Friendliness

Most of the people here love Americans. And as a young, recent graduate from a progressively oriented liberal arts college, this surprised me. It still does. Most international news does not focus on pro-American sentiment, and it is pretty easy to believe that the world hates us. And on top of resentment from abroad, a reasonable portion of Americans openly oppose most of our country’s actions in the 21st century and express embarrassment for their association with them.

So with all this in mind, I came to China prepared to face strong resentment, but I never stopped to think of any particular reasons why Chinese people might hate us. We have not forcibly meddled with their government, invaded their country, or offended any minority or religious groups. And even if we had somehow offended a Chinese minority group, the Chinese government is too efficient at squashing rebellion for that dissent to take any roots. Just look at the current situation in Urumqi or previous unrest in Tibet. We support Taiwan’s independence, but thanks to the highly efficient state run media, I highly doubt that most Chinese people know about that. You might expect some people to resent the American economic driving forces behind poor working conditions and pay, but for the most part, they don’t seem to make that connection either. Instead, people are to be happy to have jobs and contribute to a growing economy. They seem pleased that things are getting better rather than frustrated that they are not better already. And if they are frustrated, they don’t seem to blame the American consumers on the other end of the rope. Instead, as I said before, people seem to love me precisely because I’m American.

It’s certainly not because of how I look. I’ve been brushed aside and marginalized a few times because people mistook me for a Russian. Blond hair and blue eyes tend to lead to that assumption in Dalian since wealthy Russians come here for the summer and do a good job of garnering ill will. However, once I tell people that I’m American, frowns turn upside down, the sun shines, and my shit smells like roses. On occasion, I can even detect a sense of awe and reverence in people’s voices. It sounds trite and self centered, but its there and it’s actually kind of unsettling. If you are wondering, I am not mistaking Chinese tones for awe and reverence.

Andy, one of my Chinese tutors, explained to me that many Chinese view America as a ‘better’ country. It doesn’t have anything to do with personal freedoms or national philosophy, so much as the opulence of our lifestyle. Most Americans have cars, houses, and various other goods that only very wealthy Chinese people have. Therefore, in their eyes, America must be a better country.

Now all this could be linked to my earlier post about Chinese culture and logic in that they only see the immediate problems and not the driving forces behind them. It could also be that the government does a pretty good job of controlling public opinion, and anti-American sentiment could only hurt the Chinese economy. Whatever the reason, my experiences in Dalian, and briefly WuXi, tell me that Americans are well loved in China. That’s over a billion people who simply don’t care about our massive wealth accumulation, dubious foreign policy decisions, or rampant consumption. Of course, it would be a bit hypocritical of them to judge us on those last two. In any case, it is comforting to me to know that at least 1/6th of the world will welcome me with open arms.