding a rolled up document that was apparently of some importance. Nobody told me what it was till the week I left. For two years i'd thought he was holding a chocolate sponge cake.
giadrosich:
@Martin: Me, either. I've never had anyone say it directly, but I've had plenty to insinuate that either I, or other foreigners did, which is what the remark by my friend seemed to indicate. Chinese vs. foreigner, hence, all foreigners are hoping the Chinese guy looses, hence, all foreigners hate Chinese. In response, I laughed at him and asked him, "Why do you think that?" He said, "Because it's true." I dropped it.
I think this is because the average Chinese person is conditioned to perpetuate the "us vs. them" mentality. The only problem is, there can be no "us vs. them" if everyone is friends and relatives, so the government does what it can to, in some degree, isolate people. I think this is changing, but from my experience, it is still the reality in so many circumstances. I'm glad that you have never come up against it, because it really is a little silly.
i was in the swimming pool of the building i live in...a guy asked ''Can i see your ''don't act like you don't know what i mean''?'..................i said ''WHy?!!!!!''...................He said foreigners have a BIG one..............no idea if this is related to your question here...........by the way......yes i showed him my Dog...........LOL
speaking to a girl who majors in English, she asked me where im from and when i said London she tells me that she doesn't believe me and i said i don't believe you major in English lol what the hell has your teacher been telling you, and i asked her to choose her next word carefully cos i don't want to carry on this silly convo
foreigners are libertine, foreigners eat beef, foreigners speak englisch, and blabalba bla and all what the above " angry"
guy said
Foreign businessmen are smarter than Chinese businessmen
hence the translated books about Bill Gates, Warren Buffet & Co.
~~~~~
on a positive note
Best question I have been asked (by my father-in-law)
If I visit Australia will I be called the English version laowi or waigouren?
I had the great satisfaction of saying you will be called Chinese not the catch-all 'foreigner'. He was happy
:
I would have thought he would be called "Hey, Mister!" or "Sir!", as the situation required... Screaming out "CHINESE" from across the way (if comparing it to the way "Laowai" is usually served) just seems a bit... I dunno... crass.
How about this one?
"You can't speak Chinese so you don't understand our culture."
I'm still trying to figure out what one has to do with the other.
