Is a PRC Association a Liability for Ethnic Chinese from Other Countries?
A Chinese-Australian friend described his experience interacting with the local Chinese population in Malaysia. If he mentioned that he was born but moved away from China as a child, people did not want anything to do with him. When he tried to save money by going for cheap meals and skipping drinks, people thought he was a "cheap mainlander" trying to make trouble. On the contrary, if he splurges on food and drinks while dissociates himself from any connection from China, he found the local population much more receptive to his attempts to communicate and befriend.
The friend's experience is by no means unique to just him or peculiar to Malaysia. Modern-day citizens of the PRC (People's Republic of China) has given themselves a negative image as unscrupulous businessmen, rowdy tourists, and unwelcomed foreigners brazenly breaking both local laws and social norms for personal benefit. Such an image is cemented among the general public through the latest news reports and analyses on the latest aggressive moves by the Chinese government, the latest stories of Chinese troublemaking tourists, and the latest uncovering of political and commercial espionage.
It goes without saying that it is difficult to be a PRC national outside China. An innocuous "I am from China" is enough to generate negative first impressions from the locals met, making further genuine social interactions difficult. Perhaps that partially explains why the PRC community abroad is perceived as isolated and secluded. An almost reflexive defensive position that non-Chinese take toward those from China force PRC nationals, growing up in an environment in which discussion of sensitive political topics is often a social taboo, to avoid circumstances where they have to confront foreigners about the sources of the negative image.
But if the negative impression of the PRC and its people is a nuisance for PRC nationals, it is often a much bigger problem for ethnic Chinese who are not from China. Given the Chinese government's often aggressive stance toward immediate neighbors and sometimes overt attempt to reach out to the local ethnic Chinese community to seek greater local influence, it is just too easy for ethnic Chinese minorities in various countries to be suspected as a "fifth column" potentially working in alignment with interests of the PRC. Such perception can bring personal danger in the form of being accused as traitors.
To counter the suspicion of the PRC "fifth column," ethnic Chinese communities outside the PRC have, as the Chinese-Australian friend experienced in Malaysia, have attempted to protect themselves by openly and definitively dissociating themselves with the PRC in any way, most of all by minimizing interaction with PRC nationals or those seen as having genuine association with the PRC. While it is unfortunate for those on the receiving end, including those who insist they have little association with the PRC, the move is entirely understandable when seen from the point of view of the ethnic Chinese people seeking self-protection.
Yet, as the number of the Chinese people traveling abroad or emigrating continue to increase, to simply dissociate from the PRC is becoming more and more difficult. As tourists, clients, business partners, investors, or just neighbors, PRC nationals will come in contact with more and more locals, ethnic Chinese or otherwise, in ever greater numbers. And for new migrants who have migrated from the PRC within their lifetimes, it is simply impossible to deny genuine connections with the PRC, whether they are social, political, or economic.
So the question is how Chinese people abroad can alleviate some of the negative impression that they personally face from association with the PRC. Unfortunately, some of the root causes of the negative impression, such as low education levels of some PRC nationals, aggressive behaviors of the PRC government, and the country's all-too-common culture of flouting laws and social norms, are not something one can alter at an individual level. One can spend months and years educating a foreign audience about the "real" China, but all the resulting goodwill will quickly come to naught when the next negative news about China rolls around.
A better tactic for an individual Chinese to take some of the burden associated with the "PRC liability" is to behave deliberately against the existing negative stereotypes of what people see as a "normal" PRC national. Be extra polite in public, attentive to local rules and laws, willing to socialize outside the closed PRC community, and above all, openly question some of the wisdom behind questionable policies coming out of the PRC government. If the Chinese are perceived as rude, blindly approving of the PRC government, and incapable of holding a meaningful conversation with anyone who is not Chinese, then it makes sense for the individual Chinese to try the hardest possible to prove such perception wrong at a personal level.
The friend's experience is by no means unique to just him or peculiar to Malaysia. Modern-day citizens of the PRC (People's Republic of China) has given themselves a negative image as unscrupulous businessmen, rowdy tourists, and unwelcomed foreigners brazenly breaking both local laws and social norms for personal benefit. Such an image is cemented among the general public through the latest news reports and analyses on the latest aggressive moves by the Chinese government, the latest stories of Chinese troublemaking tourists, and the latest uncovering of political and commercial espionage.
It goes without saying that it is difficult to be a PRC national outside China. An innocuous "I am from China" is enough to generate negative first impressions from the locals met, making further genuine social interactions difficult. Perhaps that partially explains why the PRC community abroad is perceived as isolated and secluded. An almost reflexive defensive position that non-Chinese take toward those from China force PRC nationals, growing up in an environment in which discussion of sensitive political topics is often a social taboo, to avoid circumstances where they have to confront foreigners about the sources of the negative image.
But if the negative impression of the PRC and its people is a nuisance for PRC nationals, it is often a much bigger problem for ethnic Chinese who are not from China. Given the Chinese government's often aggressive stance toward immediate neighbors and sometimes overt attempt to reach out to the local ethnic Chinese community to seek greater local influence, it is just too easy for ethnic Chinese minorities in various countries to be suspected as a "fifth column" potentially working in alignment with interests of the PRC. Such perception can bring personal danger in the form of being accused as traitors.
To counter the suspicion of the PRC "fifth column," ethnic Chinese communities outside the PRC have, as the Chinese-Australian friend experienced in Malaysia, have attempted to protect themselves by openly and definitively dissociating themselves with the PRC in any way, most of all by minimizing interaction with PRC nationals or those seen as having genuine association with the PRC. While it is unfortunate for those on the receiving end, including those who insist they have little association with the PRC, the move is entirely understandable when seen from the point of view of the ethnic Chinese people seeking self-protection.
Yet, as the number of the Chinese people traveling abroad or emigrating continue to increase, to simply dissociate from the PRC is becoming more and more difficult. As tourists, clients, business partners, investors, or just neighbors, PRC nationals will come in contact with more and more locals, ethnic Chinese or otherwise, in ever greater numbers. And for new migrants who have migrated from the PRC within their lifetimes, it is simply impossible to deny genuine connections with the PRC, whether they are social, political, or economic.
So the question is how Chinese people abroad can alleviate some of the negative impression that they personally face from association with the PRC. Unfortunately, some of the root causes of the negative impression, such as low education levels of some PRC nationals, aggressive behaviors of the PRC government, and the country's all-too-common culture of flouting laws and social norms, are not something one can alter at an individual level. One can spend months and years educating a foreign audience about the "real" China, but all the resulting goodwill will quickly come to naught when the next negative news about China rolls around.
A better tactic for an individual Chinese to take some of the burden associated with the "PRC liability" is to behave deliberately against the existing negative stereotypes of what people see as a "normal" PRC national. Be extra polite in public, attentive to local rules and laws, willing to socialize outside the closed PRC community, and above all, openly question some of the wisdom behind questionable policies coming out of the PRC government. If the Chinese are perceived as rude, blindly approving of the PRC government, and incapable of holding a meaningful conversation with anyone who is not Chinese, then it makes sense for the individual Chinese to try the hardest possible to prove such perception wrong at a personal level.
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