I had lunch with a Chinese colleague recently and I started the conversation about perceptions of different types of people.   For example, from his point of view, what did he think that most Chinese thought of Westerners and Americans, in particular?   I got a similar answer.   Westerners, especially Americans, are open people, who are almost always direct in what they believe or think.   They’re also considered (for the most part) to be honest and trustworthy.   I think this is the educated Chinese point-of-view, and it’s one that I’ve heard before.   I shared that many Americans think that Chinese, and Asian folk in general, are work and study hard and are perceived to be better in technical, scientific, and engineering subjects.   That reminds me of a funny email I saw showing and image of the 2003 graduating class of Wuhan Polytechnic University, a crowd of button-downed, straight-haired, ultra serious, science nerds.   And then soon followed by the funny image of an American University (was it University of Colorado?) featuring fat frat boyz brandishing beer bottles and bare-breasted girls.   The caption of the email read something like, “Why America is Doomed”.

I’ve heard other interesting perceptions of Westerners.   These are entertaining, like:   Westerners are more animal like because they’re bigger, stronger, have longer arms, have more hair, etc.   And those blue eyes look more like animal eyes than normal human eyes.   What else would you expect from a place that’s self-named as the “Middle Country” (What Chinese call “China”)?   Anyway, I thought that latter perception was entertaining, and I don’t mind being thought of as closer to the animal world, what the heck?   But, I do wonder if that’s what they’re thinking when I get the long blank stare.

Then again, some Chinese look to Westerners as demi-gods.   The US, for example, with its much smaller population and greater wealth is basically guiding China into the ultra modern age with technological advances.   There are many everyday examples from the adoption of Christmas as a holiday (even though almost no one knows anything about it) to pop singers inserting phrases of English into their songs.

Another interesting thing about the Chinese, and most Western folks don’t realize this about Chinese, is their discomfort in being as direct.   In fact, Chinese are much more roundabout and subtle, preferring to give hints   or just not say anything rather than be direct.   This is evident everywhere, and very pronounced at work where you have direct Americans not accustomed to this talking across the ocean to Chinese people asking them how the project is going.   You’ll be hard-pressed to get a direct and honest answer and if the real answer is “not so good”, then trouble lies ahead.   I’m still trying to figure this one out.   It’s a tough nut to crack.   More later.