Cryptic Culture: Crazy Things Foreigners Ask the Chinese

Patrick Li | Dec 8, 2014 4:50 pm | Add a comment | 3558 reads

While foreign readers of the Beijinger are no doubt familiar with a range of wacky questions Chinese ask them, this stereotype has been turned on its head recently by TMD/Monkey Kingz China, a digital ad agency and group of viral videomakers based in Shanghai. The crew, who are no strangers to tackling cultural differences between Westerners and Chinese have another bonafide hit on their hands, this time compiling the things laowai ask that their Chinese counterparts are likely to have heard or are beyond tired of hearing (if they are unfortunate enough to be surrounded by a bunch of nescient individuals).

First of all: no, I don't do Kung Fu and no we're not posting this to start a race war – we just want you to know what has your Chinese friends and colleagues giggling incessantly recently.

And yeah, it's great for both foreigners and Chinese to take a look in the mirror sometimes to develop a little more cross-cultural self-awareness.

For instance while you can't deny that some Chinese people choose crazy English names for themselves such as Bicycle, Lucifer, or Bison, choosing stupid foreign names for ourselves seems to be a universal human trait rather than something exclusive to the Chinese.

Here are some of the highlights from the English-language video followed a few stupid questions we've been asked as well:

"Why do Chinese people have crazy English names? My name is Li Mubai" (name of the main character of Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ... to a Chinese person, this is like running across a Chinese person who has chosen the name Gandalf or Skywalker).