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The Five Stupid Questions Foreigners Ask Chinese
Apr 14, 2009Edited and translated by eChinacities.com Source: Xinhua Forum
Photo: sdncws.com
Through work I meet quite a lot of ‘laowai’, and their odd and puzzling questions often leave me slack jawed in amazement. However, under closer inspection these seeming idiotic questions not only reflect difference in thinking between the East and the West, but can also act as a mirror for us to examine our own short comings in.
My favorite that I like sharing with my friends is a question that Chinese would never ask: “Why do Chinese trees grow by the roadside?” This question was put to me by a French diplomat and to this day I still don’t have a good answer. Clearly the trees are planted by people, and as China lacks natural space and forests and deforestation in recent years has meant many people hardly get to see any trees. Natural trees for people who live on the Steppe plains are a luxury. So, since the 1980s the government pushed forward a policy of tree planting all over China and Chinese people are now used to seeing trees planted row upon row from village to village. This is hard for the foreigner to understand. Traveling around Europe you won’t find everything planned the same way and the scenery changes massively.
Last year I went back to my home town in Shandong and found out more about this ‘stupid question’. The village had been called upon to construct a village that would struggle for Socialist New Village. Along the roadsides within an area of 50 meters it was full of trees. The answer to the question, then, is: the trees are planted by man and they have to be planted like that. What’s even more amazing is that all the houses along the side of the road have to be painted the same color, so that the village becomes a ‘New Village’.
The second question was about the One Child Policy. When I was traveling abroad before I was often asked this question by curious foreigners: “Can you only have one baby?” Or some would even come out with: “Do you have your second child killed?” It was then that I could merely be a translator of our national sentiment and tell the foreigners that the One Child Policy was helping China with its population pressures and that this brings benefits to the world as a whole. After I had explained it seemed that the many different European people understood, but the Americans still didn’t get it. American’s get worked up over the abortion question at every of their Presidential elections. The question of whether or not the president agrees with abortion, ridiculous as it seems to Chinese people, is something that Americans make an issue out of.
The German Deutsche Welle surveyed the population of Berlin on the question of the One Child Policy. The results show that in the long run the policy has taken much criticism in the West. However, according to official statistics, since its implementation in the late 1970s, the policy has seen 300 to 400 million fewer births. Isn’t this a great result for a world that has an ever growing population and fewer resources? The Prof who carried out the survey said that the reason the policy is attacked so much is the brutal way in which it is enforced, taking away any rights to choose, something that westerners find it hard to imagine. But, if the population of China had continued to grow at the rates it was, it would have led to a famine and a struggle for resources. If China had not taken that route, despite international criticism, then the growth in the Chinese economy we see today would not have happened.
The third interesting question was posed by a Swedish business man. I took this 40 year old to the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and we even had Beijing duck together. Then on the last day, on a windy stretch of the 4th Ring Road after seeing the Bird’s Nest, he suddenly asked: “How comes you don’t see children playing in playgrounds in Beijing?” Including Sweden, most European countries don’t have cities that are so built up as Beijing, and they maintain something of their cultural past, style, open spaces etc. In Berlin next to the new German Chancellor’s Building there is a huge open lawn and you can see it full of children playing football at the weekends.
However, whatever the arguments for or against, I was once told by a Colorado secondary school teacher that the Chinese education system is much better. She said America should follow China’s example, as American school kids are so poorly behaved. In her eyes, China is a paradise of education.
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paradise of education. wake up. she was making you happy.
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well, there are not stupid questions...they are questions.As a foreig teacher in China since 2003 I have been asked by chinese everyday : -do you like China ? -Do you miss french food ? -Are you married ? (this one isn't really a question though) -Do you miss your family and so on. They reflect how people look at other people.
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I think it's important to realize here is that the REASON people ask about the one child policy is because there were murders of chinese newborn girls. This is not talking about abortion. no one can pretend that this didn't happen, chinese people would like to ignore that fact. it's not a stupid question
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I think the reason for the questions is that we, as Americans cannot figure out how this policy is fair. I have been in China for 5 years and still have some difficulties with the fairness. If a second child is born, they basicly don't exist. They cannot get a government ID, and so are not part of the social system. Also, the government has had to stop the abortions of girl babies by not allowing Dr.'s to tell parents the sex of the baby. They had to do this because there are not enough Chinese girls to go around. I think something like one third of Chinese men will not have a wife because there are just not enough Chinese women.
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This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen and only makes the author look ignorant and uninformed. Chinese students may be better behaved but they are TRAINED and not educated. Chinese students have no logic process and cannot come up with anything they havent' been told.
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There's no such thing as a stupid article, just a stupid author.
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I like the article. Yes foreigners ask stupid questions. The real issue with children and the one child policy is: According to UN data (The State of Woman and Children Global Report) why is it that Chinese girls under the age of 5 have a 250 percent chance of dying before the age of 5 than a boy has. Face the facts: In general Chinese people, especially in rural areas- value boys more than girls. Yes, there are exceptions in Yunnan Province of matriarchs that highy value girls and woman. This is also shown by the high incidence of little boy kidnapping that is rampart in some parts of China as well. I love being in China yet lets look at events with a critical view in order to understand how to resolve pressing social problems. I would do the same in the USA!!!!
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I think the issue here is that the author is ignoring the rampant infanticide that resulted directly after the implementation of the law.
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THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS STUPID QUESTIONS IN THIS ARTICLE..... I HAVE BEEN IN CHINA FOR THE LAST 3 MONTHS AND THE ONLY QUESTION IM ASKED BY MOST OF CHINESE PEOPLE IS!!!!! WHY ARE YOU BLACK, HAHA I WONDER WHAT YOU CALL THIS QUESTION? STUPID OR EVEN WORSE
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Are you certain the only question asked isn't, "Why do you love the capslock so much?"
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as concerns education, the chinese students are trained to reason or act like robbots. they have no mind of their own and even the educational system trains the students to memorise and not the other way round.
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Having taught in China for seven years and in ten universities, every year when one signs a teaching contract it is not honored. When signing for teaching Business English the universities change that to whatever they want. The contract has no validity. A contract for 14 hours of business English is changed to 10 hours of Speech, 4 hours of Reading Improvement, and 2 hours of Geography in English (a Chinese class that the professors did not want to teach.). A contract for one year was only for one semester. The Z visa was not recorded as a foreign expert to save the university money. A trip to HongKong wa needed to new visa at the teacher's expense. No travel pay was received and no penalty was paid by the university for false statement on length of contract. No bedding was supplied. It was the lecturers fault all students refused to write a three minute speech, that the improvement reading class would only repeat the oral presentation of text, and that the full size American geography text provided 70 pages a week to translate (Why not an outline series with fewer pages). The next university presented a text from England, Business Environment. It was the deindustrialization of England from 1970 to 2003. It was the graduate degree professor's fault that the the students did not learn the vocabulary before class and did not read the book. Chinese students do not want to learn Financial Accounting that would prepare them for the work placce and would also teach them to think more clearly. Memorizing words helps to pass the national tests higher without the ability to think in the language.
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Definitely a case wither of: 1. the American woman talking abour education only having a skin-deep experience of the Chinese education system ("oh, look how well-behaved everyone is, not one single child is hassling the teacher") and consequently being ignorant of the basic premise of Chinese education, that is, that education is all about learning facts rather than mastering logic and thinking and reasoning, or of 2. the American lady saying that just to please the Chinese person. The Chinese educational system stifles creativity. Yes, Chinese kids may become better at maths than the average American or European kid, but their system doesn't teach them to follow what they enjoy doing (being good at art rather than maths or science is looked down on) or how to enjoy life (I lived with a Chinese family and I have seen how late the kids come home, only to have loads of homework to do). One thing that annoys me is that some Chinese assume that just because you're foreign, that you are bad at maths. Yes, we concede that our educational system doesn't produce as many numerate people as the Chinese system. But a numerate kid is a numerate kid in any country, and what you learn over the course of an education is actually quite similar. It's just that Chinese learn harder stuff a little earlier.
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They are not stupid questions. Worldviews present these types of questions. The author or the article needs to Having worked as a teacher in China for 4 years , its only fair for me to write the most common questions asked of my by my undergraduate students. stupid questions asked by some of my undergraduate students. They are somewhat similar to Arnauld's questions. 1. Do you like China better than America? 2. Do you like Chinese food better than Western food? 3. Are you sure you are American? You are not tall with blonde hair and blue eyes(Really my freshman class asked me this question). 4. Is Yao Ming your favorite basketball player? 5. Can you sing "My Heart Will Go Nn"(from the Movie Titanic). The author needs to study more about foreigners and understand they only know about China through Western eyes. I am experiencing a whole new China by living in the country. I can go on with ridiculous and somewhat comical experiences but that is not what the article is about. Man man de zou !
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blond hair blue eyes lol. america is mixed with every race on the planet. im white brown hair blue eyes 6ft 2in but ive got blood from spanish british french african irish chinese hispanic others maybe and of course cherokee maybe a few other native tribes but i havent been tested to confirm
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Yeah, so let's just ignore the fact that parents leave their baby girls at roadsised to die. I don't see anything wrong with that. Or the fact that women are forced to have abortions or sterilisations, I mean that's completely normle. If you hadn't noticed yet, I'm being really sarcastic. And you know what, you complain that people ask stupid questions, maybe if you replied with at least a bit of an original answer, then people would not get the impression of China that they do. Anyway, it's like you don't want anyone to know about China, as if everyone should know what it's like as soon as their born. And stop looking down on the rest of the world, at least we have morals. Yeah, the Government is greedy, but you don't catch them forcing women to get rid of their kids, you don't see them lettimg people kill their daughters (cause boys are better.) And don't give me the, "but the Government never see that king of thing" crap, because if the whole fricking world can see it, then I'm sure the idiots running China can see it. And, at least western kids can come up with their own ideas, and aren't brainwashed. And in case you hadn't noticed, it's those kids who are gonna grow up, and if nothing else be happy. I know if I had kids, I'd rather they were happy rather than being taught how to kill any future offspring. Murder, is murder, however you word it. I really hope that you wise up, and stop sticking your nose up, cause the only thing your doing is making yourself look like an incompetant arse.
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It's all cultural difference, the way Chinese of thinking. When foreigner ask : Yes, but why it's like this or like that? Chinese don't have an answer, they just say: No, why. It happened to me so many times. Most of them really don't have their own opinion, they say what they where teached to say.
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To answer this is very simple .... "but the Americans still didn’t get it. American’s get worked up over the abortion question at every of their Presidential elections. The question of whether or not the president agrees with abortion, ridiculous as it seems to Chinese people, is something that Americans make an issue out of." The fact is that the majority of Chinese are either Atheists, Buddist, or no denomination, which means they see nothing wrong with abortions and the taking of a life of an unborn baby. Whereas,the majority of Americans are Christians, and we as Christians believe in the Bible and that God is telling us that it is wrong to to take the life of an unborn child! It's not a "stupid question", its just that the practice still goes on in China, when there are other means of solving the problem of abortions.
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It's generally accepted (including by the Chinese government) that the one-child policy was a failure - it has left China with demographic and social problems that will continue to plague it for many generations to come. Yet, Chinese people in general have a deep respect for life and agree that all life is precious, no matter how small. But that is besides the point. This is one of the worst articles I've ever read. The person who wrote it should apologize for misrepresenting the Chinese people. They are not as discriminatory, as nationalistic or as uninformed as she is.
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Analyses just dont come any shallower than these. She just jumps to conclusions which the facts..as presented by herself..simply do not support. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Rubbish!!
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Great, another article full of stereotypes and assumptions. “Why do Chinese trees grow by the roadside?” This question was put to me by a French diplomat and to this day I still don’t have a good answer.' Roadside planting of trees in China dates back to the Eastern Zhou dynasty. It is common in Japan and many parts of Europe. And yes, even in America we have it in areas! There are many reasons for it, including providing shade for travelers, reducing the force of the wind (this was the usual reason given in the late 70s/early 80s when there were tree-planting campaigns around fields and roadsides outside Beijing), being used in agricultural production (for hanging up crops away from pests), to help control water runoff and erosion, as extensions of the tree-lines that mark field boundaries, to help control roadside pollution in modern times. I'm sure the author can find many more reasons and the details about the history of this if s/he bothers to look it up on the internet.
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The most supid question from a Chinese personis : HOW MUCH DO YOU EARN? DEAR CHINESE PEOPLE, I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH, YOU ARE GREAT, BUT PLEEEEAAASE DON'T ASK LAOWAI ABOUT MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I'm often asked that question too, which strikes me as curious. As I sit here preparing for a lesson about social taboo in China and The West, I've just learned that it is considered very impolite to ask a Chinese man this question... But still I get it all the time 'how much do you earn'.
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Other than the one child policy question, those are good questions. Chinese education. hahaa. You people are fools. Indoctrinated, nationalistic, close-minded fools. If a Chinese can do anything it's with a computer. They follow orders, and rules. Surpassed America in creativity. ha. Try being creative in this country and you'll at least be watched by the government. This country is going to boil over like a pot of unwatched Chinese medicine.
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