British culture through Chinese eyes
Posted By: Richard Spencer at Jun 27, 2007 at 02:59:55 [General]
Posted in: Foreign Correspondents
Tags:View More Binge-drinking, British culture, china, Chinese students, city life, Sociology , Youth culture
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese have studied abroad in the last few years. It must have had some effect on them, and China, but what?
Britain's drinking culture has blighted its image
I've written before that one thing that I think is fascinating and severely understudied is the experiences of such students during their years away. Well, actually, I think it's not just Chinese students - the huge increase in various exchange programmes around the world has sent millions of young people to different countries in the name of friendship and improved mutual understanding. Has it worked? I have heard some say that the experience appears on many occasions to reinforce previous prejudices.
Well here at last is a serious study of Chinese students in Britain. Since 100,000 Chinese students are currently in America and Britain alone, (around half of those in Britain, currently) - that's no small thing.
It's not perfect: the sample size is small, by its own admission, and often the prejudices of the surveyors are all too evident. Take this conclusion, for example:
Another participant described the difficulties of her own marriage and how her experience of living in British society had made her much more committed to human rights for women. Such developments can be seen as positive effects of cultural exchange. Higher education has a crucial role in allowing people to explore their own potential and to re-evaluate the conditions under which they and others live. This is education in its truest sense.
I can't disagree with the principle but the assertion that "this is education in the truest sense" is quite a, well, assertion.
Anyway, it seems to me that the two main issues it addresses, apart from women's rights which is indeed a sort of running theme of the document, are firstly the nature of the students' social experiences of Britain, and secondly their academic experiences. I think I'll stick to the first today and look at the second tomorrow since they are distinct and important.
The headline finding is undoubtedly rather shocking and frightening, though not in truth surprising. The thing Chinese people don't like about us is that we are a nation of drunken yobs. The report summed up:
The behaviour of British young people was the biggest shock to people's expectations. While older people were generally seen as polite, the young were widely thought to be drunken and out of control. Two thirds of the sample named this as an issue.
And here are some quotes:
"I went to Leeds it was rough and dirty. Girls danced on tables with no underwear wore short skirts, were vulgar."
"Gentle country not true, too many drunk people, terrible young people everywhere."
"Young people get drunk the behaviour would be frightening."
"I hate the teenage people with little education, gathering around, holding booze, talking rubbish."
"Bloody terrible young people not so well educated, very rough drunk culture."
"Fighting in the street, drunken hooligan."
"Crime of youth, doing nothing, in the street threatening people."
"There is an emptiness in night life there party, party and nothing else at the night the people are boring. When I went to England, I thought there would be something special in culture people would say interesting things speak about plays or stories. I thought it would be a garden of thinking."
On occasion, this turned particularly nasty:
"Most of my female friends said they were afraid to go out at night, when it was dark in winter. In Leeds and Birmingham, the universities gave personal alarms to all the female students."
"Young people are rude to Asian or African looking people."
There were several descriptions of overtly racist behaviour, and though none had personally experienced serious violence, they knew of or had read about such cases.
This contrasted with their prior expectations - extraordinarily, many of
them seemed to have drawn their presumptions about British society from the pages of Jane Austen and 19th century novels - polite, formal gentlemen, top hats, tea on the lawn etc.
It also contrasted with their experiences of older British people, and smaller cities (than say Leeds or Birmingham), where many were pleasantly surprised by the politeness and friendliness they encountered. One Shanghaier couldn't quite believe it when a car stopped at a pedestrian crossing for him.
Another liked the way everyone said please and thank you all the time. In such places there were constant reminders of a notion of "civic values": one student stopped to ask the way and the people asked took them to the place they wanted to find. (This has happened to me in China too: I think this is a common way of treating foreigners round the world).
It's pretty depressing that foreigners see us like this, pretty much because there is certainly truth to it. There are some defences: I suspect many Chinese (and people from other less developed countries) would expect British cities to be the hub of "civic virtue" and prosperity, as cities in China are.
To the Chinese, it is the country person (nongmin? peasant? see debates elsewhere) who are all too often portrayed as "uneducated", "vulgar", "rough" and even "drunk". In Britain, of course, we have switched socially perhaps more than anywhere else in the world: cities, apart from London, are for the working classes, young people and immigrants; small towns, suburbs, and villages are for quiet, dull "middle England".
There's also no shortage of uncouth and drunken behaviour in China (and promiscuous, too, another shocker for Chinese students in Britain). It's just that's the preserve of middle-aged, well-heeled men, not young ones, who have less cash.
Nevertheless, I find the drinking culture in Britain hard to stomach sometimes. It's hard for us to take this seriously or to do so without seeming hypocritical - which of us has not, on some occasion, had too much to drink, wandered into a Chinese takeaway on the way home and made a joke about egg foo yung? Yet my impression, on return visits, is that it is
getting worse as young people undeniably are getting better off. And it has potentially serious consequences.
I have never thought of myself as a harrumphing middle-Englander, a disgusted of Tunbridge Wells. But then I do work for The Daily Telegraph, and as I have had occasion to remark before, the conservative values of a Telegraph reader are probably more in line with those of China and many other "developing" countries, including if not especially "anti-Western" ones, than you might expect.
Here's my concluding anecdote. I hope you see its relevance.
A few years ago, I was taking a night bus in London back to the East End, where I lived, after some slightly drunken function or another, and I ended up sitting next to a Senegalese asylum seeker. We got chatting. He had come to London from Paris.
There was too much racism in France, even though as a French speaker it ought to have been easier from a language point of view. In fact, he now spoke beautiful English, of the sort that many Africans and Indians and now Hong Kong Chinese do, who have learned it as a second or third language and thus have avoided cliches and junk-speak.
But despite being a qualified professional (engineer from memory) he could only get a job in a fast-food restaurant. As an asylum-seeker, even that was probably illegal. So life in Walthamstow was pretty tough (he lived there; his job was in Lambeth).
When he asked me what I did, I have to confess I was a little nervous. The media in general were pretty hostile to the number of illegal immigrants who claimed asylum at that time, and the Telegraph was among those arguing for a crackdown. But when I said I was a journalist for the DT, he was delighted.
"That's my favourite paper," he said. "I read it every day." Slightly taken aback, I asked why. We didn't exactly advertise ourselves as the paper for inner-city ethnic minority illegal immigrants/asylum seekers. Was it the news coverage, for which we've always had a good reputation? (I hoped so, being a news person myself).
"Well yes, the news coverage is famously good," he said. "But I like the editorials most. It is the family values, you see. I thoroughly approve of its stance on family values." Of course, when you think about it, it makes complete sense that immigrants from developing countries (and refugees from quasi-communist or dictatorial socialist regimes, to boot, in many cases) should have conservative values. Perhaps Chinese students should be seen in that light.
At one Telegraph leader (opinion page) conference I attended, the paper's thinkers were considering backing a campaign by Minehead council to stop men wandering around town with no shirts on. Such uncouth behaviour didn't fit the town's sedate image. I protested, on grounds that personal freedom was at stake - if you couldn't take your clothes off in a seaside town, when could you? But I was outgunned.
Every time I hear a decree by Beijing city government trying to stop men rolling their vests up above their beer bellies (a common back-alley practice in summer, for those who aren't here), all to give the city the best possible "face" for the Olympics, I think back to that conversation. I think I know whose side the Chinese students in the Glasgow University survey would be on.
Posted By: Richard Spencer at Jun 27, 2007 at 02:59:55 [General]
Posted in: Foreign Correspondents
Tags:View More Binge-drinking, British culture, china, Chinese students, city life, Sociology , Youth culture
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese have studied abroad in the last few years. It must have had some effect on them, and China, but what?
Britain's drinking culture has blighted its image
I've written before that one thing that I think is fascinating and severely understudied is the experiences of such students during their years away. Well, actually, I think it's not just Chinese students - the huge increase in various exchange programmes around the world has sent millions of young people to different countries in the name of friendship and improved mutual understanding. Has it worked? I have heard some say that the experience appears on many occasions to reinforce previous prejudices.
Well here at last is a serious study of Chinese students in Britain. Since 100,000 Chinese students are currently in America and Britain alone, (around half of those in Britain, currently) - that's no small thing.
It's not perfect: the sample size is small, by its own admission, and often the prejudices of the surveyors are all too evident. Take this conclusion, for example:
Another participant described the difficulties of her own marriage and how her experience of living in British society had made her much more committed to human rights for women. Such developments can be seen as positive effects of cultural exchange. Higher education has a crucial role in allowing people to explore their own potential and to re-evaluate the conditions under which they and others live. This is education in its truest sense.
I can't disagree with the principle but the assertion that "this is education in the truest sense" is quite a, well, assertion.
Anyway, it seems to me that the two main issues it addresses, apart from women's rights which is indeed a sort of running theme of the document, are firstly the nature of the students' social experiences of Britain, and secondly their academic experiences. I think I'll stick to the first today and look at the second tomorrow since they are distinct and important.
The headline finding is undoubtedly rather shocking and frightening, though not in truth surprising. The thing Chinese people don't like about us is that we are a nation of drunken yobs. The report summed up:
The behaviour of British young people was the biggest shock to people's expectations. While older people were generally seen as polite, the young were widely thought to be drunken and out of control. Two thirds of the sample named this as an issue.
And here are some quotes:
"I went to Leeds it was rough and dirty. Girls danced on tables with no underwear wore short skirts, were vulgar."
"Gentle country not true, too many drunk people, terrible young people everywhere."
"Young people get drunk the behaviour would be frightening."
"I hate the teenage people with little education, gathering around, holding booze, talking rubbish."
"Bloody terrible young people not so well educated, very rough drunk culture."
"Fighting in the street, drunken hooligan."
"Crime of youth, doing nothing, in the street threatening people."
"There is an emptiness in night life there party, party and nothing else at the night the people are boring. When I went to England, I thought there would be something special in culture people would say interesting things speak about plays or stories. I thought it would be a garden of thinking."
On occasion, this turned particularly nasty:
"Most of my female friends said they were afraid to go out at night, when it was dark in winter. In Leeds and Birmingham, the universities gave personal alarms to all the female students."
"Young people are rude to Asian or African looking people."
There were several descriptions of overtly racist behaviour, and though none had personally experienced serious violence, they knew of or had read about such cases.
This contrasted with their prior expectations - extraordinarily, many of
them seemed to have drawn their presumptions about British society from the pages of Jane Austen and 19th century novels - polite, formal gentlemen, top hats, tea on the lawn etc.
It also contrasted with their experiences of older British people, and smaller cities (than say Leeds or Birmingham), where many were pleasantly surprised by the politeness and friendliness they encountered. One Shanghaier couldn't quite believe it when a car stopped at a pedestrian crossing for him.
Another liked the way everyone said please and thank you all the time. In such places there were constant reminders of a notion of "civic values": one student stopped to ask the way and the people asked took them to the place they wanted to find. (This has happened to me in China too: I think this is a common way of treating foreigners round the world).
It's pretty depressing that foreigners see us like this, pretty much because there is certainly truth to it. There are some defences: I suspect many Chinese (and people from other less developed countries) would expect British cities to be the hub of "civic virtue" and prosperity, as cities in China are.
To the Chinese, it is the country person (nongmin? peasant? see debates elsewhere) who are all too often portrayed as "uneducated", "vulgar", "rough" and even "drunk". In Britain, of course, we have switched socially perhaps more than anywhere else in the world: cities, apart from London, are for the working classes, young people and immigrants; small towns, suburbs, and villages are for quiet, dull "middle England".
There's also no shortage of uncouth and drunken behaviour in China (and promiscuous, too, another shocker for Chinese students in Britain). It's just that's the preserve of middle-aged, well-heeled men, not young ones, who have less cash.
Nevertheless, I find the drinking culture in Britain hard to stomach sometimes. It's hard for us to take this seriously or to do so without seeming hypocritical - which of us has not, on some occasion, had too much to drink, wandered into a Chinese takeaway on the way home and made a joke about egg foo yung? Yet my impression, on return visits, is that it is
getting worse as young people undeniably are getting better off. And it has potentially serious consequences.
I have never thought of myself as a harrumphing middle-Englander, a disgusted of Tunbridge Wells. But then I do work for The Daily Telegraph, and as I have had occasion to remark before, the conservative values of a Telegraph reader are probably more in line with those of China and many other "developing" countries, including if not especially "anti-Western" ones, than you might expect.
Here's my concluding anecdote. I hope you see its relevance.
A few years ago, I was taking a night bus in London back to the East End, where I lived, after some slightly drunken function or another, and I ended up sitting next to a Senegalese asylum seeker. We got chatting. He had come to London from Paris.
There was too much racism in France, even though as a French speaker it ought to have been easier from a language point of view. In fact, he now spoke beautiful English, of the sort that many Africans and Indians and now Hong Kong Chinese do, who have learned it as a second or third language and thus have avoided cliches and junk-speak.
But despite being a qualified professional (engineer from memory) he could only get a job in a fast-food restaurant. As an asylum-seeker, even that was probably illegal. So life in Walthamstow was pretty tough (he lived there; his job was in Lambeth).
When he asked me what I did, I have to confess I was a little nervous. The media in general were pretty hostile to the number of illegal immigrants who claimed asylum at that time, and the Telegraph was among those arguing for a crackdown. But when I said I was a journalist for the DT, he was delighted.
"That's my favourite paper," he said. "I read it every day." Slightly taken aback, I asked why. We didn't exactly advertise ourselves as the paper for inner-city ethnic minority illegal immigrants/asylum seekers. Was it the news coverage, for which we've always had a good reputation? (I hoped so, being a news person myself).
"Well yes, the news coverage is famously good," he said. "But I like the editorials most. It is the family values, you see. I thoroughly approve of its stance on family values." Of course, when you think about it, it makes complete sense that immigrants from developing countries (and refugees from quasi-communist or dictatorial socialist regimes, to boot, in many cases) should have conservative values. Perhaps Chinese students should be seen in that light.
At one Telegraph leader (opinion page) conference I attended, the paper's thinkers were considering backing a campaign by Minehead council to stop men wandering around town with no shirts on. Such uncouth behaviour didn't fit the town's sedate image. I protested, on grounds that personal freedom was at stake - if you couldn't take your clothes off in a seaside town, when could you? But I was outgunned.
Every time I hear a decree by Beijing city government trying to stop men rolling their vests up above their beer bellies (a common back-alley practice in summer, for those who aren't here), all to give the city the best possible "face" for the Olympics, I think back to that conversation. I think I know whose side the Chinese students in the Glasgow University survey would be on.
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