"Coolness" vs "Loyalty" in China

The fact that Chinese people treat foreigners better than their own
should not be news. Even a 50-year-old grandma at the service counter
of a dilapidated state-owned store cracks a rare smile at the white
guy walking in. And with that fact known to all, it seems that there
began a simultaneous movement by the entire population to look and act
as foreign as possible (of course, the "good" foreign, i.e.
Euro-American and Japanese/Korean, especially Korean, about which I
wrote a published letter:
http://paper.sznews.com/szdaily/20100802/ca2935227.htm), often without
knowing what they are actually doing (perfect example I encountered a
few days ago: a middle aged grandma walking around with a black
T-shirt that says "I *heart* BOTOX).

Everyone seems to be getting English/Western-sounding names (I wrote
about this in a published letter:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/print.asp?id=443855) and using
half-assed English in their daily
conversations...English/Japanese/Korean usage on any ad, product
label, or restaurant sign seems to be a quick way to greater
popularity and profit (not to mention the greater perceived "style"
and "hipness").

Sounds like an old topic...but no one has really considered this
"xenophilia" in China from the perspective of a recent emigrant's
point of view. The view of what "foreign" means to someone who spent
most of his/her life in China compared to a Chinese who lived mostly
abroad is two totally different things. And for the emigrant like me,
striking a compromise between understanding (and even joining) the
relentless liking for anything foreign and proposing a cautionary
stance regarding the rationality behind the xenophilia (mainly by
speaking about the negatives of foreign lands and societies) is quite
important if we, the emigrants, wants to be seen both as Chinese and
worldly without being considered lacking knowledge of China, arrogant,
and even traitorous to the "Chinese cause"...

But, the problem is that, by merely speaking about foreign lands in
anyway inconsistent of the common Chinese perception of them would
result in negative consequences for the emigrant. If the expressed
views are much more favorable than perceived, then the emigrant
becomes "a Twinkie completely ignorant of Chinese culture" but if the
views are less favorable than perceived, then the emigrant is just
arrogantly looking down upon those who never been outside the country
(in China, probably many go travel abroad but the vast majority would
never really "live" abroad...and even if they do for short periods of
time, e.g. study abroad, they would still live amongst other Chinese
people rather than integrate with the mainstream society) by
exaggerating the negatives.

Now, lets assess what it means to be an Chinese emigrant in China
(here, we are talking about to more developed countries, i.e. the
"good"foreign lands mentioned above...not merchants and expats in
developing countries). The status of these developed countries as
major exporters of pop culture (US, Japan, South Korea, especially)
have made anything from those places "cool" (as I noted in a previous
post), including the Chinese immigrants who live in those countries.
Especially, many American-born/raised Chinese dominated the
Chinese-language pop music industry (Wang Leehom, Pan Weibo, Vanness
Wu, to name a few...of course, this is not entirely a Chinese
phenomenon: Korean/Japanese-American pop musicians also tend to be
prominent over on this side of the Pacific).

From a more personal standpoint, I, a normal-looking, normally dressed
guy, would never be recognized as Chinese-American until I mention
that I have an American passport and practically spent most of my life
abroad. But once the people I talk to find out about this, the change
in attitude can sometimes be quite dramatic. Beyond a bit of surprise
came a lot of respect: all the sudden it seems that different
treatment is bestowed upon me as if I upgraded from economy to
business class on an airplane (okay, probably not that dramatic of a
change, but you get the point).

As I said in multiple occasions, I am really saddened by seeing such
xenophilia. Yes, its true that China is lacking in good pop cultural
products, lacking in "style" and "coolness" (the government has been
killing off any sort of unorthodox creativity for six decades, under
such circumstances, its impossible for the Chinese to be creative
enough to create anything with style...with all our creative genes
killed off, in pop culture, China is a baby compared to the Americans,
Japanese, and South Koreans) and the youth here needs foreign pop
culture to fill the void, but they really do need to see foreign lands
in perspectives that is not completely dependent on what is presented
as fashionable and cool.

Any country and society has its negatives. And often great wealth
comes in pairs with great poverty. Yet, just being told about these
problems will not get most youth in China to have a more balanced view
of any foreign country. They must see the foreign countries with
their own eyes and experience them as long-time residents rather than
a leisurely traveler. Although China's increased economic power
cannot bring China a better pop culture, but it does give her citizens
greater opportunities for seeing the foreign lands whose cultures they
so crave. Maybe in the process, they can also bring back some ideas
that can finally get the Chinese creative gene back to work again...