How are Germans perceived by Chinese people ?

[bhchao]

Germans are cool. They helped the KMT during the Weimar Republic years and even during the Sino-Japanese war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-trained_divisions

[doumeizhen]

Source: The Independent (7/24/06):

[http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1193091.ece]

War and an unlikely hero: Schindler of Nanjing

Clifford Coonan reports

He was a Nazi who saved 250,000 as Japanese troops ravaged China's capital

in 1937. [Now the story of John Rabe is to be made into a Hollywood movie.]

John Rabe led a group of Western missionaries, businessmen and scholars in

draping Red Cross flags painted on sheets around a two-by-three-kilometre

area. The 250,000 people who were able to get inside the safety zone

survived - another 300,000 people outside the international safety zone

became the victims of the Nanjing massacre.

With his swastika armband, Rabe seems an unlikely or impossible hero, but

his courage and the selfless way he administered the safety zone means for

many people here he remains the "Living Buddha of Nanjing".

Even at the time his fame was such that 3,000 women from Jinling Women's

University knelt by the roadside in gratitude when Rabe was finally forced

to leave the city early in 1938.

After returning to Berlin, Rabe gave lectures about the massacre and tried

to get Hitler to intervene. He was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo

for three days and told to shut up. He left for Afghanistan and then went

back to Berlin to work for Siemens. After the war, he was de-Nazified and

was kept alive by food parcels and money sent from grateful colleagues in

China and he died of a stroke in 1950.

I'm fairly certain this has to be a famous story told in China. Can anyone comment on exactly what the Chinese learn about Europe/Germany in this period? I'm curious how this shaped their image.

[owen]

i always got a laugh when people in china told me that i was 'good' because i was canadian and Norman Bethune was from canada.... way to go me!

[doumeizhen]

Norman Bethune - 1890-1939

“The Spirit of Absolute Selflessness”

Known widely as an innovative thoracic surgeon, a vigorous advocate of democratic medical services, and an international humanitarian, Norman Bethune is revered in China as a hero in the successful struggle for the establishment of its first united republic in 5,000 years. Mao Zedong, who received Bethune after his arrival in China early in 1939, wrote with great appreciation of Bethune’s spirit of absolute selflessness as proven dramatically in his tragic death on the battlefront in northwestern China from blood poisoning on November 12, 1939. His spirit and Mao’s tribute to his life and work became primary sources of inspiration in the new China.

Because my American part assumed that like me, all of you didn't know, but that you would speak English, so you could read it...

[JonasL]

I'm 'Belgian' ( I'll get back to this '' later ), so by definition ( not really of course, but I can ) we should be able to speak 4 langauges fluently: Dutch, French, German & English.

when those nationalities come to Belgium, they expect to be able to speak their own language ( damned the posession of THE chocolate seems to have screwed us over! )

anyway, I know these 4 languages, and I'm studying Chinese now.

German is a pretty hard language yea, it has 'namefalls' like Latin, but less. which are basically useless, wicked Grammar rules that change sentence structures depending on where the object is. and you THINK 'Uhr' would be German for ' 1 Hour ( English ), Uur ( Dutch ), Heure ( French ) but nononono !!! they say STUNDE., and other crazy things which I can't really point out since I've been learning German from my birth ( being Belgian & born in a country that is naturally good at languages ( well, the North of Belgium is one of the best places to live if you want to study ( or just absorb ) languages )

English - in my opinion - is definetely not the hardest language to learn. it's incredibly easy to learn in fact, just switch on your TV. the only continent having trouble learning English is Asia, but for them any language that uses the Roman alphabeth is hard because they write in frickin' paintings.

Chinese - to me - is the hardest language to learn, but it's all about where you stand in this world what language is the most difficult to you. if you really want to know the nr 1 hardest language, ask somebody that knows ALL languages spoken on this globe, I only know 5.

in the beginning I said I was 'Belgian' with ' '

well: ( to Doumeizhen: who said "everybody loves a 混血儿" refering to him being American & German ) well, then I guess I'm a SUPER hybridization: I'm 1/3rd Belgian 1/3rd French & 1/3rd Italian. BRING ON THE LOVE !!!!

[bhchao]

Doumeizhen, I found this good article on Max Bauer and Sino-German interactions in China: http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=11

Just as a small anecdotal side bar, when German monks established their first orders in Tsingtao, (the German monks were primarily from Franken, or Franconia), as an extra activity to supplement their primary calling they did in China what they did back in Germany - make beer. Soon, a small plant was established in Tsingtao to increase production and satisfy the demand. When the Japanese took over the facility in 1914 and when the Chinese took over the beer making facility in 1922, they both changed the name of the brew, but they both also retained the original formula. During World War Two, the Japanese occupied the brewery again and this time, they renamed it "Rising Sun Beer". But as before, the formula remained unchanged. Today, at least in North America, the beer is known as "Tsingtao Beer". But the formula is still the original German one!

After the Boxer rebellion episode, the Germans essentially minimized their participation in Chinese affairs and focused more on the economic development of their colonial holdings in China. Germans in China were requested by the German colonial authorities to learn and speak Chinese as much as possible and in fact many Germans enjoyed a good command of the Chinese language at the time. Germans were also encouraged to use Chinese names when working with their local staffs or negotiating for contracts with Chinese companies. Shortly before 1914, Germany established an "Ingenieur- und Medizinschule" in Shanghai (now I believe the Tungchi University). Germany built a number of schools in its region, which were open for both Chinese and Germans to attend

The origins of the German Military Mission to China in the 1920's and 1930's can be traced back to the early period of Sun Yat Sen, the father of the Chinese Republic and to the selection by Germany of a number well qualified of German military liaison officers, such as von Falkenhausen, von Seeckt, Bauer and a few others, to manage this sensitive account.

Prior to World War One, Sun Yat Sen traveled to Germany on a number of occasions. He admired how Germany unified itself, how its academic, economic and social welfare institutions operated, etc. He often thought that many aspects of German life could also be applied to China to help develop China and to help give China a strong foundation for the future. Of importance here is that Sun Yat Sen was not a Germanophile - but he did have a strong appreciation for German accomplishments. Many influential Kuomintang (KMT) officials, such as Chiang Kai-Shek and Dr. Chu Chia-hua, shared this (pro-German) feeling.

One key persona was Dr. Chu Chia-hua. He had studied engineering at the Berlin Metallurgical Institute during the First World War. In 1926, in his capacity as President of the Sun Yat Sen University in Canton, he contacted Colonel Max Bauer (a former Chief of Staff to Ludendorff in the Strategic Mobilization Department - Bauer was a chief architect of the "Hindenburg Programm", a program to better integrate the needs of the German army with German military goods suppliers), to study business opportunities in China. The offer was accepted and in 1927, Bauer met Chiang Kai-Shek. Bauer possessed great interpersonal skills and the two became fast friends. Chiang Kai-Shek even offered Bauer to be his military advisor (position accepted).

Upon reviewing the situation, Bauer came to the conclusion that German industrial capacities could be mobilized to reconstruct the Chinese economy. In 1928, Bauer returned to Germany and began making the needed contacts with German industrialists. His efforts however were met with mixed results. A big reason for his somewhat "cool" reception in Germany was that working on military issues with any foreign nations was a massive political hot potato for Germany for a post Versailles Treaty era Germany. Although Bauer tried hard, in the end, the German Reichswehr did not provide all of the support to China Bauer had hoped for.

However, Bauer did have two important successes before he died of an illness he picked up in China. He was able to establish a Handelsabteilung (Trade Department) and the Reichswehr cautiously did enter into a more formal working relationship with the clandestine German military advisory group established in Nanking (Nanjing).

Back in China, Bauer advised his now very close friend, Chiang Kai-Shek, to enforce his drafted Military Demobilization and Reorganization plan. In 1928, the Chinese Army had approximately 2.25 million men under arms. Bauer recommended that China retain only a small core army, trained to German standards and place the rest of the soldiers into local militia forces. While the plan was sound, it was not adopted. Another round of the civil war broke out because no one in China could agree on who had to give up what and who would control that which remained.

Despite this setback, Bauer and his German team worked with Chiang Kai-Shek to establish a new Chinese Army based on German standards. A model division was established in Nanking. The Central Military Academy was relocated to Nanking from Whampoa, where it was staffed with German military experts. A key focus was on establishing new military command and communications protocols for the new Chinese Army.

Bauer regretfully passed away suddenly on 06 May 1929 and was buried in China with a funeral, which was the equal of any state funeral

....during the second battle for Shanghai in 1937, von Falkenhausen and his German colleagues were dressed in Chinese uniforms and directed Chinese troops right up to the Japanese front lines. This did wonders for Chinese morale.

Further, von Falkenhausen recommended that China fight a war of attrition with Japan - Japan could never hope to win that type of a conflict. China should hold the Yellow River line, but not attack north of that until much later in the war. China should be prepared to give up a number of regions in northern China, including Shangdong, but the retreats must be made slowly. Japan should pay for every advance it makes. He also recommended a number of fortification construction efforts to take place in China, the mining of coastal, landing and river locations, and so on. Falkenhausen also advised the Chinese to establish a number of guerrilla operations to take effect behind Japanese lines. These efforts would help to weaken an already militarily challenged Japan.

Sino-German cooperation during the 1920's would have been more extensive had it not been for the restrictions imposed on Germany by the Versailles treaty. Ironically the loser in Europe in WWI and WWII was held in higher regard in China than the victorious Allied nations.

Many Chinese technocrats in the ROC government on Taiwan during the 1950's and 1960's were educated at universities in Germany.