美版知乎：为什么大多数对中国持正面看法的外国人曾去过中国，而大多数持负面看法的人从未去过

Why do most people who have a positive view of China have been to China? Conversely, most people who have a negative view of China have never been to China?

为什么大多数对中国持正面看法的人曾去过中国？相反，大多数对中国持负面看法的人从未去到过中国？

以下是Quora读者的评论：

Robert Quek, former Retired. Prior Employment in Finance Sector

I have visited China many times to many parts, cities, & provinces over the years from 1982. I can therefore testify to the progress in the country and society of environment, physical structure, and lifestyle. I will not belabour a description of China today. Millions of people have visited it, and there are a profusion of pictures and videos which can do it justice.

People who have not visited it have a negative view precisely because they have not visited it and do not know its progress. They made their judgement from ignorance and misinformation from their media, most likely English language media. I personally never bother to correct them. I consider it a worthless effort.

For your interest I reproduce below part of my post of my first visit in 1982 to give you a contrast of China today should you be visiting or have visited. At that time foreigners could only visit China in approved tour groups, each guided by a national guide who accompanied the group throughout the journey and a local guide in each town or city.

自1982年以来，我多次访问过中国的许多地方、城市和省份。因此，我可以作证，中国和中国社会在环境、物质结构和生活方式方面确实有所进步。我不想对今天的中国评头论足。数以百万计的人来过中国，有许多图片和视频可以证实。

那些没来过中国的人对中国持着消极看法，正是因为他们还没有来中国看看，不知道中国的进步。他们的偏见源于他们的媒体的狂妄无知和错误资讯。我自己是不屑于跟他们争论的。我认为这么做毫无价值。

我摘录了1982年第一次访问中国的记录，让你们可以借此跟今天的中国做一下对比。当时，外国游客只能参加通过审批的旅游团才能访华，每个旅游团由一名国家导游全程陪同，在每个城镇或城市有一名当地导游陪同。

We entered by train from HK to Guangzhou. This was the most pleasant journey in the tour.

We traveled long distances by bus, train, & plane. The bus was not air-coned, the roads were bad, plenty of pot holes. The train had 2 classes, soft seat & hard seat. As tourists, we were in the soft seat section (first class in today’s term). “Soft” was a layer of foam of perhaps 3 inches placed on the seat. I took a peek at the hard seat section. “Seat” was an euphemism. The people were sitting all over the floor. As we approach a tunnel, the attendant would warn us to quickly close the window, failing which you will have a big blast of dust gusting through the window. The top aircraft on service was the B737. More often we flew on the Russian built plane, a small aircraft of less than 50 pax. In order to conserve power, the pilot did not turn on the air-con until just before takeoff. At about the takeoff the plane shook quite violently like you were in a huge turbulence on-flight. Not a comfortable experience at all.

我们乘火车从香港抵达广州。这是这次旅行中最愉快的一段旅程了。

我们乘坐公共汽车、火车和飞机走了很长的距离。公共汽车没有通风设施，路况很糟糕，到处坑坑洼洼。火车有两种等级，软座和硬座。作为游客，我们选择了软座区(按如今的说法，就是头等舱)。所谓“软座”也就是座位上放了一层大约3英寸厚的泡沫。我看了一眼硬座区，所谓的“座”已经是委婉的说法。人们席地而坐。当我们驶入隧道时，乘务员会提醒我们赶紧关上窗户，不然就会有一股强风裹着灰向窗户里吹进来。最好的飞机机型是B737。多数情况下，我们乘坐的是俄罗斯制造的飞机。为了节省电力，飞行员直到起飞前才打开空调。起飞时，机身剧烈摇晃，像在飞行中遇到了巨大湍流一样。一点都不舒服。

One highlight of the tour was shopping. The must visit shop was known as Friendship Shop. We carried with us Foreign Yuan that we changed in HK, as distinct from Domestic Yuan which were not accepted in the FS. For us from Spore, the FS were not exceptional, just a bigger range of goods in our Chinese Emporiums. CEs in HK were better laid out. Chinese arts & crafts, calligraphy & paintings, medical products, the specialty in particular provinces, and silk & embroidery were the main features.

The thrust of my story is this. Over lunch one day towards the end of our tour in Beijing we were served desserts of canned pineapple, not of the flesh, but the core, each about the size of a 20 or 50 cent coin. We did not actually protest but our unhappiness was palpable. The tour guide was very apologetic. He told us China was very poor and needed the foreign exchange. It needed to export the canned pineapple flesh to earn foreign exchange.

Every Chinese dressed in grey, guys and girls. All the girls have the same hair style.

这次旅行的一大亮点是购物。游客不可错过的商店被称为友谊商店。我们携带了在香港兑换的外币，跟友谊商店不接受的国内人民币不一样。友谊商店并不算特别，只是比中国商场的商品种类更多而已。香港中国商场的格局布置更好。中国的工艺美术、书画、医药产品、某些省份的特产、丝绸刺绣是主要特色。

有一天，我们旅行快结束的时候在北京吃午饭，吃的是菠萝罐头甜点，但不是菠萝肉，而是菠萝芯，每个大约只有20美分或50美分硬币大小。我们当是没有抗议，但还是很不满的。导游非常抱歉。他告诉我们中国很穷，需要外汇，需要出口罐装菠萝肉来赚取外汇。

每个中国人都穿着灰色的衣服，男孩和女孩都如此。所有女孩都梳着同样的发型。

 

Danny Wong

This is a very well known phenomenon. It's like a reverse-Paris syndrome. They ought to name it “Beijing syndrome” or something.

The reason why it exists is simple: propaganda.

China doesn’t have a lot of soft power on the international stage. English is still the most widely spoken language in the world, and practically no one outside of the Sinosphere watches Chinese news, movies, shows or social media influencers.

这是一个显而易见的现象。这就像巴黎逆综合症。他们应该叫它“北京综合症”。

原因很简单：媒体宣传。

中国在国际舞台上没有多少软实力。英语仍然是世界上使用最广泛的语言，实际上除了汉字文化圈之外，没有什么人会看中国的新闻、电影、节目或知名的社交媒体。

 

Thomas Pauken II, Reporter at Freelance Entrepeneur (2014-present)

BEIJING: Perhaps we are dealing with the concept of setting low expectations and discovering that visiting China was not as bad as we had anticipated. The Western media often portrays China from a negative perspective while many Americans, including myself, had grown up learning China was a villainous nation that was best left avoided.

Let’s reflect on this matter from a psychological viewpoint. Just imagine, you have been told that you will soon make a business trip to a city with a bad reputation.

Let’s use the city of Philadelphia as an example. Before your arrival, you reviewed local news reports and discovered that it’s dirty with rampant crime. Yet, you got lucky as your flight got bumped up to a first class ticket and you received the royal treatment from a client with a stay at a penthouse suite in a luxury hotel rather than a Motel 6.

北京：也许我们的期望值很低，发现中国之旅并不像我们预期的那么糟糕。西方媒体经常从负面的角度来描述中国，而许多美国人，包括我自己，从小就被灌输中国是不友好的国家，最好避让三舍。

让我们从心理学的观点来思考一下这个问题。想象一下，如果有人告诉你，你马上要去一个口碑不好的城市出差。

让我们以费城为例。在你到达之前，你看过当地的新闻报道，发现这里很脏乱，犯罪猖獗。不过，幸运的是，你的航班被升级到了头等舱，而且你体验了一把皇家礼遇，住进了豪华酒店的顶层套房，而不是6号汽车旅馆。

If this happened and you also scored big money deals, do you want to return to Philadelphia again if your clients pledged the same offer of hospitality? Yes you would.

But for the record, unless you are a senior executive of a Fortune 500 corporation, it’s unlikely Chinese hosts will roll out the red carpet for you, but I cite the Philadelphia example to demonstrate how something when surpassing low expectations can affect your mood for the better.

I would also like to address people who come to China filled with much enthusiasm but a year or two later they depart from the country with much bitterness. I have seen it happen while residing and working in Beijing since October 2010. As an old-timer, I can spot the newcomers who will stay for the long-term and those who depart with a flash bang.

The disappointed expat tends to be emotional with wide mood swings from feelings of exhilaration to low-down blues or having a short temper. These types of people think stubbornness symbolizes strength and compromise is only for wimps. They come to the country thinking they can “change China” but realize later that they had delusional dreams and the Chinese never wanted to be changed anyway.

如果你遇到了这种情况，也获得了大额订单，如果你的客户承诺按同样的标准招待你，你还想再回到费城吗？会的，你会的。

但郑重声明，除非你是《财富》500强企业的高管，否则中国东道主不太可能铺着红地毯等你，但我引用费城的例子是想说明，超出低预期的事情会如何影响你的情绪，使其变得更好。

我还想对那些满腔热情来到中国，但一两年之后却带着痛苦离开中国的人说几句话。自2010年10月以来，我在北京居住和工作时就发现到这种情况。作为一个老前辈，我能判断出哪些新来者会长期留在这里，哪些人会迅速离开。

失望的外籍人士往往会带着情绪，情绪波动很大，从兴奋到低落或脾气变得暴躁。这类人认为固执象征着力量，只有懦夫才会妥协。他们抱着“改变中国”的初衷来到这个中国，但后来意识到这只是妄想，中国人绝对不想被改变。

 

Chien-Sheng Tsai

Very good point, and you are absolutely correct.

I was not as favorably disposed towards China myself previously because I was born in Taiwan and my father was KMT official under CKS. But when I went to China, it was wow! I even called my friends in China ” while in the car. They said, we are taking you sightseeing in our car and you call us “Gong Fei” but we call you “Tung Bao.” I apologized, slip of the tongue, just force of habit. They took in good nature. We are all Chinese, and have camaraderie.

The people in US listen to the rhetoric from Trump, Pompeo and others, like the eunuch, Peter Navarro, and bash China.

China now is not the PRC of the past, with the Cultural Revolution, before transformation. They have changed for the better, and more relaxed. Still there are many unsavory characters, like anywhere, and in Taiwan too, but in the main, the Chinese these days and China itself is awesome and to be admired. They have a few people like Donald Trump there, but not many.

说得好，你说得完全正确。

我以前对中国大陆没有太多好感，因为我出生在台湾，我父亲是国民党官员。他们说，我们开车带你观光，你居然叫我们“共-匪”，而我们叫你“同胞”。我道了歉，说我只是口误，习惯使然罢了。他们心地善良。我们都是中国人，有同志情谊。

美国人听多了特朗普、蓬佩奥和彼得•纳瓦罗等人的言论。

现在的中国已经不是文革前的中国了。变得越来越好，越来越开放。和其他地方一样，台湾也有许多令人讨厌的人物，但总的来说，现在的中国人和中国本身是令人敬畏和钦佩的。他们也有一些像唐纳德·特朗普这样的人，但并不多。

 

Richard Kenneth Eng, former Project Team Leader at ATI Technologies (1993-2000)

This has been known for a very, very long time. The only way to truly understand a country and its people and culture is to go visit it and experience it. There is no substitute.

Most people get their information from the mainstream media. However, the media is unreliable and very often biased. It usually presents inaccurate information which leads to misunderstanding and misperception. That’s why it cannot substitute for actual travel.

这一点早已为人所知。真正了解一个国家、了解这个国家的人民、了解这个国家的文化，只有亲自去参观、亲身体验。这是无可替代的。

大多数人都从主流媒体获得信息。然而，媒体并不可靠，常常带着偏见，通常传递的都是不准确的信息，导致误解。这就是媒体无法代替真实旅行的原因。

 

Bill Chen, lives in Singapore

Simple.

The reality of China is way different from the story of China, particularly in the Anglophone press.

Pick a newspaper of record. The NYT, Wapo or the Telegraph. Filter the China stories for the last two years or four. Find the positive ones. Not glowing references, merely mildly positive.

When a simple report of Chinese national day celebrations is injected with “Chinese missile threat”  what right can the Chinese possibly do in this world?

Why can't anglophones stay correctly informed about China?

They can't read Chinese and follow the Chinese press.

简单。

中国的现实情况与媒体报道截然不同，尤其是在以英语为母语的媒体上尤为如此。

随便选一份报纸，比如《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》或《电讯报》。翻找过去两年或四年的中国报道。找找正面的报道。不用热情洋溢，稍微正面就行。

一篇关于中国国庆庆祝的简单报道也会被安插“中国导弹威胁”等字眼，中国人在这个世界上还能再无辜一点么？

为什么说英语的人没办法正确地了解中国？

因为—他们看不懂中文，也看不懂中文媒体的报道。

 

Phillip Brown

In any case it proves little. To visit China they may likely have already had a favourable view of the country. Also the experience of a visiting Westerner is probably a rather privileged one compare to the average Chinese. And a lot of the negative views about China are actually about it’s external policies and actions.

PS: Radio shock jock and apologist for apartheid South Africa use to cut off critics of the regime with ‘have you visited South Africa’?

这证明不了什么。来中国访问时，他们可能已经对这个国家有了好感。而且，与普通的中国人相比，西方游客的体验可能算得上相当优越的。很多对中国的负面看法实际上源于它的外交政策和行动。

PS：电台主持人和南非种族隔离的辩护者经常就会用“你去过南非吗”来阻隔对南非的批判。

 

David Kaminsky

I don’t think anyone who runs in expatriate circles is going to put any credence in the “people who have been there have a positive view”.

我认为，在外派圈子里工作的人不会相信“在那里工作过的人都有积极的看法”的说法。