Regional Question.......

[Mars]

Where do the so called "Hillbillies" or "Rednecks" of China reside? Where does the creme of society reside? In other words..Where/what is the counter part for Appalachia and Bel Air in China? Does such a thing even exist? The reason I ask this is because one time, I talked with a woman in Beijing and she told me all the people in the south of China were sh#@. Her words...not mine. It made me wonder...

[Jeff S]

... in response to Regional Question......., posted by Mars on Jul 19, 2002

Contrary to our PC nature here in the US, many Asians don't seem to have any problem with prejudices (note I didn't say bigotry - a very different concept even though they're used interchangeably here in the US) In Japan, Kansai people (those living in the Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe area) think Kanto People (those living in the Tokyo/Yokohama/Kawasaki area) are uppity snobs, while Kanto people think Kansai people are dumb hicks. Northern and Southern Thais have the same feelingss toward each other and I'm sure Luzon, Visayan, and Mindinao people all have similar stereotypes they like to use for each other. This doesn't stop them from interacting, though, and it is NOT racism like we have come to call any of these ideas here in the US. It's more like friendly banter, though it may get snippy at times.

Don't correlate the comments of a Beijing-ite about a Shanghai-ese as anything like the hate speech of the KKK against black people. There is no hatred there; it's more like a rivalry. Remember your rivalry in football or basketball back in High School? We said some pretty horrible things about the school across town and were celebrating madly when beating them in the big game. Nonetheless, we didn't hate them and in fact considered them somewhat in higher standing than someone from another town. This is more like what you're hearing. Not hate, just preferences and rivalry.

-- Jeff S.

[Jimbo]

... in response to Tim's right, posted by Jeff S on Jul 19, 2002

When I was in Manila and working with chinese people and, friend of mind had a visitors from China.  I was just surprised when she introduced them to her fellow chinese friends that they were came from Taiwan.  So I asked my friend why from Taiwan? They were from China not Taiwan?  She said it's better that way so her friends don't looked down on them.

Secondly, in Hongkong some employer think when they hired a Filipina workers their fellow chinese friends looked them up.  It means they had money.  When they hired an Indonesia or Thailand some employer looked them down because Indonesia salary is lower than the Filipino workers.  

Like my ex-employer in HK they also look down Mainland people.  In fact they just arrived in Toronto, Canada yesterday as immigrant.  They are not happy living in HK after the hand-over to China.

I also have a very good friend of mind in Hongkong she was HK chinese and married with Japanese man.  She told me that she doesn't want to live in Japan because people in Japan look down on her.  She only wants to visit but not to live in Japan.

Well I think every races has prejudice.  I think this is a human nature. :-))

Sally

[Nathan]

... in response to Tim's right, posted by Jeff S on Jul 19, 2002

Racism WILL come to the surface between different nationalities withing Asia or between some Asians and non asian groups. I would cetainly not want to be a mixed blood child growing up in Japan or Korea for example. Jeff is right though about most snipping within one group being simply rivalry.

Nathan

[Tim]

... in response to Regional Question......., posted by Mars on Jul 19, 2002

Hi Mars,

For the benefit of our PL friends, I will repost here the reply I made to you in our CUC group...

It is dangerous to believe stereotypes about the Chinese, even when told by another Chinese. My advice is to take what a person says with a grain of salt until you know them well -- and this goes for someone from China, the USA, Europe, or anywhere else. Having prefaced my comments with that, I'll try to explain more to you.

Does prejudice exist in China ? Of course, just like it exists on the other continents. My observation is that the prejudice falls along lines of social class and ethnicity (yeah, China has over 50 ethnic minority groups). Most of the prejudice (blatant as well as subconcious) that I am personally familiar with among the Chinese is the social class variety. This usually manifests itself in the feelings of big city dwellers (think Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong -- although it's also in smallers cities) towards their fellow citizens who live in the countryside. Many city dwellers consider rural dwellers to be peasants, and thus beneath them. Unfortunately, the Chinese system favors city residents, and offers them more of an opportunity to succeed in life (and thus climb up the social ladder). This system feeds these feelings, because, speaking frankly, many of the people who live in rural areas truly do live a peasant lifestyle.

From birth, a mainland Chinese is followed around through life by their "family book", which is a document that states their official residence (among other things). In reality, this document almost performs the function of a defacto caste system. If your family book shows you are from the countryside, you are likely to be labelled as
a peasant no matter where you go (there are some exceptions now). If your family book shows you are a resident of Shanghai, you have an advantage and some doors are open to you. There has been alot of stories in the news about China trying to do away with the family
book system, but I haven't read of any real progress being made. In China (as you might imagine) old traditions die hard.

One example of prejudice (I would call it the mild or subconcious variety) that I am aware of is the feelings of Chinese from Taiwan and Hong Kong towards their fellow countrymen on the mainland. Hong Kong Chinese sometimes display an attitude of superiority and contempt for citizens from across the border; indeed, the term "mainlander" is not one of endearment when uttered (or read in print) in Hong Kong. The Taiwanese simply view the mainland people as estranged cousins, rivals, and (sometimes) enemies.

These comments are solely my opinion - and I am just one guy. I am not trying to say ALL Chinese are prejudice, or my explanation of the social classes in China is 100% perfect. They are not. I am simply stating some of the things that I have personally observed.

One closing comment I will add is that most western people who meet Chinese on the internet today will undoubtedly be meeting city dwellers -- I'd guess 80% of the time, although that figure is sure to drop in the years ahead. So keep that in mind when as you develop your relationship with them to better understand their feelings and
some of their attitudes.

Hope this helped some.

Regards, Tim