China in your mind.

[liezl]

hi there...!

I've met a lot of mostly young chinese people here in boracay island, philippines. Some of them were english language students here. and they were different with the way i expect them to be, they were friendly and generous.

liz

[BAF]

Hi,

My name is Brandon and I am an American male.

This is my third year in China.

The first point I'd like to make is that the individual who started this thread was asking foreigners about their perception of China but it seems that at least half of the people posting in this thread are Chinese people talking about how much they love China.

So, part of my perception of China (and I've lived here for more than 2 years already so I have some experience) includes EXTREME NATIONALISM.....almost to the point of fanaticism.....it kind of scares me sometimes.

Then there's Taiwan. I find trying to talk about Taiwan with Mainlanders completely pointless because they will insist over and over that Taiwan is a part of China in spite of the fact that Taiwan insists it is not and most of the world agrees with them.

But, to the typical Chinese person, the mainland Government's official views are the only valid views in the entire world so everyone else is wrong.

In my mind, Taiwan is NOT a part of China and most foreigners feel the same way. Taiwan has a different flag, different political system, different currency, better economy/higher standard of living and it a lot more developed than the mainland. Taiwanese people, at least the ones I know, are a lot more modern and civilized.

If it makes Chinese people on the mainland feel better to say that Taiwan is a part of China then I say good for them because that doesn't change the fact that it isn't.

I might as well go around insisting that Mars is a part of America even though it isn't. No matter how much I insist it is that won't change the reality of the situation.

Also, in addition to being extremely nationalistic, I find Chinese people to also be EXTREMELY HYPER-SENSITIVE to anything that is said about China which is not praising China.....I'm American and it seems like my whole life I have been aware of the fact that many non-Americans don't like American or our government's policies and that does not bother me at all. It really makes little difference to me if people love or hate American. Everyone is entitled to their view.....but it's not like that in China at all.

This is turning into a long post so I'll stop here.

[jiangyaoyi]

I didn't finish all the above posts but reas word by word the paragraphs by BAF, or Brandon(A big Hi to Brandon).
My first point is that policical issues do not seem to be an appropriate topic in this thread. When we take a
look at history, we cannot deny that every culture has a list of behavior and values or political incidents that are not
accepted in other cultures. And we don't blame others just because they are different.
Also, it's meaningless to compare the Mainlanders with Taiwanese. As you may know, before 1949, most of the capital and treasure were taken from mainland to Taiwan, and the 4 hundred billion people, mostly peasants at that time, had to start a new life on almost nothing. I'm certainly not to blame any Taiwanese or Taiwan government; I only want to put my advice that any horizontal omparison may be unfair and open to fault.
Additionaly, history book has clearly told us how much sufferings China has endured ever after the World War I. Chinese people have suffered too much and for too long, that why they value so much what they have today. It's like a boy who loves his mother too much that he can never stand any criticism to mother and maybe would kill anyone who's attempting to hurt his mother. But if we have a picture of how hard it is for that poor mother to deliver and bring the boy up on her own, we may label the boy as cute or lovely and forgive his OVER-SENSITIVITY.
I am not criticizing anyone. What I say here, hopefully, could be of any help to those like Brandon to conceptualize the Chinese around you and have a happy life here;)

[chairicherry]

Though the city im living in had been returned to China since 1997, I dont hv a strong sense of belonging with China.I mean, i dont feel really "attached" with her.

Yes i would feel proud when Chinese athletes agained another gold medal in the Olympics games, but this feeling would cool down some while after the Games was over.
i guess i am like some of the Hong Kong people, who think the mainlanders are not as well-educated as we are. we tend to judge them by the way they look, their behaviour and even preference of clothes.I know its mean and ridiculous to judge our brothers like this, but its really a fact that SOME of them create problems to our city.

I love Chinese culture for sure.China is a country with history and world-renowned culture.I always feel sorry when parts of the cultueres were "invaded" by foreigners and distinguished by other countries but by our people.How ironic! It's really a need to perserve our own cultures.