I have talked with a few mainland Chinese people over the last few months, and I still feel I haven’t quite gotten a “general view” or understanding of how Chinese people view the world
The people I spoke with were very diverse Some were gay, some were married, others were students, and some were living abroad
But none of them has quite eased my “itch” of knowing how they see the world and their political viewpoints… So for those who have interacted with both Mainland Chinese and the broader Chinese diaspora (like immigrants or those born abroad), what differences in mentality have you noticed?
by overseas do you mean living abroad, or from taiwan? question is a little unclear to me, but maybe it’s just me
Mainly the diaspora and immigrants. You can include Taiwan but I’m mainly interested in the other groups
ohh, gotcha gotcha, thanks for clearing that up for me!
i’ve probably interacted with 50-100 people born in china enough to glean something about their politics, some of them having deep political conversations and some of them just hints and bits and pieces. even that is a pretty small sample size, and the sample size is skewed since i would say 50-75% of them had pretty good english and therefore were more connected to the english-speaking world, but diversity is still the name of the game.
i’ve spoken with chinese people who told me that mao was a literal king with concubines, and i’ve spoken with chinese people that were so inspired by the CPC that they wanted to become party members. i’ve spoken with chinese people that wanted to learn management and governance from the west’s experience, and i’ve spoken with chinese people that probably had such a burning hatred for the west that they refused to speak in english with me. i’ve spoken with chinese people that were casually marxist because it was taught to them in school, and i’ve spoken with chinese people who were casually liberals but still interested in hearing my marxist point of view. i’ve spoken with mainland chinese who parroted tiananmen tank man nonsense, and i’ve spoken with mainland chinese who told me the detailed contextual history of the tiananmen protests. so, there is still huge variation and a plethora of different opinions, and i am certainly not an expert in terms of what chinese people generally think. here are a few things i have noticed, though:
like most places in the world, the majority of chinese people i interacted with are not very into politics. of course, everyone has political opinions everywhere, but most are not that devoted or interested in this or that political theory. again, like most places in the world, the majority of people are concerned with their material interests. on the mainland this primarily involves the high cost of having children, the challenging job market, overworking culture, and the unfairness of uneven development within china in the past several decades. this is the yardstick by which people measure their own conditions, and the conditions of others.
again, i’m working with a small sample size, but from what i can glean people from taiwan tend to have stronger and more defiant political opinions, especially in the younger generation. i have seen very subtle contradictions between mainland chinese and those from taiwan that, uh, were very interesting to witness hahaha. people from taiwan and hong kong tend to have much better english.
on that note, there is an interesting contradiction in the sense that english is the most common second language studied in the mainland (a major part of the gaokao is a second language), and yet that opens people up to the english-speaking world which is overall very anti-chinese. even the cultural hegemony of english IPs is pretty relevant here: “friends” is like one of the most popular and well-known shows in china, and i think what a lot of people have used to learn english. when matthew perry died, one of my friends was really quite upset about it and was surprised that i didn’t care whatsoever hahaha. so, i think there is still a significant extent of westernization, especially for those who study english, study abroad, or end up working abroad (increasing in that order). to that point, the most politically interested and devoted marxists i’ve spoken to have been younger people, and so i think as conditions improve both internally and in relation to the rest of the world, westernization will decrease.
finally, i think most people from mainland china are proud of their experience and their culture. they are always very excited to hear that you are interested in china, or interested in learning mandarin. they will always heavily praise your knowledge of chinese culture even if you know very little in actuality, i think partially as just a cultural habit but also because they are excited to learn that you are interested in their culture. and, once you express that interest they are excited to share things with you, which always feels very sweet and thoughtful. the only people who haven’t acted this way towards me have been those from taiwan.
hope that helps! obviously again i am no expert, this is still a small sample size and truly my mandarin is really bad haha, but this is my personal experience.