外国网友讨论: 中国如何被外界误解？ [美国媒体]

How misunderstood is China by the outside world?
Politically, the society in general, the people, the economy, the environment, everything.

中国如何被外界误解？（政治，社会，人民，经济，环境，一切。）


Ray Comeau, Been to China many years, now living full time for 6 years.
Updated Aug 14

Ray Comeau,到过中国很多年，现在住满六年了。

A2A
谢邀

China is so misunderstood there should be a television program on understanding China.

中国是被误解的，应该有一个讲解中国的电视节目。

IMO most of the misunderstanding is plain ignorance versus willful mischief. Ignorance is not a put down; it only describes a lack of knowledge. We are all ignorant about certain subjects. As one of many writers on China; it is evident worldwide there is a large ignorance about China.

在我看来，大部分的误会都是纯粹的无知和故意的恶作剧。无知不是贬低，只是对于缺乏知识的描述。对于某些科目我们都是无知的。作为许多关于中国的答题者之一，很明显世界对中国有一个大的无知。

Most interesting is that several billion people who have never been to mainland China and never researched the country; consider themselves knowledgeable about China. How does that happen? What people have is a (plus or minus) bias about everything; and they choose to hear or read is anything that supports their bias.

最有趣的是，数十亿人从没去过中国大陆，从未研究过那个国家，却认为他们自己了解中国。这是怎么回事？人们所拥有的是对一切（或多或少）的偏见，然后他们选择听信或阅读那些支持他们偏见的东西。

My role is to try to inform the misinformed, based on my experience of living in China. As one of a number of writers on China; we all respond to a flood of questions demonstrating a general cluelessness about what China is TODAY. So this time to be brief here is a condensed version of what China is like today:

我的任务是通过我在中国生活的经验，试图来告知你们那些误传。作为许多关于中国的答题者之一，我们都回答了大量证明对今日中国一窍不通的问题。所以这一次简要地介绍一下中国如今的情况：

1- Chinese government propaganda and media manipulation is similar to Western government propaganda with its media all politicized. Remove the names and you can’t tell the difference.

1-中国 政 府宣传和媒体操纵就类似于西方政府的宣传，媒体都被政治化。 删掉名字，你根本看不出区别。

2- #1 Chinese people want a stable society, a safe environment and a good economy.

2- #1 中国人想要的是稳定的社会，安全的环境和良好的经济。

3- Voting for the Chinese is a low priority, at this time; even though they vote at the village level.

3-目前投票对中国人来说是较后考虑的，即使他们在乡村级别投票。

4- Chinese want a better future for their family, education for children, a positive future and make a decent living; followed by a relatively uncorrupt government.

4 -中国人希望他们的家庭能拥有更美好的未来,孩子的教育，积极的未来以及过一个像样的生活；紧随其后的是有一个相对廉洁的政 府。

5- 80% of citizens thinks the government is steering the country in the right direction.

5- 80％的公民认为政 府正在朝着正确的方向引导着国家。

6- Nearly 30% of the National People's Congress (their parliament) are not members of the CPC.

6-全国人民代表大会近30％（他们的议会）的成员不是中国 共 产 党 员。

7- The government is NOT run by politicians; it is run by technocrats. People with experience and education in fields like economics, engineering, agriculture, finance, etc.

7 -政府不是由政治家管理,而是由技术专家管理。 他们是在经济，工程，农业，金融等领域有经验和受过教育的人。

8- Government corruption does not touch most citizens. Bribes, etc. do not happen in the lower ranks of government. The police are trusted by the citizens and do not carry guns or batons.

8-政府腐 败不触及大多数公民。 贿赂等不会发生在低级别的政 府。 警察受公民信任，不携带枪支或警棍。

9- Crime is very low. Women can walk outside at night without fear. Culturally China is not a violent society.

9-犯罪率很低。女人晚上可以在外面无忧无虑地走。文化意义上中国不是一个暴力社会。

10- China has Sedition Laws and implements them. Everyone in China knows this. Only the reckless and those who think they are self-important will challenge China on this.

10-中国有妨害治安法律并实施它们。每个中国人都知道。只有鲁莽的和那些自以为是的人才会在这点上挑战中国。

11- Religious practice in China is allowed as long as the “organization" follows the laws. I have been to churches, mosques, and temples all over China. They are all open to the public. For some reason certain Christian churches seem to go out of their way to challenge local government and get themselves in trouble, then whine like babies. The church led foreigner leaves; but maybe the congregation is painted as trouble-makers. Christians are a very small minority and locals tend not to pay them any attention.

11 -宗教活动在中国是允许的,只要是遵循法律的“组织”。我到过中国各地的教堂，清真寺和寺庙。它们都是对公众开放的。由于某些原因，一些基督教堂似乎费尽心思地挑战当地政府使得它们陷入困境，然后就想婴儿一样哭诉。教堂让外国人离开，但也许教会会被描绘成麻烦制造者。基督徒占很少数，当地人往往不会去注意他们。

12- Chinese follow lifestyle philosophies - Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and folk religions. It could be appropriate to refer to them as spiritual, rather than religious. Christianity and Islam is very small, maybe 3% of population each.

12 -中国人遵循的生活方式理念——儒教,佛教,道教和民间宗教。可以适当的把它们称为精神,而不是宗教。基督教和伊斯兰教非常小,大概占人口的3%。

13- Most Chinese are very proud of China.

13-大多数中国人都为中国感到自豪。

14- The Chinese are not suppressed by the government, and it is not a police state. The majority of people are not interested in leaving China. Yes, some criminals want to, to avoid punishment and others for job opportunities.

14-中国人不被政府压制，它不是警察国家。 大多数人对离开中国不感兴趣。 是的，一些罪犯会想要，以避免惩罚，而其他人是要寻找工作机会。

15- Chinese people are very practical and do not follow any ideology or dogma. Culturally, family and friends are very important.

15-中国人非常实用，不遵循任何意识形态或教条。 文化上，家人和朋友都很重要。

This is China today:

这是今日中国：
 

 

 

 




 

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Robin Daverman, World traveler
Written Jan 3

Robin Daverman,世界旅行者

Well, let me put it this way -

好吧，让我这么说吧——

If a Chinese person says "I know China", every other Chinese will fall down laughing like an apoplectic hamster! Basically, you can not find any Chinese person alive who is so audacious as to claim that s/he knows China.

如果一个中国人说“我了解中国”，其他每个中国人都会笑倒就像中风的仓鼠！基本上，你找不到任何一个活着的中国人敢如此大胆的声称他/她了解中国。



So all the people who claim they "know China" are foreigners. They don't know what they don't know, and there is nothing that reinforces Certainty as well as Ignorance.

所以所有声称他们“了解中国”的都是外国人。他们不知道自己所不知道的事情，除了无知之外没有什么需要加强的了。

（哈哈哈哈楼主觉得这个回答好逗啊 好妙啊哈哈哈  这个回答有2.3K个赞哈哈哈哈哈  我喜欢这个回答 ）

 

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Kris Lim, Overseas Chinese
Written Jan 3

Kris Lim,海外华人

I feel that the most significant disconnect between foreign perception of China vs. reality is the over-generalisation of China based on media reports and the false assumption that somehow the Chinese hold a greater monopoly on negative things in the world.

我认为外国对中国的看法与现实之间最显着的隔断是基于中国被媒体报道的过度泛化以及错误的假设，使得中国莫名其妙的成为了世界上拥有较多负面事物的垄断者。

China is a big, populous country and the Chinese are a 4,000 plus year old civilisation with numerous different dialects spoken today, even though most are able to speak Mandarin. There are a lot of news about China that gets reported in the foreign press that over time paints a specific picture about the country depending on how one subconsciously wishes (or as influenced by one's family, friends or colleagues) to see them as:

中国是一个庞大的、人口众多的国家，中国是4000年以上的古老文明，如今拥有许多不同的方言，即使大多数人都可以讲普通话。在外国报纸上有很多关于中国的新闻，随着时间的推移，描绘了一幅依据个人潜意识（或是受到了一个家庭、朋友或同事的影响）所认为这个国家应该是怎样子的特殊画面。

Chinese products are inferior and unsafe. While there are more than enough real incidents backing up this view, many don't realise that the inferior goods are produced precisely because foreigners are willing to buy them at inferior good prices. The Chinese manufacturers are asked to produce low cost goods and so they produce low cost goods! If you pay them to produce iPhones, they will produce iPhones for you. You get what you pay for. Most laptop chargers are made in China and they don't break down or fry your laptop much. China runs half of the world's high speed rail network and they experienced the Wenzhou accident where 40 people died. There were 3 other high speed rail accidents involving fatalities, in Germany, Spain and France. This suggests that given their share of the world's high speed network, their track record seems to be on the positive side.

中国产品是劣质的、不安全的。虽然有足够多的真实事件支持了这种观点，但许多人并没有意识到，劣质产品的产生正是因为外国人愿意以劣质品的价格购买它们。中国制造商被要求生产低成本商品，因此他们照做了！如果你付钱让他们生产Iphone，那他们会为你生产iphone。一分钱一分货。 大多数笔记本电脑充电器是在中国制造的，他们不会毁掉或炸了你的笔记本电脑。 中国拥有世界高速铁路网的一半，他们经历了40人死亡的温州事故。 另有3起其他高速铁路事故涉及死亡的发在德国，西班牙和法国。这表明鉴于他们在世界高铁网络中的份额，他们的记录似乎反而是积极的一面。

The Chinese are stealing our manufacturing jobs. The Chinese are currently willing to work for longer hours at lower salaries than people in developed countries. You can choose to see it as they are job stealers or that they are hungrier than you and you have to think of how to be more productive via automation etc. Or you can see it as the Bangladeshis and Vietnamese work for even lesser manufacturing salaries so they are worse job stealers.

中国正在窃取我们的制造业岗位。中国人目前愿意比发达国家的人去更长时间的工作拿较低的工资。你可以选择认为他们是工作偷窃者，或者是他们比你还要饥渴。你必须想想怎样通过自动化等变得更有生产效率。或者你也可以认为孟加拉人和越南人工作甚至薪水更低，所以他们才是最坏的工作偷窃者。

The Chinese eat dogs and other disgusting things. Yes some Chinese eat dogs but the vast majority just don't eat it. Also the Vietnamese, Koreans and even some farmers in rural parts of Switzerland also eat dogs. And what about food eaten outside China like Casu marzu (rotten cheese), Rakfisk (fish fermented for up to a year), Smalahove (boiled lambs head) for Christmas etc. that are stomach churning for most of us.

中国人吃狗和其他恶心的东西。是的一些中国人吃狗，但是绝大多数人不吃。此外，越南人、韩国人甚至一些瑞士农村地区的农民也吃狗肉。而对于那些中国以外的食物像Casu marzu（臭奶酪），Rakfisk（鱼发酵长达一年），圣诞节的Smalahove（煮羊肉头）等等让我们大多数人感到反胃。

So it's not so much misunderstanding as the reports in the foreign press are for the most part true but rather, the taking of some negative reports or incidents and assuming that most of the Chinese are guilty of them or have the same negative traits.

所以与其说没有太多误解因为外国报纸上的报道大部分是真实的，还不如说，采取一些负面消极的报道或事件以及假设大多数中国人是有罪的，是具体相同负面的特性的。

 

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Guillermo Cedeno, Sociologist & film addict, lives in Panama and is resident of the world...
Updated Feb 13

Guillermo Cedeno, 社会学家和电影迷，住在巴拿马，是世界居民。。。

I agree with Ian and Vorn. I have a Chinese grandfather and live in a community where there is a large Chinese component. My two sons went to elementary and high school at a Chinese-Panamanian school here. They graduated from the university in China and both read, write and speak fluent Mandarin. They now work and live just outside Shanghai. I have visited and stayed with them for extended periods of time and have been able to see and experience different regions of China. I still feel there is A LOT I don’t know about China.

我同意Ivan和Vorn.我有一个中国祖父住在一个多数中国人组成的社区。我两个儿子上的是中国-巴拿马的中小学。他们毕业于中国的大学，能读、写和讲流利的普通话。他们现在在上海工作生活，我到过那里并和他们呆了较长一段时间，有幸可以看到和经历中国不同的地区。我仍然感觉对中国还有好多不了解的。

Needless to say, I have a few opinions about China I would like to share in Quora. First of all, China is growing economically and more importantly developing at an incredible speed. In many places social development is falling behind economic development. But in many large and medium size cities you feel already more comfortable and sense a quality of life above that of many western cities. One of the biggest barriers between China and the west is language. For a westerner, the task of learning another European language beyond his own represents an insignificant challenge compared to learning Chinese, whatever the dialect. And yet, the task of gaining an insight into Chinese culture itself, represents an even greater challenge. As much as we would like to think we are all creatures that resemble each other more than we are different from each other, we are invariably products of our own culture. And make no mistake; I shouldn’t have to remind you NOT to think of ourselves as more civilized than the Chinese. Chinese civilization is almost twice as old as western civilization and many of “our innovations” of past centuries were perfected earlier in China.

毋庸置疑，我有几点关于中国的看法想在Quora跟大家分享。首先，中国的经济以令人难以置信的速度在增长。在许多地方社会发展落后于经济发展。但在许多大中城市里你可以感觉到舒适和生活质量要超过许多西方城市。中国和西方之间最大的障碍之一是语言。对于西方人来说，学习另一种不是他自己的欧洲语言这个任务与学习中文相比较就像是一个微不足道的挑战，无论哪一种方言。然而，了解中国文化本身的任务就代表这一个更大的挑战。几乎我们会认为我们是彼此相类似的生物多过彼此的不同之处。我们都是自己文化的产物。别搞错，我不是在提醒你认为我们自己比中国更文明。中国文明几乎比西方文明要古老2倍。许多“我们的发明”早在中国几个世纪前就已经被完善了。

There is more. To learn about China you have to learn about diversity first. There are many ethnic subcultures within China, with different dialects and languages of their own and the history is such that they’ve had to learn to become a unified nation early on. For the west, national unification is a process usually associated with the past two, at the most, three previous centuries. The unification of China’s different nations, cultures and languages is a matter of the history two millennia ago. The sense of being Chinese itself is almost ungraspable for most westerners. In my view it’s wrong to talk about Mao unifying China, it’s more that if Mao hadn’t talked about a unified China, he would't have been able to hold on to power at all. In order to grasp what the word China means we would do well to heed British scholar Martin Jacques’ words: China is not a country it’s a civilization.

更多的，要了解中国你必须先了解多样性。中国有许多民族亚文化群，他们有不同的方言和语言文字，历史上他们不得不早日学会成为一个统一的国家。对于西方来说，国家统一 一般是过去2个，或者最多3个世纪的一个历程。中国不同的民族、文化和语言的统一是两千多年前的历史问题。中国本身的感觉对于大多数西方人来说几乎是不可能掌握的。在我看来，说 毛 统一中国是错误的，更多的是，如果 毛 不说他自己统一了中国，那他就没办法抓住权利不放。为了理解中国这个词，我们应该注意到英国学者马丁·雅克说的话：中国不是一个国家，它是一种文明。

Beyond these very general thoughts I am amazed at the friendliness I have experienced in China. I think to myself, I don’t look at all like them or speak their language, but I feel well liked most of the time and people seem to want to talk to me in spite they know I can’t understand what they are saying. Once I had the chance to travel with my mother-in-law who was 80ish and she got much more attention than I, simply for being old. I remember many smiles in people’s faces. I think I understood why my boys would remark that when they spoke to any Chinese in their own language they instantly felt the Chinese would automatically think of them as another Chinese.

除了这些非常普遍的想法，我对我在中国经历的友好感到惊讶。我想了下自己，我看起来一点也不像他们或讲他们的语言，但是我感觉大部分时候，人们似乎很想跟我谈话尽管他们知道我听不懂他们在讲什么。有一次我有机会跟我的岳母一起旅行，她已经80岁了。她比我还引人注目仅仅是因为老。我记得许多人们脸上的微笑。我想我明白了为什么我的儿子们会说，当他们用他们的语言（指中文）跟中国人讲话时，会立马觉得中国人自动地把他们两认为是其他的中国人。

I still don’t understand a lot about China, but I can’t wait to find out more. And, even at my age, I’ve got to work on my Mandarin.

我依然对中国有好多不知道的，但是我等不及去了解更多。甚至在我这个年纪，我要开始学习普通话了。

 

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Caleb Solofra
Written Feb 12
I am a college student in the United States, and I really did not know much about China until this semester when I started taking a history class about modern China.

我是美国的大学生，在我开始上中国现代历史课程之前，我真的不太了解中国。

One misconception I had was that all the people in China were just "Chinese."  I did not think of there being any minority groups that had specific characteristics about their own culture.  There are 56 recognized ethnic groups in China.   That's right, 56! All of these ethnic groups brings diversity to this nation.  Spoken language, food, clothing, and housing are just some categories that can differ between ethnic groups.  Taking this history class has opened my eyes to the cultural diversity in China.

我的一个误解是，中国所有的人都只是“中国人”。我没有想过会有什么具有自己文化特征的少数民族群体。在中国有56个公认的少数民族。没错，56个！
所有的这些少数民族给国家带来了多样性。语言，食物，服饰和建筑只是这些少数民族不同之处的一些类别，参加这个历史课程，开启了我对中国文化多样性的看法。

Another misconception I had was with religion. I thought that the Chinese government had extremely strict laws forbidding any type of religion.  However, religion is still allowed.  It even seems today that the principles of Confucianism are a great part of Chinese culture, as it has been for centuries.  Other religious groups are also found in China such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and more.  There are still laws regulating what is allowed with the religions.  For example, Christian churches who are public churches have their sermons censured by the government and are only allowed to preach basic principles, such as love your neighbor and the 10 commandments.   However, private home churches are allowed in which the sermons are not censured by the government.  So now I know that there is a way to still keep your beliefs and practice them if living in China.

我的另一个误解是宗教。我以为中国政府有严格的法律来禁止任何类型的宗教。然而，宗教仍然是允许的。甚至今天看来，儒教的原则是中国文化的一个重要部分，因为它已经持续了数百年。其他的宗教团体也可以在中国找到，例如佛教、基督教,伊斯兰教等。 还有一些法律规定了宗教允许的范围。例如，作为公共教会的基督教教会的布道受到了政府的谴责，只允许宣扬基本原则比如说爱你的邻居和十诫。然而，家庭私人教会是被允许的，这样的布道不受政府谴责。所以现在我知道了住在中国依然有方法可以保持你的信仰并实践它们。

Another thing I am still learning about is how China is can be run by a communist government.  As an American, we have always been taught that communism is bad.  So when I think of communism I usually think of a dictator government that oppresses the people.  As I've learned more about modern China, I have realized that the Communist government is not as horrible as I had pictured it.  To me the government does seem more strict than what I would prefer.  However, the Chinese people are not locked inside their country.  The type of government actually seems to be okay with most of the population.  If it wasn't, wouldn't there be more revolutions or rallies against this type of government?

我还在学习的另一件事是，中国是如何由共 产 党 政府管理的。作为一个美国人，我们通常被教导说共 产 主 义 是不好的。所以当我想到共 产 主 义时，我通常会想到一个压迫人民的独裁政府。 当我更多地了解了现代中国的时候，我意识到共 产 党 政府不像我所想象的那样可怕。对我来说，政府似乎比我想要的更严格。然而，中国人不是囚禁在他们的国家里，政府的类型似乎对大多数人来说是好的。如果不是的话，是否会有更多的革命或集会来反对这种类型的政府呢？

I also did not realize how much foreign nations had abused China with unfair treaties.  Especially after the Opium wars, the West had been cruel with their deals with China.  They took land, money, and honor from China when they did these deals.  This has opened my eyes to why China would resist modernizing until the beginning of of the 20th century.  The modern world had hurt them and humiliated them.

我也没有意识到有多少个外国通过不平等条约侮辱中国。尤其是在鸦片战争之后，西方与中国的交易一直是残酷的。他们在做这些交易时从中国拿走了土地、金钱和荣誉。这让我见识到为什么中国会抵制现代化直到20世纪初。现代世纪伤害并羞辱了他们。

 

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Alasdair McAndrew, Mathematics educator, time waster...
Written Jan 4

Alasdair McAndrew,数学教育家，时间浪费者。。。

I'm going to give a foreign view, based on some reading, and a recent visit.  I went with an open mind, and spent my time only in cities (Shanghai, Chengdu, Leshan).  The first surprise was how little "culture shock" I felt.  China is supposed to be very "different" and "foreign", but in fact in wandering the streets, eating at restaurants, it felt like being in a Chinatown of any major western city.  Except that the food is better - I didn't have a bad meal once.  There's less English spoken than I expected, but as I pointed out out to some Australians who I met at an airport - why should the locals speak English?  This is China!  As I am a monoglot, I found this tricky, but I managed with an app which is supposed to read and translate signs (and mostly, did a good enough job), as well as a Chinese/English dictionary on my smartphone.

我会根据一些阅读到的以及最近的一次访问，给出作为外国的看法。我以开放的心态去了，只在城市（上海、成都、乐山）度过了我的时光。第一个惊喜的是我感到很少的“文化冲击”。中国应该是非常的“不同”和“外国”，但事实上在街上漫步，在餐厅吃饭，就感觉像身在任何一个西方城市的唐人街一样，除了食物更好吃——我从没吃过不好的一餐。英语口语比我预期的少，但就像我向机场遇到的那些澳大利亚人所指出的——为什么当地人要说英语？这是中国！我作为一个只会一种语言的人，这是很棘手的，但是我试图用一个可以支持阅读和翻译标志的app来应对（大多时候都很好用），而且还有我手机里的中文字典。

People I spoke to seemed mostly happy with the government - this is supposed to be a surprise to us Westerners, who have been conditioned to believe that the only possible good government is a democratic one.  However - and I moved mostly in academic circles - people believe that the government is doing a good job.

跟我交谈过的人们似乎对政府很满意——这对我们西方人来说应该还蛮惊讶的，我们已经习惯于相信唯一可能是好的政府应该是民主的。然而——我主要是混学术界——人们认为政府做的很好。

Certainly in the cities, there was a greater level of affluence than I expected: shiny new cars, including many luxury ones, excellent quality goods for sale.

当然在城里，富裕水平比我想象中的高：崭新的汽车，包括许多奢侈品，优质的商品出售。

And back to food - I was also surprised at the amazing excellent fruit and vegetables.  Many many greengrocers, with their wares enticingly displayed.  (And also delicious to eat).  Compared to what's available at my local supermarket, I'd say that China - at least the bit that I saw - does better.

回到食物——我对那些超赞的水果和蔬菜感到惊喜。好多好多菜贩，展示着他们诱人的商品。（还美味可口）。跟我在我们当地的超市能买到的相比较，我会说中国——至少我看到的那些——更好。

Superb mass transport.  Compared to Australia, where we can't even seem to get a bus system working, in China there was the marvel of the Shanghai metro, as well as the bullet train between Chengdu and Leshan.  Even a slightly rattle-trap bus I took in Leshan (on a route which was not yet upgraded) was perfectly quick, and on time.

品质一流的交通。与澳大利亚相比，我们似乎甚至看不到运作的公交系统，在中国上海的地铁就是个奇迹，还有成都和乐山之间的子弹头列车。甚至是我在乐山坐过的一辆有些破旧的公交（在一条没有改善的道路上）也非常快和准时。

I must say the only problem with my trip to China was its brevity.  I'd love to go back (with an interpreter in tow) and explore more.  I think that China is a country worth being interested in, even if (like me) your knowledge is superficial.  And there's far far more to applaud and like than otherwise.

我必须说我的中国之旅唯一的问题就是太短暂了。我很想再回去（带着一个翻译器）并探索更多。 我认为中国是一个值得感兴趣的国家，甚至即使你的（像我）知识是很浅薄的。在其他方面还有很多很多值得赞扬和喜爱的。

 

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Ian Mote, I have lived in Shanghai 7+ years & have been to every Chinese province
Written Dec 29, 2015 · Upvoted by Robin Daverman

Ian Mote，我在中国住了7年以上&去过中国每个省   

Very I would say. China usually has its own way of doing things & it is only by being on the ground that you can appreciate what this is and more importantly why it has evolved that way. Not better or worse, but often different, and from afar this is easily misunderstood, especially when viewed through a different cultural filter

很乐意的说。中国通常有自己的做事方法，只有在这个基础上你才能领会到这是什么，更重要的是为什么它会那样演变。不好也不坏，但往往不同。从远的来说这很容易被误解，特别是通过不同的文化过滤器来考虑。

Things are improving now and as China becomes more accessible the gap is closing rapidly, but there remains a long way to go

事情正在改善，因为中国的差距正在迅速缩小，但还有很长的路要走。