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Please help! My culture class is currently studying common misconceptions that people develop around America and Americans based on the representation of media. Its been extremely enlightening to them to learn things like:
*The majority of Americans are not blonde or blue eyed
*The poverty rate in China is lower than in America
*Americans eat vegetables
The next part of their assignment on this topic requires some assistance from my American friends. I am wondering if you could respond to this blog post with some beliefs you have about China or the Chinese people. Many of you have never visited China, and all the knowledge you have of it is in effect, media driven. Even the reports I give you are tainted by my point of view. The assignment will be for them to take the misconceptions or generalizations made about China and respond - either in defense of the misconceptions, or in expansion of the original assertion. I think this is going to be a great opportunity for them to learn about an outsiders perception of China, and a challenge for certain.
Don't hesitate to make a statement that may seem inflammatory or contrary to the guidelines I have previously given - in culture class, everything goes.
5 comments:
From my sister and her sister-in-law:
They're all in the Communist Party.
They all know martial arts.
They're short.
They eat dogs.
They only do what they're told to do.
Also, they're yellow and the women have to be very quiet and obedient.
Hello Jessica,
I am a friend of your mom's from church and just watch your blog because I'm interested in your "work" over there in China. I met you once.
Anyway, here's my try at responding to your request. I hope it isn't bad to say, but I guess my generalization about China might be that there is a lot of censorship of ideas/beliefs. Can you explore your own religious beliefs, or must you stay aligned with the atheistic beliefs of the government (another generalization...that the government is atheistic.) Are there people inprisioned because their beliefs differ from the government?
Like I said, hope this is the kind of thing you were looking for Jessica!
It would be interesting to answer questions like these about America. Great class topic!
From David:
1) They all know martial arts.
2) All old Chinese men have long, thin mustaches.
From Beth:
1) All their toys have lead paint.
2) When I type "American misconceptions about China" into Yahoo, the first link listed is for "American misconceptions about Japan" which leads me to someone else's point...
1) Chinese and Japanese are interchangable
I think misconception happens to everyone, even among americans themselves. But how to not stereotype on each other. Chinese as a people is really great, and none is supposed to have bias on them. and they are getting closer and closer to the other parts of the world. what a blessing
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