北京人眼中的老外
What Chinese people really think about foreigners in Beijing
北京宣武门性侵事件，老外被指先后骚扰5名女子；央视主持人杨瑞在其实名微博上写道，公安局要清扫洋垃圾，斩首洋蛇头，识别洋间谍，赶走洋泼妇，让妖魔化中国的闭嘴滚蛋。此番种种事件，引起大众对非法入境的外国人的反感。然而，北京人眼中的老外到底是怎样的呢？
"Sentiment Against Foreigners Flares in China,” claims a recent headline in The New York Times. “Beijing to 'Clean Out' Illegal Workers,” says the Wall Street Journal. CNN Beijing Bureau chief Jaime A. FlorCruz wonders whether the 100-day crackdown on illegal foreign residents is causing a “specter of xenophobia” to rise in the capital.
Although police deny any connection, the crackdown arrived on the tail of an explosive video that made the rounds on the Chinese internet. In it, a foreigner—widely identified as a British tourist—is beaten up by locals after allegedly sexually assaulting a Chinese woman near Xuanwumen.
The video went viral, leading to negative online screeds against foreigners, the most public of which was CCTV anchor Yang Rui's rant in which he encourages police to “cut off the foreign snake heads,” and claims that “foreign trash” is misleading the public and encouraging Chinese to emigrate. Yang's daughter, for the record, is studying in America.
Are Yang Rui's feelings widely shared among the Chinese public—those offline, in the real world? We sat down with 15 Chinese people of a range of ages and professions to find out what they really think about foreigners in Beijing. The sentiments they shared range from thoughtful to downright offensive, but few say they believe the incident in Xuanwumen is reflective of all foreigners.
First Impressions
“Blue eyes,” says Gu Zhongsheng, after a long silence thinking about what comes to mind first when he imagines foreigners. Gu is a 30-year-old photographer with deeper knowledge of foreigners than most. He once dated a foreign woman—with blue eyes.
For Xiao Xia, it's as simple as a smile. A random encounter with a foreigner at an airport left a deep impression on the 34-year old corporate trainer. “He smiled at me when we passed each other," she says. "I was surprised by that and felt warm inside, because we didn't know each other at all.”
But there are negative perceptions as well. “The image of foreigners in my head is not good,” says Zhang Zhigang (not his real name), a middle-aged taxi driver. Zhang claims he once picked up a black foreigner who left an awful smell in his car. “And I never drive drunks," he says. "They're very terrible.”
Another taxi driver interviewed says he thinks foreigners are fat. He described a time when an obese foreign woman wanted a ride in his tiny Xiali taxi. He suggested that she take a bigger taxi (with a heftier fare), but the woman refused. The taxi driver says he was stuck having to squeeze her inside his cab, with the car creaking under the weight.
Mrs. Liu, a noodle shop owner in her early thirties, says she thinks foreigners are polite and well-educated, but also that “most ... are very fat.”
So fat, smiling, smelly and blue-eyed foreigners seem to make impressions. But what about the common charge, often playfully lobbed about by expats themselves, that only those who couldn't make it back home end up in China?
Four Types of Foreigners
Maggie, a sales director born in the 1980s, says she and her friends place foreigners in China into four categories. One is the English teacher. Some of these teachers, says Maggie, don't seem “very responsible.” The second category is comprised of staff dispatched to China by big companies. “They are well-educated and bring in new management theories, skills and ideas, as well as a serious working attitude,” she says. The third is the businessman with an in-depth knowledge of the local culture. “They run businesses and want to make their dreams come true in China,” she says.
But she is disdainful of those she assigns to the final category. “They may travel here for a short time, just want to enjoy life or only have fun here,” Maggie says. “I have serious reservations about [those kinds of foreigners].”
Wu Di, a housewife on the cusp of 30, “doubts whether [foreigners] really need to work.” She says that they “always seem to have enough time to have fun and enjoy themselves.” When she holidays abroad, she sees foreigners with the same carefree attitude. But Wu says she supports the ongoing crackdown, because “laws and regulations should make sure that foreigners in Beijing are decent and serious, not idlers.”
“They know how to enjoy life,” says Wang Yuan, a female designer in her early 20s. “I also doubt whether there is a foreigner living in a bad situation in China, like living in a basement room. If there is, then I wonder why they would live badly like this.”
Funny, Polite and Religious
Although the term “laowai” technically includes all non-Chinese, the characteristics many of our interviewees attach to the label, such as a tendency towards obesity, seem decidedly North American. Perhaps because, as most of our interviewees say, they get much of their information about the outside world from American television shows and movies.
“I think the education teaches them to express and show their personality and ideas,” says Xiao Xia. “They respect others and they also respect their own ideas.”
Yi Zhihui, a 20-something freelancer, says that she thinks “family is very important to most foreigners, who always communicate with their family, which I rarely see among Chinese.”
Maggie says she believes foreigners are “all open-minded and not limited by things like tradition and family.”
Xiao Bao, a 32-year-old art director, echoes her sentiments. “China is very traditional, but foreigners are very open and not limited by tradition.”
Chen Xiaosong, a male engineer in his 20s, says his foreign friends are polite and well-mannered, while housewife Wu Di says she thinks expats are not only polite, but also funny and religious.
Though laowai enjoy a reputation for creativity among those we spoke with, Gu Zhongsheng and Wang Yuan also say they can be stubborn. “Their thought is creative and they are natural, not shy when they meet unknown people,” says Wang. “They insist on their own ideas in their work, sometimes to the point of stubbornness.”
Foreign Privilege
“Most foreigners come to pursue an easy and relaxing life,” writes CCTV journalist Shell Zhang in an article published in the Global Times. “And they do get it here [in China] … they are paid much better than their Chinese peers. Wherever they go, they are warmly received and treated as VIPs.”
This opinion is not uncommon. “I think we spoil foreigners slightly,” says Cao Youtao. However, he says his overall impression is a positive one. “There are lots of foreigners doing charity work in China,” he says.
Chen Xiaosong says expats seem to be superior to Chinese—or at least, appear so to some locals. “[Foreigners] may not have excellent abilities, but they can always make a lot of money,” he says. “Whether they are handsome or not, Chinese girls often like them, no matter if they are wearing rags, which foreigners always think are fashionable.”
But appearances can be deceiving, he says. “One of the girls I know is always wanting to find a foreign boyfriend," he says. "She is so stupid to think laowai are perfect, no matter whether they are poor or ugly.”
Too Many Foreigners?
Government statistics show that nearly 180,000 foreigners lived in Beijing in 2011, making up less than one percent of this city's population. Compare that figure with those of New York or London, where, according to U.S. and UK government statistics, foreigners make up 36 percent and 27 percent of the populations, respectively. Foreigners are relatively few in Beijing, and none of those interviewed thought there were too many foreigners in the capital—save for the taxi driver who says he wants “foreign assholes to get out of China as soon as possible.”
“There are fewer foreigners in Beijing than in Tokyo,” says Jessie Qiao, a 31-year-old IT manager who previously lived in Japan. (According to Japanese government stats, in 2011, registered foreign residents comprised 2.8 percent of Tokyo's population, or roughly 408,000.) Chen Xiaosong agrees that there aren't that many expats putting down roots in Beijing. “There are Chinatowns all over the world,” she says jokingly. ”But there's not a foreignertown in China, right?”
Zhang Zhen, a Chanel manager in his mid-30s, says he thinks foreigners are now part of the social fabric of Beijing. He works with non-Chinese on a daily basis and says that Beijing is “an inclusive city,” big enough to accommodate people from all over the globe.
Slamming Fists
A current media trend is to use angry netizen rants in stories as indicators of what the average Chinese person thinks, leading many expats to believe that the online hate has spilled into the real world, and that anti-foreigner sentiment is on the rise. Stories of attacks on foreigners on the back streets of Sanlitun are scary, but there's no reason to think overall violence against foreigners is increasing, though the rhetoric certainly has.
“I had a very good impression of foreigners before, but when I found out about the Xuanwumen incident, my impression became worse,” says Zhang Di, a 29-year-old marketing manager. Cab driver Zhang says his view of foreigners also became more negative recently.
But of the people we interviewed, those holding these opinions were in the minority. “I believe most Chinese think [Xuanwumen] was just an isolated case," says Xiao Xia. "Bad people are everywhere in the world and aren't limited to just one people or one country.”
Though the image of a slamming fist is the mascot of the 100-day crackdown campaign, and the general reaction to the video of the alleged sexual assault intense, it's good to know Beijing has by no means pulled away the welcome mat.
北京宣武门性侵事件，老外被指先后骚扰5名女子；央视主持人杨瑞在其实名微博上写道，公安局要清扫洋垃圾，斩首洋蛇头，识别洋间谍，赶走洋泼妇，让妖魔化中国的闭嘴滚蛋。此番种种事件，引起大众对非法入境的外国人的反感。然而，北京人眼中的老外到底是怎样的呢？
"Sentiment Against Foreigners Flares in China,” claims a recent headline in The New York Times. “Beijing to 'Clean Out' Illegal Workers,” says the Wall Street Journal. CNN Beijing Bureau chief Jaime A. FlorCruz wonders whether the 100-day crackdown on illegal foreign residents is causing a “specter of xenophobia” to rise in the capital.
Although police deny any connection, the crackdown arrived on the tail of an explosive video that made the rounds on the Chinese internet. In it, a foreigner—widely identified as a British tourist—is beaten up by locals after allegedly sexually assaulting a Chinese woman near Xuanwumen.
The video went viral, leading to negative online screeds against foreigners, the most public of which was CCTV anchor Yang Rui's rant in which he encourages police to “cut off the foreign snake heads,” and claims that “foreign trash” is misleading the public and encouraging Chinese to emigrate. Yang's daughter, for the record, is studying in America.
Are Yang Rui's feelings widely shared among the Chinese public—those offline, in the real world? We sat down with 15 Chinese people of a range of ages and professions to find out what they really think about foreigners in Beijing. The sentiments they shared range from thoughtful to downright offensive, but few say they believe the incident in Xuanwumen is reflective of all foreigners.
First Impressions
“Blue eyes,” says Gu Zhongsheng, after a long silence thinking about what comes to mind first when he imagines foreigners. Gu is a 30-year-old photographer with deeper knowledge of foreigners than most. He once dated a foreign woman—with blue eyes.
For Xiao Xia, it's as simple as a smile. A random encounter with a foreigner at an airport left a deep impression on the 34-year old corporate trainer. “He smiled at me when we passed each other," she says. "I was surprised by that and felt warm inside, because we didn't know each other at all.”
But there are negative perceptions as well. “The image of foreigners in my head is not good,” says Zhang Zhigang (not his real name), a middle-aged taxi driver. Zhang claims he once picked up a black foreigner who left an awful smell in his car. “And I never drive drunks," he says. "They're very terrible.”
Another taxi driver interviewed says he thinks foreigners are fat. He described a time when an obese foreign woman wanted a ride in his tiny Xiali taxi. He suggested that she take a bigger taxi (with a heftier fare), but the woman refused. The taxi driver says he was stuck having to squeeze her inside his cab, with the car creaking under the weight.
Mrs. Liu, a noodle shop owner in her early thirties, says she thinks foreigners are polite and well-educated, but also that “most ... are very fat.”
So fat, smiling, smelly and blue-eyed foreigners seem to make impressions. But what about the common charge, often playfully lobbed about by expats themselves, that only those who couldn't make it back home end up in China?
 |
Four Types of Foreigners
Maggie, a sales director born in the 1980s, says she and her friends place foreigners in China into four categories. One is the English teacher. Some of these teachers, says Maggie, don't seem “very responsible.” The second category is comprised of staff dispatched to China by big companies. “They are well-educated and bring in new management theories, skills and ideas, as well as a serious working attitude,” she says. The third is the businessman with an in-depth knowledge of the local culture. “They run businesses and want to make their dreams come true in China,” she says.
But she is disdainful of those she assigns to the final category. “They may travel here for a short time, just want to enjoy life or only have fun here,” Maggie says. “I have serious reservations about [those kinds of foreigners].”
Wu Di, a housewife on the cusp of 30, “doubts whether [foreigners] really need to work.” She says that they “always seem to have enough time to have fun and enjoy themselves.” When she holidays abroad, she sees foreigners with the same carefree attitude. But Wu says she supports the ongoing crackdown, because “laws and regulations should make sure that foreigners in Beijing are decent and serious, not idlers.”
“They know how to enjoy life,” says Wang Yuan, a female designer in her early 20s. “I also doubt whether there is a foreigner living in a bad situation in China, like living in a basement room. If there is, then I wonder why they would live badly like this.”
Funny, Polite and Religious
Although the term “laowai” technically includes all non-Chinese, the characteristics many of our interviewees attach to the label, such as a tendency towards obesity, seem decidedly North American. Perhaps because, as most of our interviewees say, they get much of their information about the outside world from American television shows and movies.
“I think the education teaches them to express and show their personality and ideas,” says Xiao Xia. “They respect others and they also respect their own ideas.”
Yi Zhihui, a 20-something freelancer, says that she thinks “family is very important to most foreigners, who always communicate with their family, which I rarely see among Chinese.”
Maggie says she believes foreigners are “all open-minded and not limited by things like tradition and family.”
Xiao Bao, a 32-year-old art director, echoes her sentiments. “China is very traditional, but foreigners are very open and not limited by tradition.”
Chen Xiaosong, a male engineer in his 20s, says his foreign friends are polite and well-mannered, while housewife Wu Di says she thinks expats are not only polite, but also funny and religious.
Though laowai enjoy a reputation for creativity among those we spoke with, Gu Zhongsheng and Wang Yuan also say they can be stubborn. “Their thought is creative and they are natural, not shy when they meet unknown people,” says Wang. “They insist on their own ideas in their work, sometimes to the point of stubbornness.”
Foreign Privilege
“Most foreigners come to pursue an easy and relaxing life,” writes CCTV journalist Shell Zhang in an article published in the Global Times. “And they do get it here [in China] … they are paid much better than their Chinese peers. Wherever they go, they are warmly received and treated as VIPs.”
This opinion is not uncommon. “I think we spoil foreigners slightly,” says Cao Youtao. However, he says his overall impression is a positive one. “There are lots of foreigners doing charity work in China,” he says.
Chen Xiaosong says expats seem to be superior to Chinese—or at least, appear so to some locals. “[Foreigners] may not have excellent abilities, but they can always make a lot of money,” he says. “Whether they are handsome or not, Chinese girls often like them, no matter if they are wearing rags, which foreigners always think are fashionable.”
But appearances can be deceiving, he says. “One of the girls I know is always wanting to find a foreign boyfriend," he says. "She is so stupid to think laowai are perfect, no matter whether they are poor or ugly.”
Too Many Foreigners?
Government statistics show that nearly 180,000 foreigners lived in Beijing in 2011, making up less than one percent of this city's population. Compare that figure with those of New York or London, where, according to U.S. and UK government statistics, foreigners make up 36 percent and 27 percent of the populations, respectively. Foreigners are relatively few in Beijing, and none of those interviewed thought there were too many foreigners in the capital—save for the taxi driver who says he wants “foreign assholes to get out of China as soon as possible.”
“There are fewer foreigners in Beijing than in Tokyo,” says Jessie Qiao, a 31-year-old IT manager who previously lived in Japan. (According to Japanese government stats, in 2011, registered foreign residents comprised 2.8 percent of Tokyo's population, or roughly 408,000.) Chen Xiaosong agrees that there aren't that many expats putting down roots in Beijing. “There are Chinatowns all over the world,” she says jokingly. ”But there's not a foreignertown in China, right?”
Zhang Zhen, a Chanel manager in his mid-30s, says he thinks foreigners are now part of the social fabric of Beijing. He works with non-Chinese on a daily basis and says that Beijing is “an inclusive city,” big enough to accommodate people from all over the globe.
Slamming Fists
A current media trend is to use angry netizen rants in stories as indicators of what the average Chinese person thinks, leading many expats to believe that the online hate has spilled into the real world, and that anti-foreigner sentiment is on the rise. Stories of attacks on foreigners on the back streets of Sanlitun are scary, but there's no reason to think overall violence against foreigners is increasing, though the rhetoric certainly has.
“I had a very good impression of foreigners before, but when I found out about the Xuanwumen incident, my impression became worse,” says Zhang Di, a 29-year-old marketing manager. Cab driver Zhang says his view of foreigners also became more negative recently.
But of the people we interviewed, those holding these opinions were in the minority. “I believe most Chinese think [Xuanwumen] was just an isolated case," says Xiao Xia. "Bad people are everywhere in the world and aren't limited to just one people or one country.”
Though the image of a slamming fist is the mascot of the 100-day crackdown campaign, and the general reaction to the video of the alleged sexual assault intense, it's good to know Beijing has by no means pulled away the welcome mat.
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