Has your view of Chinese people changed since Yao joined the Rox?

The most interesting thing I wanted to learn about Yao since he was from China is how close the culture of Communism in China is to the social democracy of the United States. It seems to me from what I have gleaned from Yao we are very close together.

I think this does reflect in Yao's team first attitudes. And his willingness to not self promote his individual goals.

Communism teaches that the state comes first. So Yao in his book naturally stated that if it came to whether he could play in the NBA or the Chinese national team he would pick the Chinese national team.

I don't think our cultures are that far apart at least politically.

 

yeah they are taller than i thought

 

Hopefully this hasn't already been posted. But on a TNT story regarding Yao. They mentioned that China has over 1 million people over 7'0" tall.

 

No freakin' way. That translates into one 7 footer in 1,000 Chinese. In my twenty years in a major Chinese city (of 5million people), I probably saw people that tall less than 5 times.

Americans often mis-understand/interpret/judge Chinese, and vice versa (although at a lesser extend).

 

Yao = good Chinese, a very good one;

there are bad Chinese too.

 

just curious, why do you think chinese misjudge americans to a lesser extent than americans misjudge chinese? i think it pretty equal both ways, but at the same time i am not as in tune with modern chinese views of americans. from how i understood it when i studied china it seemed as if there were just as many extreme chinese as there are extreme americans and also just as many moderate chinese as there are moderate americans. i dunno...the way i saw it chinese misinterpreted american politics in the same way that americans misterpret chinese politics and to the same extent.

 

I am glad you asked it. The reason I say that is most educated Chinese learn a lot of info on outside world, especially the US. Most Americans, educated or not, don't care much about other countries.

Maybe being No.1 in the world makes you feel no need to concern or learn from others.

 

How many billion Chinese are in China (1,298,847,624 people)? Not sure that *all of them( 7 footers)* were outside for you to see. Unless you are a omnipresent type of person.

By the way, don't take my word for it. I'm just posting what was said on TNT.

During my many decades on this earth. I've seen only ONE 7'0" person that wasn't on an NBA team (or TV). And that's many cities throughout the USA. Just because I didn't *see* them doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

Well, I don't have a set view of ANY race, so I didn't have a specific view of Chinese people in the first place, but having Yao on my favorite team for a few years has taught me some stuff about Chinese culture...so my views haven't changed but my knowledge has.

 

hmmm...well i think that would tie into what i was saying about chinese misjudging americans just as much as americans misjudge chinese. there are most certainly many educated and uneducated americans who care about the rest of the world. many of the hundreds of thousands americans who protested the iraq war can be used as one example. many of those people try to promote themselves as being caring about the rest of the world. i disagree with a lot of their politics, but thats not the point.

i think you might want to look at how many americans simply don't care about politics and don't care about things that don't immediately concern them. american political participation is very very low. most americans would rather not be bothered with politicians and their crap so they have tuned it out and concentrate on things closer to them. it is the same way as most chinese are. most chinese care about their family and are concerned with improving their economic situation. it's just how people are.

further i think americans aren't concerned as much with other nations simply because we aren't geographically close to other nations. the ones we are close to we are concerned with. like down here in texas since we have a lot of mexicans that live here spanish has started to proliferate here. so as a result more texans learn spanish and learn about mexico. i think the chinese are concerned with america simply because we are the most powerful nation on the planet in every sense and we are something that the rest of the world focuses on based on our influence.

further i think you need to re-examine the extent with which america is involved in the world on a humanitarian basis. we are most certainly the biggest humanitarian nation in the world. i think that also shows how much america cares about the rest of the world as well.

finally, whether right or wrong america is also willing to use its military to protect other people that have no influence on america. for that there are the examples of somalia and serbia. america is also willing to stick it nose in other people's business like that of taiwan and china, iraq, vietnam, korea, south america, and so on either for selfish dumb political ideologies or for preservation of peace.

i don't want to get into that last part that i mentioned too much because then politics will get involved but i just wanted to throw it in to show that america is concerned, if not too concerned either for good or bad, with the rest of the world.

ok i hope that wasnt too much

 

Are you suggesting that the only way to change the "view of the Chinese people" is to ignore that (the mainstream) share common attitudes? That doesn't make any sense. I think it's necessary to discard the "politically correct" dogma that everyone is the same. That might be true from a racial point of view, but from a cultural point of view, the truth is we *ARE* different.

It's a controversial stance in the United States, where identifying someone as different based on their community is often offensive. With the history of race relations in this country, I can understand why. But I don't really like this hyper-sensitive approach. I think the people of different communities ARE noticeably and predictly different; not inferior or superior, just different.

There are many things that are absolutely cultural. I'd emphasis on attitude and perspective as key differences between Chinese and American culture.

Why's any of this a "cop out"? I'm Chinese, and when *informed* people make certain assumptions about my attitudes and perspectives towards family, career, and the world... well, they're often right. I think Yao's attitudes, perspectives, and interests represents the mainstream 20-30 year old urban Chinese very well.

 

I think that's very true, actually. How much does the typical (educated) Chinese know about India or South Africa? Very little.

 

Heech, I just don't like the excuse that Yao plays timid because, "It's his culture." (and other explanations of that nature) I think it is too pat an answer and just isn't true. Personally I think it has waaaaay more to do with the level of competition that he's played against in China.

 

I am a Hong Kong Chinese. Suppose you are a typical American, here are some questions concerning the American and Chinese cultures:

I respect President Washington and Lincoln, because I have read a bit about the independence and the civil war. So do you know something about Han Wudi and Tang taizhong, probably the greatest monarchs who bring prosperity in Chinese History?

I celebrate Christmas, but not Thanksgiving...but have you ever heard of Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat festival?

Have you ever heard of Hainan, where there are beaches and sunshine probably as good as Hawaii?

I know the exact locations of Texas, Floria, North Carolina...but have you ever heard of Guangdong, Henan, Sichuan?

I know about John Cage's 4'33" and Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea", but have u ever heard of any "Pipa" (btw, do u know "pipa" is a musical instrument?) Concerto? And have u read the famous "Taipei People" of Pai Hsien-yung?


I don't mean knowing some basic facts can simply allow people to "judge" a country well. Nevertheless, this is not the sufficient but necessary condition to understand another culture. These are only casual questions that come in my mind at the moment, so some of the comparisons may not be fair enough. Yet it's perhaps good enough to decide whether "it's pretty equal in both ways"...

 

A lot of these so called "ignorance" is a result of how the educational system is set up in the U.S. American children, to a large extent, do not learn much about oriental history and culture in school. And a lot of Americans are bad at geography because it's generally not necessary to learn more than knowing Canada, Mexico and a few other south American countries.

 

I think the thought of this thread is has Yao joining the Rockets changed our views of the Chinese people.

So our understanding of Chinese culture, history, literature etc. probably is not impacted greatly just because Yao is a Houston Rocket.

I am interested in how a person who grew up in a communist state views America. And I am interested in how their lives differ from our lives.

What I have learned from Yao is that our governments are not that far apart.

 

noooo not all.. i has respect for them ever since i used to watch Bruce Lee movies when i was like 3 or 4!!

 

I bet it is more than typical Americans do.
India is an important country, although it is weak and poor now. People from countries with long history understand history goes on cycles and every superpower rises and falls. Therefore, they learn things about other countries even if they are not big powers at present. On the contrary, most Americans believe the world started with America being the superpower and will remain that way forever hence they don't care about anything outside of US. That is very naive.

 

I think the word "communist" is abused nowadays. It is a world repeated again and again by neo-conservtists and pentagon in order to smear the image of a rising superpower and to get more military budget from Congress and to sell more arms to Taiwan and other Asian coutries.

 

The Chinese are more interested in the NBA and basketball after Yao joined Houston Rocket. We could watch every live game about rocket on the TV due to Ming is there (^o^).Actually I think that Chinese realizes the United State and American more much than American know the china and Chinese. The media in United State always play anti-Chinese news and information whereas positive news and message is very few. I do not know why US do like that. We always could learn lots of information about United State from different two sides (good and bad). I want american could know china more in the future. Anyway, the event Ming joined in the rocket make me collect any information about Houston and Rocket. I want to be Houston in the future. Visiting the downtown and cheering for rocket. I love Rocket!!!!!!! And support you forever whatever Ming is here or not!