I lived in China for a little over 2 years until February 2019. I left when my job was put on hold because of the “Wuhan Virus.” I decided to take a trip to Africa to see how many countries I could see until the whole thing blew over. It turns out that you can see 3 countries and then you go into lock down for half a year, it never blows over, and the virus becomes a pandemic. But that’s another story; maybe I’ll blog it as S for South Africa I posted a little about it here.

China is a big country, just 2% shy of the size of the United States (where I’m from), but with almost 1¹/₂ billion people living in it compared to the the ¹/₃ billion₁ population of my country. And there is some disagreement about what “China” actually is. Without getting too political, The People’s Republic of China as it is currently known, has some disagreement with the rest of the world as to what is and isn’t part of it. The word China itself is a word given to it by the West. Some say it’s not a country, it’s a people.

All this is to say that any generalization about China will be wrong. But I am going to do it anyway. What follows is my very opinionated view of China.

There is a metric ton of Chinese history

In most textbooks you will find that China is one of the first civilizations. I’m not sure if it is actually older so much as they kept good records. China has a preserved written history that goes back longer than any other civilization in the world. Any Sinophile (Chinese culture lover) knows about the “Four Greatest Inventions in the World” invented by the Chinese: the compass, gunpowder, paper, and printing. While the history of America goes back to 1776, China’s history goes back over 3000 years. I have listened to all 250 plus episodes of the podcast The History of China, but there is just so much of it, I can’t even!

Chinese culture favors the whole over the individual

When I meet people in China, there is this understanding that you do what’s best for the community. The American fixation on individual freedom is annoying to them.

This can be frustrating in a work environment when the buck never never stops anywhere and no one takes the blame. It is very hard to get honest feedback. But it also leads to a kind of passive aggressiveness that I quite enjoy. No one will tell you that you are wrong and they are very polite. As an obnoxious American, I can insert myself into most social situations and they will welcome me and pretend to be impressed that I can use chopsticks and say hello in Mandarin.

This leads to things like a government program to help homeless people reunite with their families. Public parks are full of elderly people hanging out together doing coordinated dancing. There is free outdoor exercise equipment all over the place. At a Karaoke bar, everyone gets a turn no matter how bad you sing.

Business is like a marriage…

When doing business in China, the signed contract means almost nothing. You need to build Guanxi₂ [关系], which means something like your reputation or network. It means you have to build a personal relationship before you do business.

…and marriage is like a business

In most major cities there are marriage markets₃ where parents list their children to find them a partner. Parents can hire a marriage broker to set up dates and help them find a good match for their son or daughter. A man usually has to have his own apartment and car to get married and he pays a dowry to the bride’s family.

China is safe

One of my favorite things to do in Beijing was to walk down dark alleys and see what I could find. Down them I would find interesting little shops and restaurants and I never felt afraid that someone would rob me. Though it’s not completely crime free, violent crime is almost unheard of. One big problem though is counterfeit money. A few times a bill I got directly from the ATM was not accepted at a shop. But you almost always pay with your phone, so it wasn’t a big problem for me. Even street vendors and your friends will accept payments through WeChat.

WeChat is everything

For a lot of people, WeChat is the internet. Not only is it the main way to contact and keep in touch with people, all the major companies have a ‘mini app’ that you can run inside of WeChat. You can order a Didi, use Taobao, pay your bills, ride the metro, book a flight or hotel, do a videoconference, play video games, buy a house – everything!

The internet is censored

There is what is called “The Great Firewall of China.” Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, and many other sites that we think of as ubiquitous are blocked. China has some of the fastest internet in the world, but there isn’t as much of it. You can get around the firewall with a VPN – which is essential if you travel there as a foreigner – but it slows it down, and doesn’t work all the time.

They have their own versions of everything.

There are Chinese versions of almost everything online. Instead of Uber, they use Didi. Weibo is like their Facebook. Tinder? Try TanTan instead. Want to order something? There’s no Amazon, but they have Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba. They’re cheaper, faster and will often deliver the same day on a scooter. Food delivery is huge over there. You can get almost everything delivered (with the help of a friend who knows Chinese) right to wherever you are. Ordering food from an app was how I learned the most of Chinese I know.

Christianity is a foreign concept

Christianity permeates through everything in Western culture. Not so in China. Christianity seems to baffle the Chinese. The Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist and prohibits party members from practicing religion while in office. Though there are a lot of Christians in China, it is very much the minority. They do recognize religion though, and there are many, many temples in the big cities. They usually have some people that come to worship, but they are mostly tourist attractions.

They love Americans, but not so much the US

Like most major cities have Chinatowns, there is usually an unofficial foreigner district. In Beijing it was called Sanlitun. In some of the nightclubs, you can get free drinks if you are a Westerner. The darker side is that there is thing called a “White Monkey” job where a company will hire a white foreigner just because they are a status symbol. But I met enough people that were generally interested in learning about my culture and I made some genuine long-term Chinese friends.

But more than a few times, a Chinese person told me they would never come to America because they are afraid that they would be shot since everyone has a gun. They also think the US is a big bully that interferes too much in foreign affairs.

They are all inventors

Chinese are some of the most creative people I met, but they don’t seem to think of themselves as creative. They just see it as how you do things. There is the right way, the wrong way, and the Chinese way. When you go into a repair shop and ask if they can fix something, their first response is no. But ask again, frame it differently, or ask them to try, they will almost always come up with a novel solution you’ve never thought of.

China is HUUUGE!

There are over 600,000 “administrative villages” in China. So when someone in China says they come from a small village, that village may have more people than the largest city in America. In Xi’an, my apartment complex consisted of a city block of 20 story buildings and housed more people than my hometown.

They drink a lot

It seems to be a thing men do more than women. Most Americans have never heard of it, but baijiu, the ubiquitous hard alcohol in China made from sorghum, is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. I am told that in the recent past, you had to drink until you were blackout drunk to build Guanxi if you wanted to do business with any Chinese company. Interestingly enough, you could appoint someone to drink for you instead if you were upper management.

There’s a lot more I could say; like how their government is not really Communism so much as a Bureaucracy; how the pollution is so thick that instead of schools having snow days they have smog days; and how sometimes a woman will wear a mask just because they don’t want to do their makeup. But this post has gone on long enough as it is.

Let me just conclude by saying again that these are my personal observations. They are generalizations seen through the eyes of a foreigner’s and most likely there is another side to everything I’ve written.