Comments on: Don’t be a Foreign Ghost!

By: Robert Vance

Robert Vance — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:27:00 +0000

Wow. You seem to know much about me from just one article that you read on this website.

Apparently, you couldn’t take two seconds of your time to look around this website and realize that every single article on here (and there are many) were authored by me.

I have written from both sides, both about Chinese people and foreign people, but you wouldn’t know that because you were so darn eager to attack me.

Instead of embarassing yourself by acting as if you know about me somehow, why don’t you take a look around this site and understand this article in the context of a site that is supposed to help foreigners in China.

I have often criticized the Chinese culture as well as my own culture on various aspects so this article is just one of many.

You are the snob sir because with one post that you read on here, you act as if you have me all figured out.

You are the snob because apparently you think that your time is too valuable to look around this site before you pass judgement.

If you can tell your students how you think they should act in a foreign country then what is wrong with me suggesting to teachers how they should act here in China since THIS IS THE PURPOSE of this site?

By: eccentricF

eccentricF — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:33:36 +0000

and as a P.S. I teach high school and I most certainly tell them the behaviours of the Chinese that are unacceptable to westerners. My students dream of going to the U.S. for school and so I feel it is my duty that they understand what they can and cannot do while abroad. Spitting, littering, burping, pushing and shoving without apology, public child urination and telling people they need to lose weight are at the top of my 2 page list I handed out to them. If they hire us to educate them on our language and culture, why can’t we give them a lesson on what our culture is like?

By: eccentricF

eccentricF — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:30:53 +0000

This article annoyed me. The author sounds like one of those Shanghai expats who looks down on other foreigners. He has the holier-than-though, I-know-more-than-you attitude, as if his time spent in China has been more valuable than other expats, who he seems to believe he trumps in behavioural standards. I bet he’d love to tell us that he never eats western food while in China either, as if that makes him a better traveler than the rest of us!

As someone who lives in a small town in China, I have witnessed some of the best and worst things of the Chinese culture. It is easy to say that we should behave in certain ways but I will never find being pushed out of the way so someone else can get in line in front of me an acceptable action and I will tell someone to line up in Chinese if I have to. Chinese know it’s rude and I understand why they do it but I don’t like it. Why should I tolerate known rude behaviour? This is not a cultural argument, this is a humanity argument. Also, the treatment of foreigners here is unacceptable. I have seen Chinese people basically swept aside for my own betterment. Tell me, righteous author, do you really think I should not speak up and tell a service person who moves a Chinese person to another table so I can sit down why their actions are rude? Should I not tell him to respect his own countryman? It works both ways. Take your snobbery elsewhere, sir.

By: Agatha

Agatha — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:51:22 +0000

Well, Robert’s comments certainly got some replies and many off the track.
I agree with everything that he said and also cringe at some behaviour of foreign teachers, not so much the tourists as they usually only visit tourist spots and then for a short time. Foreign teachers on the other hand should be mindful that they are representing their country and we do stand out and are a talking point. It’s very hard to hide in a school community so think about what you do and say.

By: Peter Easton

Peter Easton — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:46:23 +0000

I am certainly for real Mr Vance; I’m just prepared to give my honest opinion – supported with facts and logic.

Perhaps the truth does “do harm” to many people, who are always willing to believe what they wish to be true.

I’m certainly not bitter about “everything I read on this website”, just a dose of healthy cynicism (realism). I am, however, bitter towards snobbish attitudes and I think that’s fair enough.

By: Robert Vance

Robert Vance — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:10:09 +0000

@Peter Easton,

I don’t think you’re for real. Seriously. From making ridiculous statements about non-native speakers of English to suggesting that it would be better for non-demonational churches in China to be wiped out, I sincerely hope you’re not real and hope that you’re not in any position of power or influence because you could definitely do harm. What is your story? Why are you so bitter against everything that you read on this website?

By: Peter Easton

Peter Easton — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:01:15 +0000

^ Snob

By: j.macklby

j.macklby — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:30:29 +0000

Unfortunately,there have been far too many Westerners travelling outside of their own countries over the past 30 years, due to the mass affordability of air travel, when they really have no business doing so.The citizens remaining at home must ‘ cringe’ when they see who is ‘representing’ them overseas, with their their tacky and obnoxious antics..Thirty five years ago relatively few Westerners travelled outside the borders of their own countries….Today it seems everybody travels, and often on those ‘dirt’ cheap discount holiday packages…..’ Been there, seen that, got the required tourist photo,’ seems to be the attitude to foreign travel today, or perhaps ‘If it’s Thursday, this must be ROME….There is little effort to actually do as the Romans do either, or to learn something of their history or language.
Now that China ’s citizens are becoming increasingly wealthy, and
can travel abroad in larger numbers, just as Westerners have done, it is only natural that the rest of the world is learning to disdain much of the boorish behavior of some ‘Ugly travelling Chinese’.

By: mollyL

mollyL — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:45:57 +0000

I agree with inadragon and Gavin. What is the point of traveling to foreign countries if you don’t want to learn and accept the culture you are visiting. Didn’t you ever notice as a kid that when you went to stay overnight at a friend’s house that things got done a little differently? You followed their way, and when you came home you were glad to be back where everything was “normal”? Same rule applies to our discussion, I think.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:38:14 +0000

I have lived in China for seven years and your post makes me think of two pieces of advice I was given when I first came to this tremendous country.
One was “always remember that you may be the only person a Chinese Person may ever meet from your country so they will judge your country and the people from it by you, your attitude and actions