Quote:
Originally Posted by NEFARIOUS
I didn't say I have firsthand experience IN China, I have firsthand experience in dealing WITH Chinese people, and with living around this area, dealing with an increasing amount of Asian business owners, and having Asian clients in the course of business, it's fair to say that I'm not pulling things out of a hat or pigeonholing people based on a narrow observation.
You perhaps lucked out and you're probably in a better side of town, or they're just friendlier around you, a "老外 [Lao Wai = Foreigner]", especially if you work in international trade... There are some companies that hire foreigners to sit in the executive boardroom just to look better to investors! Laowai's are hot commodities there, and perhaps the only reason you haven't seen it is because you're not Chinese. If you are, then please disregard this paragraph.
Also not just Chinese, but lots of Asians in general... They can show one side to the public; the organized, professional, outgoing and generous side with a Porsche Cayenne and designer clothes, but once they are out of sight of their homies, he drives that Cayenne into a working-class neighborhood into a rundown house reeking of cigarettes and clothes that hasn't been washed in a month, hates going out and wishes the people he was hanging out with earlier "would just die already"... I know this person personally and saw both sides, plus 2 other similar people.
But for me, I haven't gotten along with Tianjin people, who are often boisterous and unforgiving, and that's 3 out of 5 that I've dealt with on a regular basis, and that 4th one was only because he reconciled, and I rarely talk to the 5th guy enough to make a sufficient aggregate. Also, plenty of people from Beijing and Shanghai fit the bill as to what I described... A good percentage encounters I've had with Mainland Chinese people have not been pleasant.
But note that I'm not saying all of them are bad, but there are also times that you encounter some people that hide their true identity until about 3 months later, kinda like getting into a relationship with a closeted psycho.
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Off Topic:
I'm responding to your post because it's so full of apparent prejudice that it cannot go unanswered. That said, I doubt the themes of your post are at all what the OP intended for I didn't sense his/her OP teetered on the edge of outright bigotry. Indeed, the OP didn't even not that the ethnicity of the woman who wanted to protect her car rather than free her child from it.
- When I'm in China, I stay in a very nice hotel. Even so, in many Chinese cities, and certainly in the one I am in most often, Shenzhen, very nice hotels often stand in or immediately abut very working class neighborhoods. Nice hotels also exist in posh or commercial areas. The hotel I'm most often in is in a working class area. I certainly and regularly patronize businesses in the neighborhood. Those businesses range from individuals who set up hibachi grills and cook for sale chicken and veggies, small lo mein places, an apothecary from which I've purchased both Western-stye and traditional Chinese medicines (the Western stuff works as one'd expect; the traditional stuff does what I wish the Western stuff would do), barbershops, the dudes selling bootleg DVD movies (some of them work in my home DVD player and some don't), convenience and grocery stores, restaurants both "chic" and not-at-all chic and electronics stores. I also patronize posh shopping malls, restaurants, massage parlors/spas, and boutiques in town.
- I don't sit on the board of any Chinese companies. I am a management consultant not a trade representative or trade advisor. I am responsible for multiple projects in the PRC as well as in other Southern and Eastern Asian countries. My project teams range in size from about a dozen people to about 250 people. I've been directly involved with projects of those sorts for nearly a decade and my actions and roles on them span the gamut from detailed problem solving with "stumped" low level subordinates to high level project management and strategic planning with executives, both my Asian peers in my firm as well as client execs. My direct clients are multi-national manufacturers, and business and consumer service providers.
- I am lucky in that I have been able to refrain from allowing myself to extrapolate my individual experiences with individuals to entire cultures comprised of hundreds of millions and billions of people, to say noting of entire continents of people. I like to think that luck has little to do with it and that my good sense, my "love your neighbor as yourself" attitude, and my genuine concern for and like of humans play the major roles in my not having the sorts of negative experiences and negatively biased views you do with regard to Asians.
Green:
Boisterousness, remorselessness and cruelty are not endearing character traits; however, I don't think that a person's being Tianjinese would affect whether I or others can or will get along with them or not. Nor does their ethnicity play a role in how I'd respond to or feel about what I unilaterally deem to be any individual's foul comportment.
Tianjin is a major port city having a population of nearly 10 million. Now this may come as a surprise to you, but the various "flavors" in which can come human personalities is not culturally, ethnically or racially dependent and the Chinese, over the course of five millennia, have had more time than any other culture on the planet to understand human nature and how to get along with other people, be they Chinese or not.
Lastly, it's curious, to say the least, that you haven't gotten along with 3 of 5 Tianjinese whom you've met...Tianjin is a city known for its comedy and comedians. Clearly not everyone in Tianjin is a comedian, or even merely a "happy go lucky" kind of person, but given the prominent place of comedy in the city's culture, one has to think that folks issuing from such a local tradition are at least reasonably easy to get along with.
Purple:
Is that something of which only Asians, and not also non-Asians, are capable? From what you wrote, one might infer that you believe duplicitousness unique to, or at least characteristic of, Asians. Do you?
Red:
You may want to consider that rather than it being the "fault" of the Asians, it may be that your preponderance of negative experiences and my preponderance of positive ones portends that it's our individual personalities that are to "blame" for those things.
Blue:
I honestly have only once in my life encountered a person so deceitful as you describe. That person is a white guy from Indiana who has blond hair and blue eyes. I'm certainly not going to assume as a result of my unfortunate interactions with him that, say, Indianans are deceitful.
It's clear to me that even though I've not had to deal with a lot of deceitful folk, there surely are such folk moving among us. Furthermore, I'm sure that among the people exhibiting that character flaw, there are Americans, Asians, Africans, Australians, and Europeans. I am going to guess there are no deceitful Antarticans, Martians or Moon People.
All the best.