First Impressions: What Chinese Netizens Think of Other Countries (Part 1)

Editor's note: The following article was translated and edited from a survey on netizens' "first impressions" of foreign countries conducted by the Global Times (Chinese edition). This article – the first of two parts – covers the United States, Japan, Russia and India.

Photo: electronic.districsides

Last November, the Global Times posted a survey called "When you think of these countries, what is your first impression?". The survey directed Chinese netizens to select a maximum of 10 keywords that represented their "first impressions" of each of the listed countries (United States, Japan, Russia, India, England, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil and South Africa). The keywords chosen represent a mix of pop culture (NBA, James Bond), cultural identifiers (Pizza, Kimono), famous places (Eiffel Tower, Cape of Good Hope), as well as more abstract concepts such as Democracy, Freedom, Justice and their not-so-complementary counterparts such as Violence, Corruption, Obesity, Misogyny, Terrorism. The results of the survey, which was taken by 300,000 Chinese netizens, were published on January 10th.

1) The United States: The Aggressor
Not long ago, Yan Xuetong (阎学通), a well-known Chinese scholar wrote that the world is in the process of transitioning to a "dual superpower" system from a single superpower system– the two countries in question being none other than the "old superpower" United States and the "rising superpower" China. This statement provides some insight into the delicate nature of the Sino-U.S. relationship. Simply put, as the people of the "rising superpower", what impression do China's netizens have of the "old superpower" United States?

Pegging international currencies to the USD, developing (and using) advanced weaponry and promoting its preferred ideologies and culture abroad, the United States became the undisputed hegemonic power of the 20th century. As such, it comes as no surprise that the words Hegemon and Powerful were the top "U.S. impressions" chosen by survey respondents, with 9.7% (34,215 votes) and 7.6% (26,993 votes) respectively. Meanwhile, the impression that a portion of Americans consider themselves as "God's chosen people" grabbed 7.1% of the vote for Arrogance. Also not surprising, considering the United States' frequency of going to war since WWII, War took 6.4% of the vote, and the United States'  snatch of global resources and wealth through war and monetary policy gave Greedy 5.7% of the vote as well. Rounding out the top six, as the world's leader in science and technology, 5.5% of respondents have an impression of the United States as Advanced.

In addition to these six big impressions, the United State's long-standing Containment Policy toward China has not been lost on its netizens, with the Anti-China collecting 4.4% of the vote. Arms Dealer took 3.3% of the vote, an obvious choice considering that seven of the top ten munitions enterprises in the world are U.S. based, but America's perceived love affair with guns didn't stop there – Weapons Proliferation and Violence also scoring relatively high with 3.1% and 3.4% respectively. On a final unfortunate note, as proud as Americans are of their Democracy and Rule of Law, these impressions apparently don't carry much weight with China's netizens, as they only collected 3.2% and 2.9% respectively – comparable to the votes cast for Debt Addiction.

2) Japan: Old Hatreds and New Perversions
While China's netizens enthusiastically voted for Japan in this survey – more than 150,000 votes were cast for Japan– the long history of hatreds, mistrusts, suspicions and hostility that have caused negative emotions to heavily hang over the Sino-Japanese relationship were quite clear in the survey's results.

Due to previous (and more recent) conflicts, and also in response to those in the Japanese media that constantly lambast China, it's no surprise that Anti-China was the highest voted impression of Japan, with 6.9% (22,251 votes). Continuing the trend of less-than-positive impressions, Perverted took 6.8% of the vote – likely due to the semi-accepted nature of "Lolita-ism" in Japanese Manga and other media. How to address their history of warfare has long been at the core of Sino-Japanese relations. The continued eulogizing of the right-wing Militarism and the worshipping of the Yasukuni Shrine (where a number of WWII war criminals have also been enshrined) left a deep impression on 6.3% of netizens respectively.

The voting results show that Chinese netizens' understanding of Japan's national characteristics are interwoven with their own. Case in point: Japanese are incredibly polite toward stronger parties, yet they will act rather cold-blooded toward weaker parties, and this impression of Hypocrisy grabbed 5.5% of the vote. Meanwhile the Misogyny of Japan's strict social hierarchy also took 3.4% of the vote. Although the netizens' impressions of Japan have been pretty darn scathing so far, it's not all bad: Diligent, Innovative, Green, Advanced, Saving and Courtesy all nabbed 3.6-5.0% of the vote. Other items of interest: Japan's erotic film industry has apparently been causing quite a "stir" among China's netizens, as AV garnered 5.0% of the votes; Japan's frequently changing political arena is also widely watched as Frequency of Prime Minister Changes drew in 3.4% of vote. In addition, traditional cultural items such as Bushido (way of the warrior) and modern industries such as Anime also received 3% of the vote.

3) Russia: The Tough and Revolutionary Soldier
China's relationship with Russia has been one of its most dramatic. The Soviet Union was once considered China's big brother; only to split later on and go their separate ways; and more recently the two countries have formed a strategic cooperative partnership. These days, now that China has a complex interest-based relationship with this half-European-half-Asian country, what impressions do China's netizens now have?

Russian leader Vladimir Putin, widely perceived as a "tough guy", no doubt giving an overwhelming majority of netizens an impression of Russia as Tough with 12.4% of the vote, and certainly there've been many events that support this overarching impression, whether it be the Soviet-U.S. arms race of the last century, or the current strategic guided missile base. No doubt related, the impression of Russia as a Military Power, and as a Vast Territory with Abundant Resources were also popular choices, with 7.4% and 5.8% of the vote respectively. And even though you'll rarely hear mention of its "soviet" history in current Russian media, memories of the proletarian revolution and red square marches are still frequently recalled in Chinese textbooks, leading netizens to vote for such revolutionary terms such as Kremlin (5.5%), October Revolution (5.0%) and Red Square (4.1%).

Judging from the survey results, one could also say that Chinese netizens have a "hot and a cold" impression of Russia: its notoriously frigid winters obviously lends itself to its Cold impression (5.2%), while many Chinese netizens feel that the country's notoriously scantily-clad blonde Beauties (5.4%) are down right hot. Two Russian "specialties" also ranked rather highly in the survey – Russia's so-called liquid bread Vodka grabbed 4.4% of the vote, and the mysterious high-profile soviet intelligence agency known as the KGB earned 2.8% of the vote. However, not all impressions of Russia were so highly-regarded by the Chinese netizens. The results show that the impression of Russia's national character is rather negative, perhaps stemming from past Sino-Soviet hostilities – Selfish, Arrogant and Brutal all clock in at over 4% of the vote, while Detached scores 2.7% of the vote as well.

4) India: The Dalai Lama's Landlord
The media often use the phrase "Dragon-Elephant Competition" to define Asia in the 21st century, and as both countries boast ancient civilizations, huge populations, and similar modernization paths, it seems that India and China are predestined to compete with one another. And to make matters even more interesting, don't forget to add in a territorial dispute and the whole issue of "Tibetan separatists" to the Sino-Indian relationship as well.

The first impression for a majority of Chinese netizens is that India Supports Tibetan Separatism,with 9.0% of the vote (the Dalai Lama fled to the small Indian town of Dharamsala in 1959 and has been there ever since). Also ranking up there, likely due to India's frequent brags that it's the world's largest democratic country, 7.6% of the survey respondents have an Arrogant impression of India. Moreover, as the Indian media frequently speculates about China's build up of soldiers along their shared border or the threat of a joint Sino-Pakistan invasion, it's given many Chinese netizens the impression that India is Anti-China (7.4%).

Although India boasts a world-class industrial zone and a six-star hotel, these images of sophistication and luxury are seen as a great contrast to its massive slums and over-packed trains with passengers spilling out the sides and the roof. As such, Chinese netizens' impressions of India as a Slum, Backwards and Corrupt also rank highly (7.2%, 6.8% and 6.4% respectively). The Territorial Dispute mentioned above is the biggest variance in Sino-Indian Relations. Although the two countries have established a joint committee to work toward resolving the border problem, it still holds a strong impression on Chinese netizens (6.8%). As for India's national character, many netizens believe that Indians have unintentionally exposed their Jealousy (6.7%) of China's rapid development, while also displaying some Vanity (5.7%) for their own development. Other highly ranked items include Population, Caste System and Software, each with more than 4% of the vote.

Source: world.huanqiu, opinion.huanqiu (original survey)
 

Related links
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