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Are Chinese more favourable towards Americans or Japanese?

Are Chinese more favourable towards Americans or Japanese?

  • Americans

    Votes: 29 64.4%
  • Japanese

    Votes: 16 35.6%

  • Total voters
    45
It is hard to say. There are still many Chinese who are angry at Japan because of history. At the same time, there are forward-looking Chinese who puts Japan and history behind them and wonder about the future and how to co-exist with America.
 
I think there is a lack of communication between Japan and China. For most Chinese people, they don't know anyone from Japan. Their only impression about their neighbour is such as the brutal but stupid military officer with a little moustache in movies about the WW2 (made-in-China). Not like USA, though it's much further away, modern Japan remains mysterious to most of ordinary Chinese (sorry, but maybe except the Japanese porno films to the young Chinese).
And the main reason that Chinese knows more about and thus are more favourable towards Americans is the POWER of USA. Its effects are everywhere. We learn English, listen to VOA, watch Hollywood movies, Friends etc. We don't know more about Peru than Japan, frankly.
So Chinese and Japanese people need more communication so that we can live together better.
 
Unless the Communist Party changes its policy and starts allowing freedom in the media, direct, personal interaction between the peoples of the two countries is the only hope.

But, even at this level, those who were educated in the mainland tend to be close-minded. So, change in education might be key.
 
If you remember the thread about Japanese and the rest of Asia, it's not only Chinese who need to stop being close-minded, in a friendship it takes two, at least. There's enough brainwashing in many countries against some other countries. Even Chinese media stopped calling America "Imperialist" but China is often called "Communist", even if a report has nothing to do with politics. Are American media objective towards China or Russia?
 
If you remember the thread about Japanese and the rest of Asia, it's not only Chinese who need to stop being close-minded, in a friendship it takes two, at least. There's enough brainwashing in many countries against some other countries. Even Chinese media stopped calling America "Imperialist" but China is often called "Communist", even if a report has nothing to do with politics. Are American media objective towards China or Russia?

I totally agree with your point. I was astonished by how NBC portrayed China during the Olympic Games. During the Opening Ceremony, the NBC commentator kept talking about political issues while athletes were marching. As an ordinary viewer who cares more about sports, NBC's politically colored coverage was annoying.
 
I think there is a lack of communication between Japan and China. For most Chinese people, they don't know anyone from Japan.
...
So Chinese and Japanese people need more communication so that we can live together better.
Ordinary people are the bridge. In this day and age, all the info is available through the internet, movies, books, magazines, private correspondence, etc. No reason for not knowing better your neigbours, if one wants to know them. :)
 
Ordinary people are the bridge. In this day and age, all the info is available through the internet, movies, books, magazines, private correspondence, etc. No reason for not knowing better your neigbours, if one wants to know them. :)

That is true, but it is also true that majority of Chinese people will not have Japanese as friends in near future. Also, the majority of Japanese people do not have American friends, but somehow they still love America.
 
Well, I'm Chinese, and from my view point, the younger generation tends to lean more to Japanese, while the older generation absolutely detest them (with what the NanKing massacre, WWII, what do you expect?).
Towards American culture, well, I'm not sure; i grew up in Canada, so it's always been there, no hype about it.

As for 'stop living in the past', well it's sort of hard, isn't it? My grandmother lived through the time when the Japanese came to Taiwan; she learned how to fire a gun and throw grenades from those times. My father, who grew up after the Japanese left, knows the hardship of what the country was going through.

Three generations later, the younger generation, namely, students my age, still know of their cruelty through our older family members. Perhaps we will move on when time moves on, and washes away all that blood still remains today.

NOTE: I didn't read the entire thread..
 
Other than WW2, I don't see why Chinese hate Japanese. The reason China don't really like China is the same as to why Russia doesn't like USA. Who doesn't want to be world No.1?!
 
In our country,most people would like to American rather than Japan.we are also have more advantage information for american.but Japan also is a good area to familiar with and learn.
 
I just wanna say,Chinese culture has a big effect on Japanese cluture,and I also wanna know what's so-called american culture?
 
I must say, I am surprised by the amount of hatred Chinese people show towards Japan. But I see that a lot of young Chinese people are watching Japanese anime, so it looks likes things are improving. Just recently a very anti-Japanese movie was released in China about the Rape of Nanking, and I do not think there was any public outcry about it. Saying very anti-Japanese things is considered quite acceptable in China.
 
I've had several run-ins with.....

Koreans who still hate the Japanse. At least three times when I've mentioned belonging to JREF and likeing Japan , young Koreans have gotten real angry with me.

Uncle Frank
 
Koreans who still hate the Japanse. At least three times when I've mentioned belonging to JREF and likeing Japan , young Koreans have gotten real angry with me.

Sorry to hear that, Frank. Where those online or face-to-face encounters?
 
Face to face .One was my Korean sister-in-law, LOL. I never could grasp the concept of hateing Japanese people of today based on the actions during WWII. I remember writing home while I was stationed in Japan about getting engaged to a Japanese woman. My dad wrote to me to say if I married her , don't bother returning home , I would not be his son anymore. He fought in the Pacific during WWII and hated Japanese.

Uncle Frank
 
My dad wrote to me to say if I married her , don't bother returning home , I would not be his son anymore.

Ouch! I hope, he changed his opinion later.

BTW, I did know several russian guys, who fought on far east during WWII ... I did not find such reaction here. May be because there were no real occupation of russian territory.
 
It's a blind, lazy, parroted hatred. Whenever I mention Japan to people here in Korea, there's a reflexive reaction of one kind or another, and it's usually pretty negative, as if they're programmed to throw it out there. The comment will usually be something along the lines of "Japanese are monkeys" or "Dokdo is a Korean island." Sometimes someone will say "oh! I know Japanese," and then recite words they heard from porno. If I ply them for a deeper reason, they are unable to go beyond Dokdo or the occupation. I've been told several times that the Japanese are unapologetic about the atrocities committed by past generations, as evidenced by their rewriting of history books. This is a deep-seated hatred that is embedded at a young age, and a lot of people are simply comfortable with this world view. It gives people a convenient scapegoat to fall back on when some local issue forces them to reflect on their own problems; turn on the rhetoric and hate the blame away.

Hatred of this nature is like an heirloom, it's hard and pointed at first, and passed on to a new generation. As time passes, people who were alive to experience the war and occupation first hand will die. As the hatred gets passed down, it dulls and becomes blunt, but it's still passed on for sentimental reasons, until those who receive it no longer know what it's for or how it came into their possession, but hold onto it nonetheless and convey it upon their children. It'll take a while, but eventually someone down the line will realize that it no longer serves any purpose and discard it.
 
gaijin, You know, each fith men in russia was killed during WWII. Most of them were not a fighters, but civilians who were killed without any reason. It is not a surprise, why russian people does not keep good feelings toward german people. More than 60 years passed, but some hatred is still here. I think that origin of korean's hatred could be similar. It is impossible to 'discard' that, just because it is not a matter of single persona, it is social.
 
There is also the small matter of Japan occupying Korea for about 35 years.....

That always seems to get overlooked for some reason, or people assume it was only during the war years. Especially Americans, who if they have any clue at all tend to think the war in Asia started on Dec. 7, 1941.
 
Hatred of this nature is like an heirloom, it's hard and pointed at first, and passed on to a new generation. As time passes, people who were alive to experience the war and occupation first hand will die. As the hatred gets passed down, it dulls and becomes blunt, but it's still passed on for sentimental reasons, until those who receive it no longer know what it's for or how it came into their possession, but hold onto it nonetheless and convey it upon their children. It'll take a while, but eventually someone down the line will realize that it no longer serves any purpose and discard it.

I totally concur. No matter whether it's China, Korea or Russia (to quote just a few examples mentioned in this thread,) it's most likely a generational phenomenon of not so deeply engrained aversion, not even blind hatred, as it's probably too superficial and knee-jerk. As much as I dislike consumerism, the crave for Japanese or German brands among young Chinese and Russians I witnessed convinced me that such principles are not carved in stone and more often than not just a lip service.

Time and human pragmatism heal almost all wounds.
 
As much as I dislike consumerism, the crave for Japanese or German brands among young Chinese and Russians I witnessed convinced me that such principles are not carved in stone and more often than not just a lip service.
That is only partial true. The same young russian guy will crave for German brands on public, and he will stab german tourist if he will meet him alone in dark place, just because he is a german. The terrible side of that is - that crime will be silently approved by society, note, I am not speaking here about authorities, but about ordinary civilians. That hatred is still exists.

Thomas, I know, it is hard to beleive, but consumerism, You described, could be another reason to hate. I did hear many times something like that: "We defeated them and they are living better than us! blah. blah. blah."

You right, time will heal ... but some consolidating job should be done to.
 
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