By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: why do foreigners always say they like chinese culture? like WTF is there to like?
i hear many foreigners say they are interested in Chinese culture??? and am like WTF!!! is likable about Chinese culture cus i ain't seeing anything likable about the culture. IF YOU DO HAVE ANY REASON FOR LIKING THE CULTURE PLEASE DO SHARE WITH ME. THANKS
Maybe the word is not "like" but "curious".
Chinese culture is certainly different and many aspects can be definitely interesting. I am in food industry so I find the food here fascinating as well as eating habits and cuisine styles history, development and spread throughout China and the world. How's that for liking?
I have quite a few! Just off the top of my head:
1- Art
2- Dance
3- Old architecture.
4-Gardens
5- Literature
6- Food/drink
7-Music
8- History
Five years here, and I am still as happy when I first arrived! Yes, I too have had my BCD as you may see from my other posts, but I do indeed love Chinese culture!
Saying it saves being rude to the locals.
'Why, no, actually I find your culture, such as it is, entirely repugnant. Your manners are disgusting and your casual racism makes me want to hit people in the face'.
Just saying, 'I like China' is so much easier and better for relationship building.
I think what they really mean by that is the historical culture, along with some of the modern culture. There's a lot of cool stuff in China's past, along with old art forms like dance and music. The culture they like may not be mainstream or used every day, but it's still around, and still interesting.
WOW what crawled on your tomato salad for lunch little suzy Q.? They made gun powder, were the first to make paper and you know those things that explode in the air you see every fourth of july it's called fireworks yes they invented that too....so I'm wondering when I see you staring up at the sky what it is your so happy about! Your actions speak louder than your words and I'm sure you were dazzled at the fireworks this year as well!
mattaya:
Yes crimina: I know in your salad is in the salad, and on your salad is on top of your salad. On top sounds creepier so I like to use on instead of in the salad. There is your english lesson for the day Crimo free of charge. Your welcome!
I actually do like it here in China, my fustration is not being understood and vise versa. I actually like walking around the run down back streets, I find it has a rustic charm. If everything wasn't so different, annoying or not, I wouldn't find it interesting.
there are to many things in Chinese culture which can be appreciated and we have to appreciate good things in Chinese culture and we do, i am not sure about you why are you so pissed off by Chinese culture ,if you have your own culture and traditions then you will respect others culture and their tradition , try to see the bright side and learn to appreciate
Guilin Raf has said it very well, hardly anything else to add.
In my case, I also do find the people fascinating. Be open, honest and respectful, and you will make friends for life. It does not cost me a penny to be nice to others, and I have found that in turn, they are nice to me. It is natural for locals to be scared of foreigners, show them that you are a human being and soon you will become "family" to them.
And knowing locals you then learn more details about culture, customs, traditions, history which will help you understand them better. Do not focus on the negative, rather concentrate on the positive aspects of their life.
So I either have to love every part of Chinese culture or hate it in its entirety? That's a little, I don't know, binary. There are things that I like, such as their dedication to education or the concept of family, and things I find frustrating, like how 9 times out of 10 the concept of face is just a way to use pride to mask incompetence.
Tapwater:
I don't know how you got this response out of her message. Did you ever read what she wrote or just cough up a talking point without even thinking?
mattsm84:
mattsm84:
People up vote things that they like or agree with and down vote things that that they don't. In this case, ten people liked or agreed with what I wrote, so it got ten up votes. You didn't, so it got one down vote. It's a pretty simple system, really. But then again you are the type of person that can ignore a question that is asked twice--once in all caps--in favor of a chance to ramble on aimlessly on a topic that is barely even tangentially related to the question that was put forward, so maybe you need even simplest things to be explained to you with the shortest words possible.
Politeness. It's just not in me to actively say to people "I'm sorry, but I like most of the other places I've been much better. Why must you spit so much? And what's up with the lying?"
It's not, really, that I dislike China THAT much, it's just that "do you like China?" is up there with 'does my bum look big in this?', as far as genuinely seeking an answer for a question goes. You know the correct answer; you just need to be diplomatic.
One of the reasons I came to China was to study the art, particularly Chinese ink painting (both forms). This, of course, leads to delving into the culture in general, as one tracks down references from both history and the philosophical underpinnings as the reason behind the aesthetics.
There is much to enjoy about any culture different from the one that you were brought up in. Variations of food, dress, art, thinking, and architecture is what makes life interesting and expands ones own thinking. Heaven forbid that we were all the same.
Chinese culture is like, I don't know. WTF why not just like it cus it ain't so bad? or is it??
The word 'culture' refers to many things - history, literature, architecture, behaviour, music, politics, etc et ect... so I can agree with the OP on some aspects, and with others like GR on others.
"I like a culture" isn't much different from saying "I like stuff"... what 'stuff' exactly? All stuff?? It's basically a meaningless phrase.
An honest question. I find nothing interesting about lying and stealing either.
GuilinRaf:
I guess it is a question of extremes. We have met expats who hate EVERYTHING about China and we have also met those who will not stand for ANY criticism of China and even make excuses.
The OP, in my opinion, sounds like the first type based on the way she phrases the second question.
That being said, I took the literal meaning of culture and based my answer on that.
If we go to the more "mundane" then I would have to say I dislike the spitting, cutting queue, beating women, etc.
SebE:
i think we can agree on disliking those things.. and at home we tend to feel the same way towards those tendencies we dislike. that is to say they are not "Chinese" problems, but human problems.
This question does have me somewhat 'stumped' because I just have to consider the following:
- Like most foreigners, I do not really like Chinese food. I love Western-style Chinese food and have 'selected' a series of Chinese foods I can enjoy, however, as a general rule I would never desire, miss or wish any typical Chinese dish.
- Generally speaking, I have no special interest in popular Chinese music or television series. (as in modern popular ones).
- Have zero appreciation for.... a certain political movement... and its victories.. or its leader who might be seen depicted around China. Do not admire it at all. Do not find anything worthwhile about it.
- Generally speaking I am appauled or learn to 'ignore' the general rudeness, sadness, lack of personality and charm that one might call the 'spirit' or 'atmosphere' of most city scenes or daily business.
Yet, I've never been happier eating mantou and porridge one smoggy morning in some loud and disorganized family restaurant, 'journey to the west' at high volume on the old TV and listening to some older people haggle-fight over the price of a piece of bread. An old man still wears a 'Mao suit' while I watch impossible 'traffic gymnastics' smashing horns on the street. An over-excited boy decides he is sitting beside me and is delirious I gave him a 'loonie'. His mom is amused by it. Today I'm going to be walking in the gardens of a Royal Garden forbidden to outsiders for 3,000 years. But I will be there.
So I've never been happier and more at home in my Chinese culture. After all.
Shining_brow:
Quote - "Like most foreigners, I do not really like Chinese food"
Where did you get that statistic from??? I love the local food! Sure, I still eat my western stuff regularly, but I don't have a problem with the local stuff either.. in fact, my staple breakfast these days is xi hong shi chao dan (which, bascically, is an omelette!)
jknox00:
Shining, you asked:
"Where did you get that statistic from??? I love the local food!"
Like you, I have also selected out certain Chinese foods (like your omelette) which you regularly order as a 'safe' dish. For me that was mantou and porridge.
However,
My 'statistic' is from observing thousands of foreigners and locals.
1. Go to 'Silk Street Market' (for example) and there is plenty of inexpensive and popular authentic local food available. 99.9% of diners will be Chinese.
99.9% of westerners will be eating at 'Pizza Hut' or any of the non-Asian restaurants.
2. I've traveled all over the UK, USA and Canada and there are Western-style Chinese food restaurants everywhere. Quite popular. But can you find an authentic (real) Chinese food restaurant with anyone but Chinese in it? Almost never. Sushi will be 100 times more popular. (In fact, even the Sushi is 'westernized versions).
3. If I ever meet another foreigner in China they are either at a western style restaurant OR ,like me, they are often ordering the 'safest' dish they are already familiar with (often something closest to western food as we can match).
Tapwater:
I completely agree with you. You've articulated Obioma's point in a much more elegant way.
Its strange, but the Chinese actually probably feel similarly about Western Culture. I read about a vacation package to Europe where every meal was eaten at a Chinese restaurant.
I think that there is something I like about China. I like the lack of customer service. Westerners might think of themselves as polite, and we don't like it when people aren't polite to us, but it doesn't really make us better people. We've just changed the tricks we use to cheat and exploit people. In a way, the Chinese are more honest.
Culture sharing is, in my Opinion, about fusion. There are certainly a lot of things that China could learn from the west, and actually some things the west can learn from China, but really only parts of things. We can copy Chinese cooking and they can copy ours but we will want to put our own influence onto it.
mattsm84:
So rather than ask you your reasons for liking Chinese culture you assumed that she wanted to watch you ineptly conflate politeness with honesty and then give your wholly unsolicited opinion on "culture sharing." I mean how did you miss her question when she wrote it in all caps?
Tapwater:
You're mad at me so you want to criticize me back? Do you care about truth?
mattsm84:
You want the truth? The truth is that your criticism of my post only drew my attention to yours, but the whole of my comment was directed towards what you had written. The question was what is there to like about the culture, and if you like anything, please tell share what it is. You didn't answer that question. You barely even tried. You wrote something about how you like it when Chinese people are rude to you because you feel that its more honest. You didn't elaborate on it that point at all. Can people be dishonest with you while they are being rude? Is being dishonest itself an incredibly rude action? Who knows, because you didn't bother to say anything else about it. Then you talked about culture sharing, which was totally off topic. I felt it was a bad answer, and I was critical of your post because of it.
I'm sort of curious as to how you feel now that you've had a few days to calm down. This question had bad china day written all over it.
Because they haven't found a waY TO USE CAPSLOCK WHEN WRITING IN CHINESE YET SO THEY AREN'T QUITE AS ANNOYING ON THE INTERNET LOL!!!!!!11!!!1
