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

Yao definitely helps Americans to understand the cultural differences between the US and China. It is true however that the US media report more negative news about China than positive ones. I think that is mostly because the US is ultra anti-communism, and China is indeed still labelled themselves "Communists". But the US government and major political figures are aware of the changes in China (the rise of capitalism). Their official China policy proves that.

Most Americans do not take what the media tell them as seriously as the Chinese people do with what the Chinese media tell them. Americans do not consider what is in print necessarily true. In China however, a mass of people from the countryside do tend to consider what the newpapers tell them true. If it is printed black on white paper, it must be true ... as an old saying says.

 

If it is printed WHITE on WHITE PAPER, we couldn't see it...

 

I know they are not related, but I have always found it odd that I started dating a chinese about a half year before we lucked up and got yao in the draft. That Chinese I dated has now been my wife for a year and seven months. I again say they are not related, but I find it very strange that things happened as they did.....especially considering Im a white guy from West Virginia.

 

this is definitely a valid point. while US media has a greater freedom (especially in the political area) than Chinese media, it just seems the anti-chinese sentiments way over-whelms the pro-chinese sentiment and most of the time, we only see bad exposures of China.

I find myself unconsciously influenced by it even though I am a Chinese and even though I know the media is painting a image that's worse than it really is. -- The result, everytime I go back, I'm pleasantly surprised how much China has changed and how good it has become.

I swear when I have kids, I'll bring them back at least once every 5 years, just to let them see what China really is...

 

i think the anti-chinese sentiment in america is similar to anti-american sentiment that much of the world feels and is based on misconceptions. it is based from the view that the people have of each government. american people feel no ill will towards the chinese people. it can be seen with how americans cheered on wang zhi zhi when he first came to dallas and how they love yao and everything about his personality. yao has served as a positive stereotype that americans see chinese as...hard working, loyal, dilligent, coachable, and not self centered like many of the american athletes. he is a breath of fresh air for americans. i know that not all chinese are like yao, but it gives americans the chance to have a chinese national become a prominent figure in american life for the first time ever.

but the way the chinese government handled yao's coming to american seemed to reinforce a negative stereotype/reality of the chinese government. americans heard about all the difficulties of getting yao to america because the chinese government didn't want to let him out. american's saw the example of wang zhi zhi who wanted to stay in america and work on his game once he finally got out of china, but he was blackballed for it. they saw yao being obligated to participate in all of these national competitions every year without the option of a break. these things reinforced the view of the chinese government as being totalitarian and bad.

i think the chinese people like america as a culture and as a people, but disagree with the american government on issues of foreign policy and meddling in china's affairs like human rights and taiwan. i know the chinese government does not accurately report every action by the american government and the basis behind such actions, similar to the fashion that the american media tends to skew the actions of the chinese government. i think these misunderstandings are based on mutual ignorance and based on both governments wanting to be right. i think american ignorance and stereotyping of china as a communist totalitarian nation feeds into the american misunderstandings. so i thnk a lot of american ignorance about china stems from the cold war attitudes on communism and labeling any "communist" non-democratic nation, like china, as a bad government. further, many americans only think of tiananmen square when they think of china which comes from the american media.

however, i think the chinese ignorance comes from the government always wanting to portray itself in a positive light and portray chinese actions as right just as the american goverment tries to portray its actions as right. the difference is the american media can come out and bash the government when they put out crap. the chinese people on the other hand for the most part accept what the government says even if it is not the whole truth. so i think that hinders the understanding of what actually drives america and americans.

i hear the chinese in this thread saying that america reports more negative news about china than positive, which is true, but i don't hear them saying that the chinese media reports the truth about every issue in america and reports it in an unbiased fashion. the ignorance is on both sides and will persist until people decide to learn more about the other culture. i am not saying americans have a great grasp of china, but i am saying that i don't think the chinese in this thread have a great understand of what drives america. especially, if they do not live in america.

i was lucky enough in college to have a visiting chinese professor from beijing teach about modern chinese politics and have an white american professor who lived in guangzhou for 10 years teach about modern chinese history. thru that i was able to gain insight into modern china and what drives it. i am not trying to boast, but i think its pretty cool that i have been able to see those perspectives. i think yao shows what is good about the chinese people, but i don't think that changes too much about how most americans view the chinese government.

i hope this post makes some sense i just wrote it off the top of my head and i have a tendency to not write clearly from point to point when i write like this. i have written waaaay too much i gotta get back to work.

 

Robbie, pretty good writing.

But one thing is that actually many Chinese don't believe what their government tells them. They have their sources, after all this is internet era and there are so many Chinese now living abroad. Tens of millions foreigners and Taiwanese/Hong Kongers visit China every year. It is hard to keep a lid on the truth of outside world.

 

thank you for sharing your story with us! It's really nice

 

You got it all reversed. Chinese people believe far less the crap their government tells them and Americans believe it more. Do you seriously think Chinese people believe that neo-communist crap their government tells them? On the other hand, Dick Cheney basically came out and said Saddam had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda and Sept 11 yet (because of the media and their upbringing) 70% of Americans still believe they are linked. Americans are far more brainwashed than the Chinese.

 

Agreed. The mainstream US media can be very misleading and biased on certain things, even they have the freedom.

 

The thread is about whether people understand China.

Make another example. Japan.
Chinese probably won't say Japanese understand what "drives" China and ves versa. But Chinese won't be saying Japanese knows China far less than the other way around.

That's the difference.

And it's not entirely the fault of American government. When China was powerful they probably never hear of Japan but Japan knows all too well about China. These things are just facts.

 

when i was trying to do research on stuff from the internet from china i had a hard time finding diverse views. most of the stuff i found was relatively extremist. but i don't read chinese so i'm not gonna find a lot of valuable material.

anyways...to refine my point about the chinese people believing the government more than americans...i didn't mean to say that they were robots of the government or something, but they are certainly under much much greater censorship compared to america. plus most of china is not on the internet and most of china is not urbanized. print media is still by far the largest media for information in china and it is heavily censored by the government. i know there is more that gets thru on the internet, but i also know that the chinese government tries to crackdown on sites it doesn't like from the internet as well.

i can't really remember that many facts or anything, but i do know most chinese are moderate and aren't neo-commies like mfw said. its not like its the cultural revolution over there...like i said before i do know that most chinese are about making their financial situation better right now and that they are not neo-commie robots.

 

I am a Chinese from Hong Kong. The language barrier is one of the many reasons that Americans misjudge Chinese to a far more extent than Chinese misjudge Americans . Many urban Chinese know English but very few American know Chinese language and there are many Chinese living abroad (Hong Kong, Taiwan and China Towns around the world) which certainly help mainland Chinese understand Americans and the outside world.

 

That is not reality. The reality is that our national team needs wang zhi zhi to come back china to complete the conditioning with his teammate that could make them more privity. Of course Time is after the game of NBA. Do u know how much the chinese government have paid out for wang zhi zhi who got the a little of achievement today under help of the state ?? Actually i do not know clearly about mind of american who think that if you like to do it then you can do it without other person's opinion and feeling just like the slogan in the advertisement " JUST DO IT".
I think maybe this is the biggest difference between chinese and american. The difference is mainly on the notion.

 

Maybe some of you don't remember June 4, 1989.

We have Yao Ming in the NBA compared to young Chinese protesters facing tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

That shows contrast.

Some Chinese college students involved in social protest crushed by their government. My perceptions of China are influenced by scenes like that. I don't here Yao making any social protest like statements like those students were making. I don't want him to, he may be sent home.

In 1999 Senior Cols. Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui of the Chinese military co-authored the book "Unrestricted Warfare"

let me quote the authors when asked about the Sept. 9-11 attacks on the WTC-"The attacks demonstrated the United States' fragility and weakness and showed that essentially it is unable to stand attacks. ... The United States, a giant tiger, has been dealing with mice; unexpectedly, this time it was bitten by mice - it has been wielding a large hammer but has been unable to find the flea.

"From a short-term perspective, the attacks in the United States will very likely have some effect on China's economy - they might affect China's economic growth. However, from a long-term viewpoint, they could be favorable to China."

 

Frankly I believe the initial poster's intend was about the understanding of Chinese CULTURE.

And as usual it quickly turned into politics and communism and regimes and 6.4 and something favourable to somebody or whatnot.

I mean politics is a legit aspect of understanding, but it always over-shadows the understanding of the culture of China. People need to understand the culture and everything else first before judging politics and actions. It's all got reversed.

 

I think I definitely know the reality of event of 6,4 more clear and true than you!!! You just heard of it from the media in United State just like CNN who just reported that the chinese government did all the wrong thing and think it is evil government. I live in australia right now so i can get lots of information about the event . I think it is not fair if you say the chinese government did thing all were wrong.

This is just your opinion and not chinese thinking.

 

Didn't mean to say something was done wrong by the Chinese government, I have know way of knowing? Just said that as an older American those are some of the defining media events that formed our perceptions. And that's what makes it so interesting that Yao is from Mainland China.

Personally if Yao had come from Hong Kong or San Francisco or Houston it would not be as interesting to me.

My room mate in college was Chinese from Hong Kong, he taught me alot about Chinese culture. But I didn't learn much about mainland China except his personal opinions.

The quote from the book "Unrestricted Warfare" is just that a quote from the English translation. (it is a good read, at least what you can get in English) I could have quoted other published comments from Chinese military personel to illustrate that there have been significant animosities between countries that now share a basketball star.

Our countries have a history of conflict over the past 50 years.
The last president faced congressional hearings because of allegations of Chinese espionage at the Los Alamos nuclear research facilites. He also was embroiled in a campaign finance scandals by Chinese campaign contributors.

Today we are all smiling in America buying "made in China" and we share a huge NBA star as countries. That's great. I have no problem. I shop at Wal Mart. I love Yao Ming.

So it was very interesting to me to get to know Yao Ming based upon a political and historical back drop. I don't say my perceptions are right or wrong. Probably both or either???

I have opinions. And because of Yao Ming one of my opinions today is that there is not that much difference in the Communist Party of China and the Social Democratic Parties of America. (Be it republican or democrat) At least I haven't heard Yao say that he is amazed at all the differences in governement, freedoms and liberties that we have here compared to China.

I just have a perception or opinion that Yao sees no reason to value our culture any better than his.

There was a time.... when people in communist nations tried to defect to America. That was a long time ago.

 

Nope. I look at everyone the same.

 

China is undergoing a natural transition toward democracy, with the economy being the core and the catalyst for that change. And nothing can stop that change, no matter how much the Communists want to preserve their old values.

excerpt from Interview with a 1989 demonstrator in China

 

Exactly!!! Actually as what Yao have said, china has been becoming more and more like america even though it defined itself is still a communistic country. And i believe that chine will become more freedoms and liberties for the future.