How are Germans perceived by Chinese people ?

[steven]

Hi everyone,

As a native German living in Europe I know very

little about the Chinese and the Chinese culture.

However, I am planning to travel to China in the

very next year.

The Chinese that I met here are always quiet friendly

and smiling and so forth, but they never actually revealed

what they think about the Europeans, and the Germans in

particular. I know that it is their culture not to express their

feelings and emotion, but still I am quite curious about how they

feel and think about me when I will be in their country.

1. What is your image of Germany ?

2. What are the Germans like in your view ?

2.1 Do you have encountered any Germans yourself?

2.2 What do you find pleasant about the Germans ?

2.3. What do you dislike, or even find disgusting about them ?

3. Other remarks ?

I am looking forward to a precise and critical account in you response.

STEVEN

[Quest]

"They look exactly like the Franks, the Britons, and the Americans...."

[Guest Yau]

You're definitely asking for a stereotype. Hope you won't mind if it's offensive.

2. What are the Germans like in your view ?

self-disciplined, rational but dull and far from being charming. Seems that every of them live in a confessional because of the nazi history. They are also proud of the structure of german language, at least they think their language is much better, superior than english, but dare not to promote it aggressively. But thanks to the self-restrictive attitude to history, it earns international respect and credit on it.

2.1 Do you have encountered any Germans yourself?

Sure, many, but not deeply known. When i first met a friend in Dresden, he really surprised me by awkwardly spitting a bill in a restaurant. He also insisted to pay his ticket himself when he accompanied me to visit the museum. Quite strange in the eyes of chinese.

Then I met another german to have a free ride to Neuschwanstein, and he was extremely helpful and surprised me by his deep knowledge about the history of the Rock.

I also met a german in HongKong. He kept talking politics with me, and eager to know more, though it bored most of my friends. I wondered why boredom isn't a problem to germans, but his curiousity is appreciated.

2.2 What do you find pleasant about the Germans ?

The almost free tertiary education always attracts attention from international students who want to hang out overseas. But the snake-long spelling of german vocabs can devour the desire on it.

2.3. What do you dislike, or even find disgusting about them ?

Neo-nazism is really worrying. I was repeatedly told that it's minority and i'm pretty sure it is, but it's threatening. The image of Holocaust and concentration camp is unforgettable.

And if I have to name any other, the pronunciation of german is ... well, hmmm, err, geee... ugly to me. They "sche" all the time, like having a soup without table manners. (hmm, you asked for true feeling. )

[steven]

Well, certainly stereotypes are always present, whenever personal

experiences are missing. So sometimes one has to rely on

them, because they give you the only clues...

It is quite interesting to get a perception such as yours.

Thank you !

Any other opinions ?

[sunyata]

Well, certainly stereotypes are always present, whenever personal experiences are missing.

So why don't you just go and find out what they think through your own personal experience instead of asking for other people's stereotypes?

[steven]

Maybe you are right, I shall be patient and see for myself when

I will be there next year.

I actually intended to learn in particular more about the Chinese

European / German disagreements. Obviously there is no such

"clash of cultures", as for instance between Arabs and Jews or

Americans.

On the other hand they seem also not to embrace everything

coming out of Europe "as hell". (To a certain degree Foreign

Direct Investment is of course desired...)

Maybe the Chinese are simply indifferent about the Germans for

instance.

But it is still interesting to learn that talking about politics, for

instance is considered as boring. So what is for example

then the centre of interest in a conversation ? What is the

latest "hot talk" ?

[ala]

I grew up around Tongji University in Shanghai, which has strong ties with Germany (German flag flying in the campus too). You might want to check it out...

[wushijiao]

Maybe the Chinese are simply indifferent about the Germans for

instance.

I wouldn't quite say Chinese attitudes towards Germans are indifferent. My perceptions are: for educated Chinese people, Germany is widely admired. Germany is the EU's largest investor in China and German culture (literature, music, art) is put in high regard. So many Chinese college students chose German as their third language for both practical and cultural reasons.

To be honest, I don't think the average Chinese laobaixing knows too much about European history, even World War II (in Europe). So there might not be as many negative conotations as their are in, say, Eastern Europe. To many people, you are just a "laowai".

[Ian_Lee]

Steven:

Recently there was an online survey conducted by the Beijing newspaper

China Youth on "Which country -- Germany, Brazil, India, Japan -- do you support to become a permanent member of UN?"

Here is the result of the readers' response:

Germany -- 61%

Brazil -- 26%

India -- 9%

Japan -- 2%

The figure speaks for itself.

[pamokkha]

Hi,

being German myself I found it quite irritating that i encountered many Chinese who dont consider Hitler a "bad guy". As it was already pointed out, the laobaixing's knowledge about Nazi Germany seems to be quite limited. A friend of mine got a surprised face from a chinese after he told him Hitler is not on every coin in Germany.

Nowadays Germany's image is more linked to Volkswagen, BMW etc. So German products created a quite positive image in China. Well, these are the stereotypes i can offer.

Florian

[ala]

Maybe your friend was a late night show host hunting the streets for stupid people?

[seagate]

Well, check this joke out

Suppose somebody lost one dollar on the street. Look at the different

reactions of different nation's people.

If it is a British, He would just shrug and leave, still keeping his

gentleman-like pace, as if nothing had ever happened.

If it is a an American, He would dial 911 and report the loss to the

police, then leave with a whistle.

It it is a Japanese, He would go home at once and close himself in the

room, facing the wall and swearing not to lose again the same one dollar

at the same time and the same place.

Finally comes the German. After he found his money was dropped,

at once, he drew a 10X10 m^2 square on the ground with accurate

coordinates, then he took out his magnifying glass and bent over the

ground to search carefully each square...

Saw this joke first in Chinese, so I think I might be written

by a Chinese. Correct me if anybody ever saw it elsewhere in other

languages.

[steven]

Quite intersting to hear.

A big "thank you" to all of you.

I think I am much wiser now.

Steven

[xiaomawang]

Recently there was an online survey conducted by the Beijing newspaper

China Youth on "Which country -- Germany, Brazil, India, Japan -- do you support to become a permanent member of UN?"

Er... to me, it just show they had no choice.

[CBC]

The German people I've meet are quite lovely. Young people in the world are just hte same, enjoying travelling, chatting together. I also saw a group of German using drags in a hostel. I really think they are just as any youngster.

As to the history, I totally respect their great philosophy and culture. Though people no longer believe in communism, Maxist philosophy is never outdated and I find it quite useful.

I like German.

[JonasL]

as a Belgian ( hello neighbour! ) I'm impressed by the high level of engineering in Germany and thanks for your quality products

I was watching Germany on the World Cup with some Chinese friends ( mostly female )

they said Germans al look strong and of course that Ballack loves schwalbe.

anyway I think the Chinese think of Germany as a powerful nation, as they read in their history books of the engineering successes ( V1 V2, U-Boats, faster aircrafts, Blitzkrieg... ) of the nazi empire. and I guess your nation reflects on you, so they regard you as being intelligent, creative, efficient and strong.

In fact a Chinese friend of mine once told me that he thought that Hitler was a genius and a fantastic general, I agreed and added 'too bad he was a racist psychopath.'

[owen]

If we're talking about stereotypes i must say the numbering scheme of your questions gave me a chuckle. Don't take that the wrong way, i just don't think many other westerners would number a question 2.1, 2.2, etc. despite the fact that it really efficiently grouped the questions together.

They are also proud of the structure of german language, at least they think their language is much better, superior than english, but dare not to promote it aggressively. But thanks to the self-restrictive attitude to history, it earns international respect and credit on it.

If there is anything that annoys me its that. Every german (well, to be fair, i have a pretty small sample) i have met swears to me that german is the hardest language to learn despite the fact that many lists have been compiled by people who study this that rate chinese and other asian languages as the hardest. Still, not knowing any german, i can't really say they are wrong. It just seems a little fishy is all.

And about that, i think that is a thing that exists to varying degrees in many native speakers when talking about their native language. There seems to be this instinctual desire to exaggerate the complexity of one's language... seems like the wrong focus to me. If one language is more complex than another but has no significant expressive power than it then that seems to me to be a strike against said language. I think people just like the idea of having an unassailable ability.

sorry for the ramble... i've been drinking.

[[欧阳江]]

I think Germany is pretty high up their friendly nation scale.

As it was already pointed out, the laobaixing's knowledge about Nazi Germany seems to be quite limited. A friend of mine got a surprised face from a chinese after he told him Hitler is not on every coin in Germany.

A Chinese once asked me if I'm pro- or anti-Hitler. Is there a pro that I'm not aware of? Is there anything good about Hitler?

Maybe for some Chinese he's just another case of 70/30 (70 percent right, 30 percent wrong). Where his economical reforms outweighs the killing of some 6 million jews?

[doumeizhen]

I am half German, half American, and have spent equal parts of my life in each country, the odd years were spent in China.

I usually introduce myself as both, because everybody loves a 混血儿...

I generally hear:

Good cars, good hard working attractive people.

and I've heard these once: 1. So, your president... then he said the last one and I had to correct him, end of conversation. 2. So that Hitler guy, kind of a jerk but an efficent one... this conversation endeed after the look I shot the guy, and it makes me curious as to what exactly they learned about this period... and most recently 3. Germans are good because they admit to their mistakes. This was in a conversation about how bad Japanese are and my telling him that his arguement sucks, because its logic I am a bad person as well.

[gougou]

There seems to be this instinctual desire to exaggerate the complexity of one's language...

I agree, it seems everybody I met in Beijing thought that their language was the hardest to learn. With the exception of native speakers of English, who thought that theirs was the only language to learn and were surprised when the ayi in the xiaomaibu didn't understand their order...