Chinese virtue

Chapter 33
China is rich in mineral resources, and if exploited properly, China will become very rich.However, the mining of mineral deposits has been strongly questioned, so it is very difficult to open mines.The Chinese believe that there are "dragon veins" underground, and that officials and merchants will extract profits from the public funds allocated by the government. In the end, the mining operation cannot even take a step forward.It is obvious that the introduction of new things will make people's lives better.But it is often a doubt or a frown from an outsider that turns all these good things into nothing.The late Dr. Ni Weiss was severely hindered when he was cultivating foreign high-grade fruits for China in Zhifu District, Yantai City, Shandong Province. Although this fruit can make a lot of profits, there are still many doubts. Ni Weis Every time Dr. Si made a little progress, he tried his best to calm the suspicion of the people around him.If you were an impatient person, you would have given up long ago.If you want these voices of doubt to disappear, you must let these people see the benefits.Back then, China Customs conducted a series of investigations on silkworm farmers and tea farmers, but the motives were seriously suspected by this group of people.These people do not believe that the investigation is to increase production and revenue, but to raise taxes.China's skeptical attitude can best be described by a Dutch proverb, "The fox got into the goose pen and said good morning."

Having said so much, I think it is necessary for us to talk about the relationship between the "suspicious" character of the Chinese and foreigners.The Chinese are very distrustful of foreigners, which has been mentioned before.

They also have the notion that foreigners can easily do the most difficult things well.If a foreigner suddenly goes to a place that he seldom goes to during a walk, the Chinese will think that the foreigner may be looking at the feng shui here; when the foreigner looks at a river, the Chinese will be suspicious, Maybe there's gold at the bottom of the river.The Chinese believe that the eyes of foreigners can see through the ground and see the treasures in the earth.If a foreigner is helping the victims, the Chinese will feel that maybe he wants to take these victims away to do hard labor.It is because of the Chinese "feng shui" theory that foreigners cannot go to the city walls of China.The height of buildings built by foreigners in China has clear restrictions, just like the national borders.It seems that Chinese people lack the concept of natural unity.When referring to a mountainous area in Sichuan, Mr. Bedroux said: "Where poppies flourish, there must be rich coal mines underground." This is a very wise concept.Professor Pompel of the United States said that a high-ranking official in Beijing once said the same thing, and he used this sentence as a basis for opposing the rapid development of coal mines.Mr. Wen Xiang, a politician in the Qing Dynasty, once read the book "Tracing the Origin of the Dao of Heaven" by the American missionary Dr. Martin Martin. He believed that he could accept the scientific part of the book, but he did not like the "religious theory" that the earth revolves around the sun. agreed.

More and more foreigners are entering China, which is beyond what the Chinese people can accept at present.Baron Richthofen once rode a horse to travel in the fields and countryside. In the eyes of Sichuan people, such aimless behavior is simply what a desperado would do.Although with the increase of foreigners, the Chinese already know foreigners very well, but when they first come into contact with foreigners, they will feel an indescribable sense of fear.Therefore, Chinese women are told that as long as they enter a foreigner's residence, they will be controlled by the foreigner's spell.If you go to a foreigner's home, never look in the mirror or step on the threshold, otherwise it will be dangerous.

A few years ago, a young Chinese scholar came from the inland of China and came to my home to teach a foreigner who just came to China Chinese, because he has never been to a foreigner in his hometown, so he has nothing to do with foreigners. Impression, it seems a bit difficult to communicate.In the end, the scholar stayed in that person's house for a few weeks, reasoning that his mother needed to be taken care of, and then returned home.

Before he left, he promised me that he would come back someday, but he hasn't seen the scholar until now.During the period of staying at my friend's house, this "smart" scholar never ate or drank anything, for fear of swallowing some ecstasy.Once the scholar wanted to write a letter home to his mother. A teacher gave him a foreign envelope out of kindness and told him that it was very convenient to seal it by licking it wet.As a result, he became very nervous, reasoned that he was not good at doing this, and pushed the "trouble" in his hand to the teacher who gave him the envelope.

The Chinese do not accept Chinese books printed by foreigners. They think that there is poison in the books, and this poison is like the famous "sweat medicine" in the novel. In fact, it is just the smell of ink.It was even rumored that anyone who read a book printed by a foreigner would become a foreigner's slave.The cause of these phenomena is still "suspicion".We once heard of a very unusual young man who read a printed booklet, but threw it away in fear after reading the beginning, and told his friends that if anyone told a lie after reading it, he would will go to hell!Sometimes, publications donated by religions are not accepted. This is not because people are against the content of the books, but because Chinese people generally believe that book givers will blackmail them in the name of sending books.

If foreigners want to remember the names of some children, it will arouse people's suspicion and cause confusion. Once such a thing happened, a school was dissolved.When the Roman pinyin in Chinese characters was introduced, it was strongly questioned and rejected by the older generation.These older generations believe that Chinese characters are perfect and good for future generations, but none of the family members can understand the characters taught by foreign teachers.Even the ancestors didn't know who these belonged to.No matter what foreigners invent, they are definitely not as good as Chinese characters.No matter what foreigners think, they will be rejected, and no matter what foreigners do, they will be rejected.The reason is simple, because these things belong to "foreigners".

This kind of "obedience but not obedience" character of the Chinese will make your Chinese friend tell you with the most gentle and firm words that your proposal makes him very much agree.However, he is not ready to accept your proposal.

Foreigners will use "sarcasm" as a weapon, but Chinese will not.Foreigners do not treat Chinese people with different emotions according to their wishes or needs.There was a foreigner who was very angry at the servant's mistake, so he called the servant "liar" in English.

The servant asked a lady who is very good at Chinese, what does this sentence mean.When he understood the meaning of the English expression, the servant said that his heart was "severely wounded."Some Chinese officials had read "Aesop's Fables" translated by Robert Dan, and they were as shocked as this servant.They thought of the hidden meaning behind those talking tigers, foxes, geese and lions, so they banned such books to prevent future troubles.

In hospitals in various cities, we can find many examples of Chinese people not trusting foreigners.Although the medical skills and kindness of foreign doctors have also been recognized by some people, there are still many patients who do not trust foreign doctors very much. They believe in rumors that foreign doctors' medicines are made with human eyes and hearts, and foreign doctors still do not trust them. People will be cut into pieces, and they will hide Chinese children and do terrible experiments.Without careful questioning, it is difficult to know what these patients think.Although after one or two years, the Chinese also know the benefits of Western hospitals, but there will still be some nasty rumors spreading around like bacteria.

In the history of foreigners interacting with Chinese, the Chinese left the impression of being "suspicious" and "shirking" to foreigners. Of course, foreigners also have many shortcomings.

It's disturbing to think about this history, but the diplomats never realized their mistake.In China, everyone shows an unparalleled gift for diplomacy, and these things the Chinese can do very well.The following example can fully demonstrate this point of view: A foreigner wanted to rent some residential houses in a certain city in China, but the local officials found many reasons to refuse.During a meeting, the foreigner brought a lot of writing utensils and changed into a Chinese attire.During the conversation, the foreigner slowly opened the stationery bag and took out the paper, checked whether there was ink in the pen, and his expression was very focused.The Chinese watched him with interest and asked, "What are you doing?" The foreigner said, "It's just tidying up the writing supplies." The Chinese official asked again, "What are these writing supplies used for?" The foreigner replied: "Write down your answer." As a result, the Chinese official hurriedly stopped the foreigner's actions and said, "Don't write it down, I can meet your request." But we were very puzzled. When this record was mentioned next time, Will the Chinese admit that what is in the record is what he said.

There are a lot of rumors in China, so people are often panicked.A few years ago, there was a report from a Chinese living in Singapore that laborers were determined not to take a certain road after dark because there was a mysterious killer who would chop off their heads without anyone noticing.Maybe the Chinese will continue to be afraid like this, just like the Parisians during the French Revolution in 1789.

Because of the endless "credulity" and "suspicion" this vast country is full of rumors.

When these suspicions and credulities are attributed to foreigners, they must be clarified immediately, because they have had a terrible experience.If officials from all over the country could handle it seriously, the matter would not be so serious.But if it is allowed to spread and turned a blind eye, it will be as tragic as the Tianjin massacre that year.There is almost no province in China without rumors, because Chinese folk customs and some special environments are very conducive to the spread of rumors.If you want to completely eliminate the rumors, you need to speed up your pace, buy time, and then use the most irrefutable examples to convince the Chinese people that foreigners are very frank with Chinese people and have no malicious intentions.Once the Chinese people have trust, the dream of "all brothers within the four seas" will not be far away from us.

(End of this chapter)