how do you see Mainland Chinese, Hongkongese and taiwanese?

[wschao]

All of them may be fairly categorised into "Chinese", but history makes them different in terms of living standard, education, government, legal system and even slangs and eating habits. But how do outsiders see these people?

[adrianlondon]

Wow, what a question! They're different countries (whoops) so I'm sure the people are viewed as such.

[rootfool]

I wonder if most people agree with adrianlondon.

But I guess the result is oppsite to my expectation.:(

[skylee]

我才不趕這趟渾水。

[rootfool]

guess this thread will be deleted if people quarrel with it.

[liuzhou]

but history makes them different in terms of living standard, education, government, legal system and even slangs and eating habits

The same is true within Mainland China. I really don't get your point.

[simonlaing]

I went to BU as an undergraduate student and had a Hong Kong Room mate, a Taiwan workmate at the law library and Mainland highschool classmate.

Afterwards I came to China and met various Chinese people here.

BU is an expensive school also. I had a 90 % scholarship which basically meant I didn't have to spend $100, 000 . The first year I moved in with the Hong Kong room mate he was studying in the business school. but I would come back around 6 and start studying he would watch TV and usually around 10 pm go out partying. (He had good financial backing) He'd come back at 1 am and I would be jealous of him sleeping until 2 when I finished my work and could go to sleep. LAter he transfered to International Relations because of his grades. He had pretty nice clothes though and knew most club promoters.

The Taiwan guy, like me didn't have a work-study grant from government so only earn like $6:15 . Plus he did the harder job of shelving books and cases where I just had to man the front desk and occassionally check things out. It was great job and I did a lot of homework there. He often had the Weekend morning shift with me as most party people were to hung over to work mornings. Although there were some Taiwan people who were also rich I think since their options may have been more limited they appreciated studying more at BU.

My Mainland Chinese classmate had some social issues that made it difficult for him to keep up with his school work, after struggling a bit he took a semester off did some classes at UMass and then graduated after 6 years. In England there were chinese students who had had experience in international companies or teaching that did well, and those that didn't have good english or skills interacting in the English environment did not do very well.

In someways these seem similar to the stereotypes. HK people know fashion, banking trade and partying. They have had british western culture for a long time so they know how to party. (Shanghai seems to want to become Hong Kong sometimes..)

Taiwan people seem to have the skills and the work ethic but realize they have limited opportuinities and so take advantage of more.

Chinese people (with exceptions of some shanghai and BJ people) seem to have just started to experience western culture and lifestyles. There are still issues with what is enough money? Does western always mean good things? They have the money and the skills to take advantage but most mainland CHinese people don't have many experiences of dealing with outside.

Other random issues , I met and traveled with some Hong Kong students in Shanghai. THey still knew how to bargain for cheap hotel rooms but still found simplified characters challenging. They gave me the impression that many school's books were in English rather than used simplified characters. They seemed very westernized.

Some other Taiwan people I met in YangShuo, seemed easy going. They had the western cultural signposts, so we could talk smoothly, but it seemed they were quite pragmatic about the China situation. A couple of other Taiwan teachers did not think highly of Chen-Shui Bian and most independence antics were for political gain in the polls not because he was serious about it.

The regions were separated for a significant amount of time and I think that affects them.

Both HK and Taiwan seem quite westernized. What are the Chinese people's ideas of the difference between these people?

[wschao]

The same is true within Mainland China. I really don't get your point.

At least mainland China has the same legal system, use simplified chinese and is ruled by one central government.

[zozzen]

On our earth 1.3 billion people are called Mainland Chinese. If they all shared similar personality, cultures, ideology and could be put into a same group , then our world would be too boring.

[littleknight23]

They are not different countries. Everyone knows Hong Kong is a part of China. As regards Taiwan, it's a political question, I am very sure it's a part of China and it will be solved in the near future.

[skylee]

Everyone knows Hong Kong is a part of China.

Not everyone.

I was at Jericho and someone asked me where I came from. I answered Hong Kong, and then they asked if HK was a city or a country. I answered that it was a city, and then they asked in which country was the city. I replied China. And then they exclaimed, "ah ~ China". (read the blog here)

耶利哥，巴勒斯坦人的地方。我在耶利哥古城遺址的入口留連，太陽猛烈，時間也不夠，我是不會進去的了。可是好不容易來到，卻過門而不入，有點遺憾。門外的巴勒斯坦人見我探頭探腦的，就問我是從哪兒來的。我答香港，他們接着便問香港是一個國家還是一個城市。我答是一個城市，他們又問那麼是在哪個國家呢。我答在中國，然後他們異口同聲地說："哦～中國。"

於是我知道他們不知道香港是甚麼、在哪裏，而說自己是某一個城市的人，在他們的眼裏大概算不上是一個身份。(不過其實也有可能只是香港的名聲不夠響而已。如果我說我來自巴黎、倫敦或紐約，可能他們就不會追問了。)

然而除非人家問我是哪一個國家的人又或是不是中國人，我一般都告訴人家我是香港人，這是一個身份認同的問題。記得上一次在熱拿亞有一個華人問我是不是中國人，我說是，他卻說我不像，真讓人有點無所適從。而在西班牙，人們似乎都以為香港在日本。呵呵。