Editor’s note: As China has become more and more visible on the international stage, foreigners’ discussions of the country have also become more diverse and colourful. One patriotic Chinese blogger posted this article on Phoenix New Media’s website warning his compatriots to stop giving the country a bad name abroad.

As a Chinese person, I realised I needed to wake up my compatriots to the reality that the world’s perception of Chinese people has changed. Gone are the days when Chinese were thought of as kind, hard-working, brave and traditional. We are now seen by many foreigners as lying, money-grubbing, uncivilized cons. The entire world is afraid of Chinese people.

If you need proof, just look at all the cases of anti-Chinese sentiment that have popped up in recent years: Pacific Islanders and Romanians burning Chinese people’s shops, Spanish people burning Chinese shoes, Europe’s rejection of Chinese traditional medicine, etc. Sure, political reasons are always a factor. China’s rise to power is bound to create jealousy in other countries. But could all this possibly have something to do with Chinese society itself?

1) Chinese people are uncivilized
Chinese people today travel all over the world, spitting, littering and peeing wherever they please. They don’t walk on the sidewalk; they run red lights. We’re not exactly making a good impression. Instead of accusing everyone of discriminating against us, maybe we should think for a moment. Has Chinese society fallen behind the rest of the world’s?

2) Chinese people flash their money
No matter where they go, Chinese people are obsessed with buying local products. They love showing off their new wealth. This might make us popular with foreign governments, but we’re making fools out of ourselves in front of foreigners abroad. Flashing our money isn’t going to fool anyone into thinking we’re gentlemen. On the contrary, we’ll come out looking like dumb nouveau riche. Take meals for example. Chinese people love ordering tons of dishes to prove they have “face,” even though it means throwing away most of the meal. This kind of behaviour is disrespectful to the farmers who grew that food and doesn’t prove anything about how much money somebody has. Look at the Japanese who take home leftovers no matter how rich they are. Chinese people do the same thing with liquor and buy the latest cell phones just so they can get a kick out of letting other people see how much they spent. Trying to wow foreigners with their wealth… how will that shape the way others see China?

3) Chinese speculators love to inflate prices
Maybe Chinese speculators should try to follow some basic economic rules. Hyper-speculation that goes past the economic base is the phenomenon foreigners fear the most about Chinese people. In China, you can speculate on anything. That’s the environment that China’s economy has thrived in, and today Chinese speculators have already expanded into every country on the map. Chinese people went to the U.S.; American housing prices sky-rocketed. Chinese people went to Canada; Canadian real estate prices soared. At first, governments welcomed Chinese speculators, but when their housing bubbles burst and homeowners were no longer able to pay real estate taxes, these countries realised they had become victims.

On a similar note, Chinese speculation on iron ore has made global prices catapult. Now, not only are prices for Chinese goods reaching dangerously high levels, countries whose economies have just started recovering are right back in the danger zone. This has led the U.S., Canada and other Western countries to install limits on foreign (especially Chinese) residents, particularly by instituting policies on real estate purchases. One Canadian really hit the nail on the head when he said that Chinese people would eagerly give up going to restaurants, the cinema, the theatre, the gym, reading, watching sports matches and traveling as long as they could still buy houses to their hearts’ content. Even if they don’t have any money, they’ll borrow money to buy a house. For Chinese people, a house isn’t a place to live – it’s a money-making machine. No wonder people abroad are afraid of us Chinese.

4) Chinese People: Masters of Counterfeit
You can easily find the entire world’s big name brands here in China, and “big name brands” manufactured in China have also spread to every corner of the globe. If you take a closer look, you’re bound to notice that they are all just Chinese counterfeits. These counterfeits have enraged companies around the world. In Europe, this has resulted in a special “inspection” for incoming Chinese – they’re searched to see if the things you’re using and wearing are actually authentic, brand-name products. If not, they face heavy fines. Is this a monstrous insult to Chinese people? In the end who’s to blame?

5) Why foreigners don’t trust traditional Chinese medicine
Why did Europe pass regulations limiting the use of Chinese medicine? Simple, there are too many con-artists in the Chinese medicinal trade. When foreigners come to China, these scumbags try to scam them, diagnosing them with make-believe illnesses when they’re perfectly healthy. Many Chinese who open Chinese medicinal clinics abroad aren’t out to cure people or promote traditional healing; they’re just trying to strike it rich. There’s nothing wrong with making money, but you shouldn’t scam people! How can we expect foreigners to ever trust Chinese medicine?

6) China’s Chunk of the Global Market

Many Chinese people are fiercely proud of the country’s huge share in global manufactures, like clothes, lighters, shoes and many other everyday products. No matter where you are in the world, you’re bound to be confronted with “Made in China” from the moment you wake up in the morning. This high visibility of Chinese goods is one reason why recent years have seen such a strong resistance to Chinese imports, often the root cause of anti-Chinese incidents. But if we think about it carefully, the multitude of products boasting “Made in China” labels might take up a large chunk of the global market, but have they really brought us wealth? Not exactly. And every time the market experiences a shift in the wind, Chinese products are the first to feel the impact.

This is all because our market share is concentrated in the lowest rung of the product ladder. Essentially, China has a giant market share and almost no profits to show for it. Other countries manufacture a fraction of what this country puts out but rake in much higher profits. China desperately needs to rethink its market strategy and create domestic brand names that can compete on an international level, even if that means giving up some of its bloated share of the overall market.

7) Chinese Corruption
A foreign company comes to China and is forced into corruption to survive. Sound familiar? This is a wide-spread reality in our great nation. Why does this happen? When foreign companies get to China, they quickly find out that they can’t count on the legal system to secure their investments. In China, guanxi (or “connections”) are much more important. Without guanxi, you could be an old man by the time your project’s approved. Then the minute you find someone to help you out, it’s suddenly all sunshine and daffodils. This kind of guanxi is actually just a euphemism for corruption. Corruption’s economical, too, since paying for these connections is plenty cheaper than going the legal route. Yet another scary skeleton in China’s national closet.

8) Chinese Cons
Chinese people have got scamming down to an art. Chinese con artists are magicians whose tricks escape even the most astute audiences, and their scams are inescapable wherever you go. Come into our store but can’t speak Chinese? Sorry, no negotiating for you. Come into a restaurant, but you’re a foreigner? Sorry, that’ll be twice the price. If you’re not from here, you might think the prices hotels post in English or other foreign languages are fair, but they’re actually set just for foreigners. Chinese people will always pay less. There’s a saying here: “In every billion people there are 900,000 cons.” Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s not far off. Chinese people scam on the phone, in business, in love… We Chinese have to watch out ourselves so it’s no wonder foreigners get ripped off. This could very well be why foreigners are too scared to buy anything here in China.

Right now, it’s time for Chinese people to realise that our every move is a reflection on our country. If we want to improve the world’s image of China and speed up global support for our role on the international stage, we have to take responsibility and act like the great power we are. Chinese individuals, we have to improve ourselves so that no one will ever fear Chinese people again!

Source: gcpnews.com

Related links
Causes and Social Consciousness: Does China Lack Both?
The Inscrutable Chinese? Challenges to Understanding China
China Youth Daily: Deception has Become Rampant in the Country

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