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8 things the Chinese are not supposed to ask foreigners
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Posters are appearing around Beijing guiding locals about how to interact with the (few) foreigners coming for the Summer Games.
The posters instruct residents on the “eight don’t asks” when chatting with foreign guests. Here’s a rough translation, courtesy of the Peaceful Rise blog:
What do you think of this post?Don’t ask about income or expenses, don’t ask about age, don’t ask about love life or marriage, don’t ask about health, don’t ask about someone’s home or address, don’t ask about personal experience, don’t ask about religious beliefs or political views, don’t ask what someone does.
So what is one to ask?
Now, for the foreigners out there, here’s the No. 1 dud question to ask a Chinese person. It’s a question that will draw a blank, non-comprehending stare:
“Hey, pal, tell me about your president. Is he doing a good job?”
*The title of this post has been moderated because it was confusing and didn’t reflect the contents accurately*Ayako
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July 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Hmmm I’m not sure if that was to tell the people what not to ask an American about? Because it has been my experience (and I was there for four years) that they pretty much ask you about all of that. Especially the love life and the salary questions. The political not so much because there is only one party there, but they were usually very curious about what I thought about MY president. I think maybe this was either them trying to be polite by figuring out what they perceive foreigners to not like or it was written by a foreigner, who was interpreting his own ideas of the culture by imagining what Chinese might not want to talk about. This isn’t accurate at all.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I guess I’ll ask them about food, school, Chinese art & canto pop songs, lol…
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July 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I think you meant to say that the questions are geared towards foreigners? At least that’s what the link says, and not the other way round as you have mentioned.
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“Eight Don’t-Asks” When Chatting with Foreign Guests
Don’t ask about income or expenses, don’t ask about age, don’t ask about love life or marriage, don’t ask about health, don’t ask about someone’s home or address, don’t ask about personal experience, don’t ask about religious beliefs or political views, don’t ask what someone does.
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I did find it odd at first that you mentioned that these questions shouldn’t be asked to the Chinese people because honestly (besides politics and religious beliefs) Chinese people like to talk about all of the above. Now it makes more sense these questions are geared towards foreigners.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
The “don’t ask” questions are those things that the government is asking the Chinese to not question Foreign Guests about in prep for the Olympics.
At least this is according to the person who says that the list was his translation of billboards that he has seen.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Ok - that makes more sense - if its what Chinese shouldn’t ask foreigners. I thought that was odd.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
HAHAHAAHA this is the funniest thing ever…
but um i dunt think foreigners hate all of the questions mentioned…do they?
However that last question is a definite NO!!
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July 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Number one question to NEVER ask:
“Hey, are you Japanese?”
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July 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
As a moderator: I’ve modified the title as it was just confusing everyone.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Hmm.. I think it’s just the gov’t trying to keep the locals from scaring away foreigners by asking too many questions.. I’m not surprised. I personally don’t mind them asking random questions but i’m sure there are people that would much rather not deal with it.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 6:31 am
One link to this story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcb_china/20080722/wl_mcb_china/theeightdontasksoftheolympics
I think that how people would react to these questions would depend upon their own cultural orientation and views about being asked these kinds of questions.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Something that should be added to the list is asking people “Why are your boobs so big?” and “Why are your palms white?” (Questions I have been asked by Chinese people…)
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July 23rd, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Doreen: LOL…indeed, but they can’t put those in an official list that’s going to be publicly available. Just goes to show how useless ‘official guidelines’ are!
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