Honestly, probably Americans.
Japanese girl's opinion on Jews
- Thread starter Michael
- Start date
Honestly, probably Americans.
Yes, it does. The two issues have a massive set of differences though, to be fair (to both the Tibetans and Palestinians). It is very difficult to compare their causes, backgrounds, current situations or plausible solutions. As soon as one moves beyond the level of thinking simply about "national sovereignty" (which in China means Chinese sovereignty; for white supporters or Tibet means Tibetan sovereignty) there are far more differences than similarities.
Supporters of Palestinian rights, independence and sovereignty would be encouraged to shy away from Tibet as a 'brother-in-arms' of any sort, in my opinion. Tibet would not be best served by full independence and very few actual Tibetans have come out to say that's what they want; on the other hand, a great many have called for greater autonomy. If Tibet did become independent it's economy would suffer massively and it would probably spend decades trying to reach the stage of having even basic medical support or education. Palestine, on the other hand, would fare better economically as an independent country than in it's current state.
If one chooses to be an ideologue or simpleton, the comparison is nice. If one wishes to be anything other than completely naive and uneducated, it's a poor way to start.
Bingo. Well, God chose them to succeed in being holy. Being human, they inevitably fail at times, and must suffer.
I think you'll have a hard time explaining anything Abrahamic to someone raised in Asia. The Christians in China (including ethnic Chinese) famously say that China is a "people without any concept, understanding or connection to god". China does have some of the great mystics of all time, however, and the landscape of the countryside makes it easy to understand how mysticism could develop. That said, nowadays most non-farmers in China don't really experience the countryside and in general they seem to have lost that mystic slant. As I've ranted about before, one only need see a Daoist procession to understand how thoroughly the Chinese are capable of bastardizing spirituality and philosophy.
Abrahamic faith with it's notions of legalism, personal connection and responsibility*, and virtuous mercy would all be foreign to most Asian philosophies. Communicating any real understanding of these faiths would take a long time.
*Foreigners and Chinese who love China are right to point out that China's (and most of Asia's) culture takes a more social view of a person and therefore people grow up less concerned with their own thoughts, opinions, needs and desires. If an elder tells you to do something, you do it. No matter if it hurts you or helps you, is evil or good, you do it. This is, I guess, positive in the sense that it may help avoid the selfishness that comes with individuality (I don't think this is true in modern China, but perhaps in old China). Yet the counterpart to this is that Chinese education involves almost no notion of personal responsibility. There is no idea of community service, charity or aid.
I can't answer for Japan, but the Chinese are significantly more ignorant than the Americans. (NB I'm Canadian, so I don't have any personal attachment to either side!) Americans can generally tell you what's in the news, if not necessarily name foreign world leaders, capitals or even locations on a map. The Chinese would be taking a massive step upward if they were even aware of the news in their own country, let alone outside it's borders!
A student of mine tonight summed up Chinese news programs:
0 - 10 minutes - Look at how much better life is now than 20 years ago!
10 - 20 minutes - Isn't the Party fantastic??
20 - 30 minutes - Look at how bad every other country is!
Carcano
Valued Senior Member
She probably thinks even less of other non-Japanese Asians.OK, I was talking to a Japanese girl - her English isn't all that great. Some how we got to talking about all the different religions and I was asking her some question about what she thinks (she's a Buddhist).
To make a long story short when I asked her about Muslims she said: Unn really nice.
At some point I said what about Jews.
And get this: She said: I don't like them.
Japanese generally wont discuss their prejudices with westerners.
Asians in NZ tend to think of the Maoris and Islanders (of whatever ilk) as what they term ' criminal races' ie, people they don't have anything to do with unless they have to, and people to whom they almost certainly wouldn't marry off their kids. For example, there's a by-election shortly in the MT Albert electorate in Auckland. There's a big kerfuffle in Mt Albert at the moment because there's a major road-and-tunnel scheme which will cutting through the suburb, and rubbing out 200+ houses. Melissa Lee, the National candidate (who's Korean) said in one of her speeches that the scheme was good for the area because the new road would funnel away the 'crminals' of South Auckland (which is mostly Islander-Maori populated) so they wouldn't be stopping in Mt Albert, but just passing through. She's been backpedalling and apologising ever since...
There's clear distinctions in what is taught in American schools vs. Japanese schools, which makes it difficult to compare them overall. The Japanese schooling system does not teach as much about the world in general as opposed to American schools.
Interestingly, all of her friends are Korean and Chinese. But, yeah, that's a common stereotype. Something my Chinese friends like to point out - often. The they usually go on and on about how Japan was a backwards nothing, can invent anything, only steals everyone elses ideas and only became civilized thanks to China. To which I usually say, haaa! Funny from a guy wearing Western blue jeans/T-shirt, using Western computers, cars, electricity, planes, buildings, etc and a political system inventing in Europe
The Chinese are more proud and arrogant than I imagined a people could be. They've convinced themselves that China is the only nation on earth with regional food; apparently all of France, Germany, America, Slovakia, Poland and Spain eat exactly the same cuisine every day. As one student put it so bluntly "foreigners just eat to get fat, they don't care about the taste, colour or presentation of their food." Probably the most offensive thing you can say in all of China is "the food is okay, nothing special."
In China it goes further beyond just China above all else; they have domestic racism too. I happen to prefer food from Sichuan and other western provinces, including Tibet and Yunnan. Anytime I say that I find Tibetan and Yunnan (ethnic minority) food better than Han Chinese food I'm guaranteed a 20 minute speech on how backwater, impoverished and pathetic the ethnic minorities are. When talking about crime, the inevitable response is "that's something only the muslims and other minorities do". The Han Chinese are openly and proudly racist. Even the young, well-educated among them are the same. I had a class with some very, very smart and accomplished teenagers recently - all of whom I get along very well with - and we were watching a movie and then acting out a scene. We couldn't do it... none of my students would agree to role-play being a black person.
In a complete role-reversal, the elderly seem to be much less racist than the young. Perhaps because they grew up in sincere socialist times when everyone was supposed to be equal. Whereas the young will confidently say (read: repeat what their teacher's say) that China must find it's own system - Socialism with Chinese Characteristics - and that western ideas of democracy could not work in China, the elderly laugh at such nonsense. As one 60+ year old friend of mine put it: "do I use a Lightbulb with Chinese Characteristics or a lightbulb? Why can we learn every other aspect of life from you except for this one?"
Yeah, but the Chinese I know, while extremely nationalistic, are usually reasonable. I mean, you can make sense to them, challenge their ideas, and they will sometimes change their opinion - if you make the case anyway.
RE: J-girl
So I asked her what she thought of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Firstly, she said, she didn't really care much about it, not as much as say NK. It's not part of her culture, history and frankly Japanese don't really care. But, when pressed. She said just because Jews used to live there a LONG LONG LONG time ago does not make it fair that they can move there now. And the whole idea of claiming the land as theirs is racist. And people who are good at making a lot of money are usually deceptive in going about making it.
Now, all this makes me wonder, ARE these the SAME stereotypes of Jews in the West? Why would a Japanese from Kobe, have such similar views?
RE: J-girl
So I asked her what she thought of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Firstly, she said, she didn't really care much about it, not as much as say NK. It's not part of her culture, history and frankly Japanese don't really care. But, when pressed. She said just because Jews used to live there a LONG LONG LONG time ago does not make it fair that they can move there now. And the whole idea of claiming the land as theirs is racist. And people who are good at making a lot of money are usually deceptive in going about making it.
Now, all this makes me wonder, ARE these the SAME stereotypes of Jews in the West? Why would a Japanese from Kobe, have such similar views?
You've had a different experience than I have. There are some small number of people who are capable of changing, but they're usually the younger ones and these folk are much more volatile and likely to agree with you only out of fashion.
The older generation already know most of the facts surrounding the 'sensitive topics' like Tiananmen. Some of them are more angry about these issues than either you or I, and some know the facts and still support the government 100%. Either way, you're not going to change their mind.
The young people split into three camps. Those who will change because they want to be more western, those who are fiercely nationalistic in a sense that I can only imagine existing in Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, and those who truly don't give a shit. The majority fall into the second and third camps. The first camp is essentially as superficial and unappealing as the second. What you have to understand is that in China there isn't really many people with a mature understanding or opinion on domestic or international events, policies, etc. The nationalist camp will buy every piece of propaganda handed to them because it fits their view. The anti-nationalist camp will buy anything they hear bad about China because it fits their view. There is very, very little middle ground and no one who has studied any issue in depth at all.
It's not their fault. The newspaper today had 4 pages on police work, 2 pages on new national policies for development, two pages on successful development programs, one page on swine flu, two pages on beauty tips for women, two pages on love stories from readers and three pages of advertisement. When this is your daily news intake, how on earth are you supposed to have any kind of grasp of the world?
I asked her about Muslims she said: Unn really nice.
At some point I said what about Jews.
And get this: She said: I don't like them.
Oil is very important to Japan.
oh true
Whale oil?
You know, it's funny how pissed off Japanese get about the anti-whaling groups in The USA and Au. They get seriously offended. Often I hear them complaining about Westerners sticking their noses into Japan's business. Oh, and why do Americans think it's OK to eat Cows? Don't cows have feelings?!?! And australians eat kangaroos! Aren't they cute!?!
It's kind of funny because Japanese just can't help but get their hairs standing up. It's a small window into the human condition when even the vegetarians get offended and pissy (as they should naturally side with anti-whalers.. shouldn't they?)
You know, it's funny how pissed off Japanese get about the anti-whaling groups in The USA and Au. They get seriously offended. Often I hear them complaining about Westerners sticking their noses into Japan's business. Oh, and why do Americans think it's OK to eat Cows? Don't cows have feelings?!?! And australians eat kangaroos! Aren't they cute!?!
It's kind of funny because Japanese just can't help but get their hairs standing up. It's a small window into the human condition when even the vegetarians get offended and pissy (as they should naturally side with anti-whalers.. shouldn't they?)
Having little contact with such cultures, they get their ideas from western media. (My brother is married to a Japanese woman, so they aren't all so biased).
That's western media.
I'd like to add 3 comments;
1. I think that there may be bad attitudes on the Japanese side, as homogenized Islanders they are notorious xenophobes, even to their near relatives, I read 2 articles about the 1000's of Brazilian Japanese that had returned to Japan during the economic boom times & ended up in the worst jobs, then when the recession hit, no jobs
2. also they are more self-centeredly obsessed with their Western Japanese technoculture, they like new tech I remember reading something about a girl that had written a novel one chapter at a time while texting on the subway
3. they're better at entering foreign markets than we are, they use American talent/leadership to import products that they send here while we don't to such a good job
I heard that we used to send cars there that had the steering wheel on the left, while they drive on the right, they hire the best American marketing firms to brand their products, use American knowhow to get advantages, cars being the prime example
16 pages only? no sports, no business news? no world events?
dang, communist control is almost complete, no wonder they want censorship on the internet