I understand that this is not one of the more pertinent issues in Western countries in general because Chinese people are a disenfranchised ethnic minority there. However, I was a native in Mainland China, and unfortunately, I grew up around a lot of these people. They are also very well-known in the country I am currently living in. In my experience, these beliefs are definitely *not very* uncommon among Chinese expats and tourists to other countries. I'm curious about how many people with such beliefs (Chinese or not) you have encountered where you live, or if you're aware that such a group exists at all.
Big disclaimer that many Chinese people are NOT like this so please don't assume that any Chinese person automatically believe these things. But views I consider Chinese supremacist include:
- Chinese people are inherently/genetically superior, including being inherently more intelligent, hardworking, and honest/"simple in character" than other ethnicities... these people see different ethnicities like how most people see different breeds of dogs
- The whole thing about the "body odor gene" (even though everyone would smell bad after sweating and poor hygiene)
- There was this bullshit hypothesis that Chinese/East Asian people did not descend from Africans unlike everyone else, the scientist who came up with it has proven it wrong himself yet it was portrayed as fact in a Chinese museum I visited in the past 3 years
- Chinese society is not full of evil and corruption unlike other societies
- Chinese people are less prone to mental health issues because of resilience or some shit (lol I wish)
- Chinese culture is much more civilized and sophisticated than any other culture
- This includes the Chinese language, and languages like Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese are basically dumbed down Chinese "dialects"
- Chinese people basically invented everything important, not people from other cultures
- Traditional Chinese medicine is true wisdom and actually sophisticated while Western medicine is primitive bullshit
- There is nothing impressive to see in any countries outside of China---every time they encounter something impressive in other countries, they react with "we have that in China" (or more commonly, "we have that but better in China").
These views are not a super new thing that only arised in the past few years, I have heard these views a lot growing up in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
I understand that these people are usually not intentionally malicious, but their views are problematic nonetheless. In Singapore (a common destination for Chinese tourists and expats), we encounter them online and sometimes in real life relatively often, and locals (and Chinese immigrants with more realistic views too) are rightfully sick of them. They complain about how Singapore (a completely separate, multicultural country) is not more like China, hate on other local ethnicities here (characterizing them as lazy, horrible people, or both), hate on local Chinese who are not good at the Chinese language for "abandoning their cultural roots", and call Singapore "slope county" (implying that it's basically an insignificant county in China).
I do not intend to sow any discord or further any agenda on hating/disliking Chinese people. I just wonder how much people in various countries, especially those who are not involved in Chinese (ethnic/nationality/language) communities, are aware of people with such views or have interacted with them. After all, many Chinese expats with these views just don't end up learning the language of the country they stay in very well or trying to integrate into local communities. Feel free to share about any other group that may have comparable views to these people too.
