Please bear in mind that I am writing this with my parents in mind - you see, my parents are Chinese-Singaporeans who have a lot of misconceptions about Chinese people from China. Neither of them have ever worked with people from China nor do they actually have any friends from China - ironically, despite my dad being a Mandarin speaker who is extremely Chinese in so many ways, he has had very little contact with real Chinese people from China. On the other hand, I have worked with Chinese people from China on many occasions over the years. So whilst I am culturally far less Chinese than my parents, I have had far more contact with Chinese people (from China) than they ever had.
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| What is it like to work with Chinese people? |
1. I feel so goddamn white. Damn I am a total banana. I am so white on the inside.
There's nothing like being confronted by some real bona fide, genuine 100% Chinese people from China to remind me just how totally white I am in contrast to them. They barely see me as Chinese - they see me as either British or Singaporean, as someone who can speak Mandarin but definitely not Chinese.
2. Not all Chinese people get along with each other.
It would be silly to assume that all Chinese people would get along with each other just because they happen to be from China - but this is something my dad always assumed and he even made that point to me when I moved to England for university, that I should find more Chinese friends. It is a ridiculously stupid assumption of course and I witnessed it first hand as I saw some of my Chinese colleagues work under pressure and have arguments. Guess what? That is to be expected in any high-pressure situation when you have to deliver a very high quality project, meet a deadline and work super long hours. One day we started at 6 am and finished at 1 am - that is a 19 hour day we worked. It takes more than having a common language or culture to get along with your colleagues - just ask any real Chinese person.
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| Even Chinese people argue amongst themselves, to my father's surprise.. |
3. Not all HK people speak Mandarin.
Some do, some speak Mandarin remarkably well - others have to resort to switching to English to communicate with those of us who don't speak Cantonese. But my HK colleagues all spoke remarkably good English - but then again, these are highly educated professionals, so it is hardly representative of the average standard of English in HK.
4. I can totally befriend PRCs and like them if they are like me.
I met this lovely producer from Shanghai - we have so much in common. We watched the same TV programmes (Amazing Race, Veep, Breaking Bad), we like the same kind of K-pop music (G-Dragon in particular), we like the same kind of food (Korean, Italian and Japanese food), we are both extremely well traveled, we are both multi-lingual (she speaks English, Mandarin, a few Chinese dialects, Korean and French) and we share the same disdain for the kind of crap we encounter in our industry. She was brought up in China (and educated entirely in China) but we just happened to totally like the same things in life. I swear if I was straight I would wanna date her as she's pretty hot too.
5. What the hell is Wechat?
There was this issue about how we are going to try to keep in touch after the project is over. They tend to use Wechat in China whereas I would normally use Facebook - which is blocked in China. Until this project, I have never ever heard of Wechat. The HKers seem to straddle the divide - they use both Wechat and Facebook. We had to resort to using Linkedin to keep in touch. Oh and they don't use Youtube either as it's blocked in China as well.
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| Youtube and Facebook are blocked in China. |
I have already talked about my PRC colleague who got ripped off in London whilst shopping - it would be unkind of list the stupid questions he has asked me about England. It suffices to say that it doesn't bother him that he has virtually no idea what the hell white people in the West get up to and he is just not interested. He is in complete contrast to my other colleague (the K-pop fanatic producer) - so as you can see, they represent the two extremes of the scale in China. I suppose in China, you will encounter both extremes and everything in between, though I tend to believe that because of the language barrier, you're far more likely to find more who are totally ignorant of the world outside China.
7. PRCs think that my Mandarin sucks.
Of course my Mandarin is not great - it was my second language in Singapore and I've lived in Europe for 17 years. I have made it clear that it is now my third language given how my French is a lot better than my Mandarin now and I barely use it when in London as it is simply not relevant to my work or social life - until now. Suddenly, I am in an environment where I am not only using Mandarin for work but also socially as I am hanging out with my colleagues after work - and whilst I am making a valiant effort with Mandarin, it is clear that I do often struggle. I would say things like, "导演需要看video... 普通话怎么说video? Oh, 视频." I simply lack the full range of vocabulary in Mandarin, particularly when it comes to more technical terms because I have never had to use my Mandarin properly for this industry before.
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| My colleagues think that my Mandarin sucks - bad. Quelle surprise. |
8. The HKers think that my feeble attempts at Cantonese are hilarious.
I do try to make an effort to speak Cantonese with my HK colleagues - I do speak a little Cantonese but it comes out all wrong. Still, they tend to reply in English rather than make me struggle on in Cantonese.
9. The PRCs have little desire to move to England.
Perhaps my impression on the issue is strongly influenced by the situation in Singapore, but my Chinese colleagues have little desire to work in England despite having enjoyed working on this project in England. They are here to do a project, it is a business trip, they want to finish the project and return to China. I guess this is mostly because I am dealing with highly skilled professionals from China who have well-paid jobs, on a business trip to England and there's a certain sense of pride in China's success on their part. They have plenty of praise for London, but I could see that life is indeed good for them in China, hence they have little reason to want to leave China when the going is good.
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| My PRC colleagues have no desire to move to England. |
10. Some white people are incredibly ignorant about Chinese people.
OMFG. Don't get me started - okay, not all white people are that bloody ignorant. The two main languages spoken amongst the Chinese contingent in this project are obviously Mandarin and Cantonese. The standard question I get from white people is, "is that Mandarin or Cantonese you're speaking?" Now that is a fair question - but I actually had one guy who asked me, "is that Japanese or Chinese you're speaking?" And I was like OMFG, are you not opening your eyes and realizing that you're working on a major Chinese project with clients from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong? You see, this guy I spoke to works on a technical aspect of the production (lighting to be precise), so it doesn't matter whether we're doing Hamlet, Swan Lake, Pride And Prejudice or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, his job doesn't vary that much as he is not involved at all with the creative content or the client.
I don't expect white people to understand any Asian languages - but to be totally unaware of the ethnicity or nationality of the people you are working with is just totally unacceptable. Thankfully, that was only one such idiot who I stumbled upon. He then asked me, "In China, is kungfu compulsory for all kids at school?" And I was having another face palm moment, so I replied, "That's like assuming that all children in England learn about Shakespeare at school and have studied the complete works of Shakespeare during their English literature lessons - this is clearly not the case as some English people are barely literate and can barely stumble through a copy of The Sun. Some English people are ignorant of their own culture - as are some Chinese people who are ignorant of certain aspects of their culture. We all get to pick and choose what we study, what sports we do, what the cultural contents of our lives are. This is never dictated by our ethnicity or nationality." Groan. Some people are just so incredibly ignorant, I swear.
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| Dude, you're working on a Chinese media project, duh. |
So there you go, that's ten thoughts from me from the last few days. It has been quite an experience indeed. Do you work with Chinese people as well, or have you worked in China? What have been your experiences working with people from China (or Hong Kong and Taiwan)? Are there any cultural barriers despite sharing a common language? If you have any thoughts on the issue, please do leave a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.
I have worked in China. I was there for 8 months. I hated the country, and I hated their mentality. Of course there are exceptions, but for the most part, I was very aggravated by the people. I'll elaborate more tonight.
ReplyDeleteOoooh. Do spill the beans Di, I can hardly wait :)
DeleteSorry to keep you waiting. Just came back from a school musical -- History of Rock and Roll. You can imagine the song and dance numbers they did. Awesome! My son was one of The Temptations!
DeleteSo, I was working in China in 1999 in a city, northeast of Beijing. I taught English at a college. One admin guy told me that I had to be more Chinese because that was who I was. Today, I still do not understand what he meant. I tried asking him, but he got all philosophical with me. They loved to speak Mandarin to me even though they knew I sucked at it (failed Mandarin all through school in Singapore). At the gate to the campus, they would ask for my ID every single day even after I had been there for weeks and months. Yet, they never asked my white Canadian colleagues for their ID. The lady who cleaned our apartments on campus would look through our personal items and then gossiped to us about each other's personal habits. For example, she told me that so and so squeezed her toothpaste to the very end and then cut the tube to get the last ounce. Therefore, that teacher was cheap. She said I was not cheap because I used Clinique. Oh, thanks, I thought. Most of the Chinese staff wanted to know how I got my Canadian citizenship. Some blatantly asked if I could sponsor them. On the weekends, they would make sure we attended the Chinese staff's gatherings. If I refused to go, they wanted to know why. Who would I be with? What was I going to do? Every movement was monitored. It was very much a communist regime. Email --- we were all assigned an e-mail address. However, to logon, we ALL used the same password. It was assigned by the college. When I asked how I could change my password, the staff looked at me perplexed. She asked why I would want to change my password. Seriously? So, to piss them off, I wrote controversial stuff in my e-mail to my friends and husband. I wrote how the commies were spying on me (which they were), and what bastards they were. Sure enough, I was soon questioned about my attitude towards the college. I pretended that I had no idea what they were talking about, but they insisted that they knew that I did not like them. I laughed and asked who had told them, as I had told no one in person there, and they could only know if they had read my e-mail. Of course they had to drop it because they would have to admit to spying on my communications. I continued to taunt them by writing about the horrors of the communist presence at the college. HAH!
Every morning at 6 am, the college students would march/jog around the campus chanting commie slogans. That was my alarm clock. The people had bad hygiene and bad teeth. Grey teeth, mostly.
My supervisor at the college and her police officer husband were card-carrying communists. They had drivers and a personal staff. Their daughter shopped frequently in Europe even though she was only 19 years old. My supervisor said they were not rich. You kidding me?! Corruption breeds more corruption. BTW, at the college, we were each assigned a pack of 300 sheets of Xerox paper for the term. We taught several classes, and there were few textbooks available. Naturally, we needed to photocopy materials a lot. They would rather spend money on staff dinners than to give me a bottle of liquid paper. Idiots. This was not a poor school. The students paid thousands of dollars every term. Yet, the mentality was small-minded.
As for the students, they expected you to devout your free time to them. They would knock on your apartment door and asked to visit in order to socialize or practice their English. You kidding me?!
DeleteI found out through our conversations that they had no idea Tibet was once independent from China, I had my husband send me a dvd of Seven Years in Tibet. I showed it to my students; You can imagine the stir I caused. I loved it! During my time at the college, I brought up Tibet, Tiananmen Square, the Cultural Revolution, Mao, and stirred up a shit load of atrocities. My defence? I said I was enlightening my students. My students said they were told completely opposite facts about these events.
When my husband came to visit me, the guards would ask for his ID as well. Once, we left the gates after getting checked. On the other side of the gates, my husband realized he had left something in the apartment, so we turned and wanted to re-enter the campus again. It was just second ago that we went through security. Guess what? The same guard asked for our IDs again! I lost it, and I yelled, "You fucking kidding me? Are you stupid or what?" This was towards the end of my stay there, and I couldn't care less anymore. I had enough of their stupidity. Anyway, never again. My husband and I visited Beijing, the stupid temples (you see one, you have seen them all), the Great Wall (not impressed), the fucking shrine to Mao at Tiananmen Square, etc. We also went to Xian to see some f our bucket list. I am all for adventures. I just did not like the people, the culture, the language, the commies, or the country.
PS: On the streets even in the big cities, some people would call my husband, "hei ren". That much I did understand.
Crikey Di, thanks for sharing your stories. Quite a horror indeed. I would have expected nothing less of China :)
Delete@Di, sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience in China but then you were an English teacher and most locals have low opinions about the laowai English teachers there according to posts on weibo (their twitter alternative). The term they refer to these people is not so polite (屌丝) the Japanese equivalent would probably be calling someone a NEETO.
DeleteYour experience in a backwater 3rd or nth tier city would differ quite vastly from that of a 1st tier city. I think about some 40% of PRC citizens are still living in the rural areas and with lack of education they do give off a country bumpkin vibe. If fact we are also struggling with that in Singapore currently (mass import of PRC bumpkins for cheap labour). Those highly educated professional PRCs are also ashamed of the behavior of their lesser educated countrymen.
Singaporeans being highly educated yet still exhibiting various anti-social behavior are probably more inexcusable.
My K-pop fanatic producer colleague from Shanghai has said exactly the same thing: she thinks that Shanghai is suffering from an influx of migrant workers from rural China who do not know how to behave in the big city and are guilty of all the anti-social things that Choaniki has mentioned in his posts. It frustrates well-educated, rich cosmopolitan Chinese city dwellers like her in places like Shanghai as well. I can totally see that.
DeleteTo give them some credit lots of progress has been made in these few years. Some 40 years ago they will still under firm control of Chairman Mao and the communists. And in early 2000 there were still more than 60% of the population still living in rural areas.
DeleteSingapore being 100% urban with compulsory education until secondary school level has little excuse for anti-social behavior. I think our education system place too much emphasis on useless exam scoring skill and we just forgot how to be decent human beings. At least the Westerners got 1 thing right and that is social skills and networking is what determines your future success, not some arbitrary scores on an exam paper.
I was not in a backwater city, actually. I was in a city near Beijing which had a population of 17 million at that time. Very industrialized. True, it was not as developed as Beijing or Shanghai, but even in Beijing, I saw that their small-mindedness was very much evident. Yes, I agree that Singaporeans with their high education and sophistication should behave better. Disgraceful. I guess good manners and grace are alien concepts. Oh, never mind those. How about just plain logic?
DeleteWell, Di, I empathize with you. I went travelling with my siblings, their kids and the two fobs of brother-in-laws who were just entitled. As the sole Korean speaker in the family, I went simply for the sake of the kids, but the first sister's husband(someone uneducated and barely able to understand English at that as a fob) was pissed the whole trip for no real reason. He shouted at me, my sister and sometimes, blew his top over non-existent reasons, spoiling the whole trip, not to mention that the other in-law actually sided with him and ganged up with him to delete me from Facebook because I made it clear about their meanness publicly on Facebook! Talking about people lacking in grace and manners, I think that these two in-laws exemplify it perfectly as Singaporean fobs. Ever since that trip, I told them both to get the f-k out of my life, and blocked them, not to mention that I extended my stay in Korea for one more week. It's not so much a lack pf plain logic alone, as much as that these Sinkies(as they are called by online media) actually behave in an entitled way, and think that the whole world owes them something--to the contrary. Now that I look back on the trip and read what Lift/Alex wrote about PRC behavior and the various comments about Singaporeans falling short as badly or even worse at times, I am not even surprised. Especially since my next few years are going to be spent in South Korea and Australia(permanently in the latter case), I do not even look back at Singapore with any fondness when I remember stupid and un-mannered people back there. Perhaps that is why some Sinkies openly call themselves "Chinese" as in "zhongguoren" (instead of "huaren", which connotes someone of diasporiac origins)....they learned all the bad manners from the bad PRCs....
DeleteThis is the first time I have heard Singaporeans described as FOB. I guess even with our education and economic progress a significant part of the population still has a FOB in terms of social skills. Sometime I think PRCs have a leg up on Singaporeans since they don't have religious or traditional holdups. They are very liberal when it comes to matters of sex, birth control and abortions.
DeleteMy in-laws are fobs as well, Kevin.
DeleteDi, that is why I totally empathize with you about your in-laws. Fancy, which normal person would try to make fun of someone who has lived for more than 5 years abroad and speaks like a Canadian after that? Especially when he can barely speak a proper sentence of English or write it himself?! Only a fob! My mum had told me this in the light of the conflicts abroad in South Korea, which caused me to stop talking permanently to those two husbands of my sisters, "You are all from different countries. You all should not even have travelled together." Technically, the definition of a fob is someone who still has the 'native' tongue and accent no matter how many years they have been out of their country, but there are other characteristics such as a refusal to assimilate or learn about other host cultures which you visit or live in. I absolutely detest my two in-laws after that trip, and made it really clear to them that they are disgusting. Think of this scenario: inside Gyeongbokgoong Palace, there was the changing of royal guard ceremony, and I tried to tell my sisters that they should try to be on time for the event since it is a once-in-a-lifetime event for them to witness in Korea as a remnant from the Joseon dynasty. Guess what the youngest sister's husband who only knows Singlish said? "O, if you wan to watch, watching the SAF P.O.P [passing out parade] also is the same!" At that point, my eyes started glazing over in severe shock. Never ever again am I going to see them! Urghhhhh!
DeleteI am surprised you did not slap those fobs-in-laws, Kevin. Get this, my in-laws have never been out of Singapore other than Malaysia and India. Yep, that's their whole frame of reference. My mil did visit us in Winnipeg in 1989, but she did not go anywhere other than the mall. She spent her time rearranging my kitchen when she was here. That's another story. My brother-in-law even suggested to my husband that we meet up in India and travel together. I politely intercepted and wrote that India was not on our bucket list. And when they visit India, it's not the Taj Mahal visit. No, it's South India to visit the temples as pilgrimages. Yep, that's their whole lives --- religion, weddings, traditions, and gossips. Dimwits!
DeleteI confronted those 2 in-laws, but not only were they unrepentant, but they also came up with their lies of how I was the villain who would send my niece crying with a touch of my hand, and swore at me! I moved out of the hotel immediately, and stopped all talk with them. After that, my sister and her husband moved out of my parents' house(yahhhhh!!! I hate such freeloaders who act as if they are entitled although they make way less than my sister and are poorly educated with lack of manners). My mum and aunt cannot stand them either, but the problem lies with my sisters having chosen them and now, they are stuck in these relationships! Dimwits will be dimwits. I comfort myself with the revelation and knowledge that such people cannot go far. Think, even if they want to immigrate, they cannot make it past the IELTS or TOEFL test, and will fail the writing and speaking sections right on the spot! No amount of money is going to help them get out of Singapore to contaminate any other country!
DeleteActually, there are many dimwits in Canada who couldn't possibly have passed the IELTS or TOEFL. Yet they made it here. Probably on work permits or visitor's visas. I see them in the service industries especially. Can't speak decent English. "You wan fly lice? Ver-gee-tah-ble fly lice?" Probably working under the table. Anyway, some dimwits do make it out of Singapore. Fresh off the boat. Unfortunately.
DeleteMy in-laws will never make it out of Singapore, even if they are unhappy in their lot. Not only can they NOT speak proper English whatsoever, even if their lives are on the chopping board, but they simply think that no other country in the world is as good as Singapore! Yucks......shivers.......they will only go to a foreign country to "enjoy" its resources as a tourist and then go back to Singapore complaining of how Singapore is still the best and how these countries suck in comparison. That applies to all other developed countries. Mind you, that is totally fob and loser. And no, they do not have the money to make it out whatsoever either, except maybe for the youngest sister's husband who has a rich father, but who equally sucks at education and character.
Delete@Kevin, you do know that PAP's propaganda in the national media has lots to do with this way of thinking don't you?
DeleteIf the average Singaporean has never gone overseas except to backwater Malaysia they really tend to think that SG is best in everything. But you have to travel to no further than Hong Kong or Tokyo to find that Singapore is middling at best and is no way that good of a city much less that of a country (ref Europe and quality of living).
In fact I don't bother wasting time talking to these ignorant people who continue to believe whatever they want to believe and would probably vote PAP since they live in the best country in the world (rolleyes). But when I speak to my foreign friends and colleague I tell them the straight truth about SG and how, unlike the media like to portray, it is really a corporate masquerading as a country.
Don't you just hate people who have never lived overseas but declare that Singapore is the best? Then when the hear negative events happening in other countries, they feel justified and smart!
DeleteMy in-laws voted for the opposition, but their fob mannerisms extend beyond anything. To begin with, the youngest sister's husband has been to the USA and Canada, Japan and Russia, on business trips for his dad's business, but on no occasion has he ever said anything good about any of these countries as far as I remember. When he was in Japan, and was supposed to meet up with me to get stuff from me to hand to my sister, he said that there was no wireless in Japan, when far from it, wireless was everywhere but you have to pay for it! Talking about cheapo people.....
DeleteThe funniest thing is, when there are negative events happening in Singapore, they will be the first to go into denial or 'refusal' mode, explaining everything away with a silly answer or response. For example, when the riots in Little India happened, they suddenly jumped to this conclusion of "Let the Singapore Police teach them [the foreigners] a lesson." OMG!!!!!
@choaniki, actually I am aware that a good majority of Singaporeans back in Singapore still think this way about other countries. But no, these people have actually made it to other developed countries if only for a visit or trip, and man, they complain nonstop about how they are not served like royalty abroad....yucks.....the funniest thing is, the majority of those whom I am aware of as such fobs actually voted for the opposition! Unbelievable!
DeleteWow cognitive dissonance much? If they think that Singapore is that good a country then shouldn't they continue voting PAP since the opposition might change it to be a not so good country.
DeleteAnd I think they are just biased, I might not be served like royalty when I'm overseas but I would say the service level even in China is better than Singapore. Lightyears difference when compared to Japan and they are complaining? Just wow! *mindboggled*
@choaniki, let's just say that I have in-laws who are retards. No amount of re-education or education is going to change them. Losers! L.C(Low Class)!!!
Delete@Kevin,
DeleteYou're moving permanently to Aus? Can I enquire where? Seems there are lots of Singaporeans moving out. In future, we may even have a Singapore without Singaporeans! (Hmm.. Maybe that's what the PAP's been planning all along.)
@choaniki,
Quote: "But when I speak to my foreign friends and colleague I tell them the straight truth about SG and how, unlike the media like to portray, it is really a corporate masquerading as a country."
Read the textbook definition of such a govt and you will a understanding of the what the Sing govt is all about now. Better to get out while you still can.
E, I actually moved out of Singapore more than 9 years ago, since 2004. I was in the USA, Canada, and Japan before South Korea and Australia, and lived in Canada the longest, so I have not contributed to Singapore that much anyway to begin with. As far as I am aware from every short-term visit to see my parents and family, I get the increasing sense that the PAP government is doing its utmost to crush dissent on the front of speech and media, by pushing new laws on the internet and even performing groups in the country itself! When asked about my cultural identity, I just make it clear that I was only born in Singapore, but that Canada/North America formed the large part of my cultural identity.
Delete@E, the textbook term for such a government or place is "Absurdistan".
DeleteI thought that the PRCs are all itching to migrate to the western countries like the UK, USA and Canada because I have read reports online about large droves of rich PRC people shifting their assets to these locations and trying to score citizenships.
ReplyDeleteThat's the impression I got from the influx of PRCs into Singapore - but not this group I am working with. Even those who speak English well are very happy with their lives in China - we're talking about highly educated, highly skilled Chinese professionals with good jobs and a lot of money. These people can move if they want to but they are happy to stay. But read Choaniki's comment below - the quality of life in China can be poor, even if you do have a lot of cash, thus that is why I thought they'd wanna move. But apparently not.
DeleteStepping into China even for a few hours was seriously a look into the whole thing about the mainland Chinese 'go-getter' mentality of 'anything goes' in order to achieve what one desires, such as money especially. That was the one bit that turned me off from working there ever. Granted that the Chinese I knew in Canada were very friendly and more simple-minded people with good morals and all, they are not representative of all mainland Chinese on the other hand.
ReplyDeleteChina, where do i start? I've lots of experience working and holidaying there (more than 90% of my passport stamps are either HK or China).
ReplyDeleteI'll divide my opinion into 2 portions, the people and the environment. Regarding the people I would say they are mainly straight-shooters, they are blunt and don't beat around the bush and this is refreshing compared to the Japanese fake politeness bs(honne/tatemae). They also know how to treat guests (做人) so if you're a stranger you might think they are uncaring and brusque but that is only because its part of PRC culture to be uncaring to anyone apart from immediate friends and family. In fact comparing Singaporeans to PRCs I would have say i prefer the company of PRCs.
Now regarding the environment. Even the biggest and most wealthy 1st tier city is hardly livable compared to Singapore (even less so than Tokyo or Osaka).
The pollution is horrible, water is polluted, air is permanently hazy (only time i saw the sky was during Beijing Olympics) food is also polluted (ignorance is bliss). Anywhere you go outdoors is stewn with rubbish and people have no qualms relieving their bodily functions by the side of the road (just google it there are so many images).
On transport, the traffic jams are endless and the vehicles are loud and drivers drive like there is no tomorrow. The intra-city bus service is unreliable and slow (if and when they arrive). The inter-city ones are scheduled but also at the mercy of traffic conditions on the highways. Metro lines are quite non-existent apart from the larger cities (Shenzhen recently started building out their metro but its still WIP). Taxis are a mixed bag. In larger cities like Shanghai where enforcement is strict they don't try funny stuff. But go to unknown 3rd tier cities or towns and anything goes, no one accepts meter fare and cab sharing is very rampant. Domestic airlines are notorious for their delays, i think they are ranked last in the world in terms of punctuality for flights (70+% on schedule) and they have their air force to blame for that.
In terms of internet, you have a censored wall-off internet with limited access to international sites (the list of blocked sites are ever changing with 0 pre-notification). Intl bandwidth being very expensive is limited so all overseas sites are very slow so better get used to using local sites like baidu.com for search and youku.com or tudou.com for video.
Buying any sort of imported brands commands quite a huge import tax so unless you're willing to pay premiums for Made in China overseas brands better get comfortable with local brands (国产). Even if you are willing to pay more sometimes you have to settle for the substandard models from import brands (most of the overseas big fashion or electronics and even automobile brands come out with China only models which are different quality from those found overseas).
Also expect huge culture shock if its your first time in China, no one cares that you are a foreigner and don't expect too much help from any of the service staff to navigate around their infrastructure or public services (almost everything is owned by the state). Even language wise expect lots of misunderstanding since the terms used in PRC and ROC are different and we are culturally closer to ROC than PRC.
Still alot to talk about but will stop for here not, don't want this to turn into another blog post.
@LIFT, didn't you work in Shanghai for quite awhile a few years back? Why do you still say, "I have never had to use my Mandarin properly for work before"?
Choaniki: You're right, I did years ago but in a completely different industry so I didn't have to say 'video' in Mandarin then. Every industry has its own set of jargon when it comes to technical terms - so this is the first time I am hearing PRCs talk about filming & post-production terms in Mandarin and I was completely and utterly lost as I have only encountered those terms in English before. It's one thing to ask them where they wanna go for dinner, it's another thing to discuss special effects in post-production with them in Mandarin.
DeleteThis is super duper off-topic, I know... but the whole thing with Brunei and Sharia law is pissing me off so much I really need someone intelligent to talk to about it:
ReplyDeleteSomeone was trying to tell me that Sharia as a legal system is just as robust as modern secular law (which is mostly based on English Common Law) and claimed that it was not "value-free" and has its own value system which puts it at odds with cultural and religious tradition of its predecessors (in reference to Islamic traditions in the Malayan and Indonesian areas). This guy was also claiming that "Sharia and democracy are able to coexist in a modern democratic system, and that the Sharia is constantly evolving according to different space and time. While there are principles of the Sharia which are deemed to be constants, a large part of it are also interpretations of legal scholars and practitioners, which makes it just as 'flexible' as any other legal system."
Nope, nope, nope and nope.
In terms of human rights and the accusation that modern secular law is some kind of repression of native culture, Iran pretty much argued the same thing in response to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, calling it "a secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition", which could not be implemented by Muslims without violating Islamic law. Then Iran, with a couple other Muslim majority nations came up with the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam.
The Cairo Declaration's interpretation of "human rights" under Sharia however, had several critical omissions: provisions for democratic principles, protection for religious freedom, freedom of association and freedom of the press, as well as equality in rights and equal protection under the law.
Sharia is not a robust legal system - that's dressing up a backward and primitive set of rules with a shroud of modernity and pretending to grant liberties to people without guaranteeing it. In my time spent studying Islamic law, I found that Sharia places God above all men and it abhors secular democratic society because it leaves God out of the equation and places men above other men. The problem with Sharia is that while it assumes that God is placed above all men, the "men who claim to speak for God" end up being placed above other men and they do as they damn well please, because no one can argue against the "men who claim to speak for God". Even if the Sultans of the Umayyad and Abbasid empires did kill religious leaders for opposing the Sultans, so what? The role of the Sultan is the guardian and defender of the faith.
As for Sharia's purported compatibility with Sharia, once again, nope. The democratic state has an obligation to ensure that everyone within its jurisdiction enjoys in full - without being able to waive them - the rights and freedoms guaranteed by a secular legal system. Sharia would do away with the state's role as the guarantor of individual rights and freedoms and the impartial organizer of various beliefs and religions in a democratic society. It would oblige individuals to obey, not the rules laid down by the state in the exercise of its above-mentioned functions, but static rules of law imposed by the religion concerned.
Sharia would also infringe the principle of non-discrimination between individuals when it comes to their enjoyment of public freedoms, which is one of the fundamental principles of democracy. A difference in treatment between individuals in all fields of public and private law according to their religion or beliefs manifestly cannot be justified in a democratic state, which tends to prohibit discrimination because it cannot maintain a fair balance between the claims of certain religious groups who wish to be governed by their own rules and the interest of society as a whole, which must be based on peace and on tolerance between the various religions and beliefs.
Why can't we just abandon religion and get on with the program on human civilization already?
Well for me, the problem with any kind of laws based on religion is that it doesn't take into account those who are of a different religion or have no religion. So in the case of Sharia law, if like 95+% of the population are Muslim, then fair enough, I can see how it can be applied with the support of the vast majority of the population. But in a country where you have a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious, very mixed population - then it is best to keep the law secular so it is fair to everyone. I have lived in the Middle East where they have such strict Sharia laws and I accept that, as I am a migrant worker in their country, I have to abide by their laws but otherwise, I can't see it being applied in a place like Singapore or London.
DeleteWell not only people who have a different religion or have no religion, but also people who have a different view on the same religion (I am sure most of my Muslim friends strenuously disagree with flogging, stoning and amputation of limbs), and people who belong to a faith in name only (in Brunei, the punishment for a Muslim suddenly declaring him/herself as non-Muslim is death).
DeleteFunny you should mention secular and Singapore in the same sentence. From what I understand there are quite a lot of Christians in the government and that is one of the reason why section 377a is still not repealed. Something about the hardliner churches disagreeing with its repeal.
ReplyDeleteWell Singapore is an example of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society/country where there really needs to be a secular approach to law & order. Whether this is the case in reality, is another story altogether.
DeleteDon't even get me started. It's not just 377A, but healthcare guidelines, allowing people to proselytize to patients who are on their deathbeds in hospitals, sex education, and even censorship of films. I once met this self-righteous woman who was talking about working in MDA to snip out huge parts of films and describing how great it was to do "God's work" to protect other people from "harmful influences". It took all of my self-control not to punch her in the throat.
Delete@Davin,
DeleteWow! I didn't realise it's gotten so brazen. When I left the civil service some time back, they were there, but didn't dare do these proselytizing/declarations openly. (You should have heard what they said instead. That's much more interesting!)