The SFU International Teacher Education Module China 2014

"An Innate Respect Despite the Chaos"

by Kyrsten Cunliffe and Sabrina Jahn

            When you think of the stereotypes of the Chinese often the idea that they are rude and inconsiderate is at the top of the list. However, after spending five days interacting with the Chinese we can safely say that these stereotypes are wrong. Not are they incredibly polite, but they are respectful of others, especially foreigners. They are always accommodating, almost to a fault. During our time in Beijing we have seen people demonstrate these qualities on several occasions. Two of which are how they interact in traffic and how they interact with us.

To start, when you are on the road in Beijing to outsiders it would seem like complete chaos but as you take a closer look you can see an order to that chaos. They seem to trust in their fellow drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. When an outsider would fear that they would be hit locals seem to have assurance that that won’t happen. We have yet to see an angry face or rude gesture when they cut each other off or go in the wrong direction. On one occasion we even observed a driver laugh as he waved a cyclist by after slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting her.

Secondly, our tour guide Oliver had previously suggested that if there were time in the day we would go to see the Olympic site. However, as the day went by it was apparent that there would be no time to spare yet he was not going to suggest cancelling that decision. The decision was left to us. He was going to respect his suggestion despite his personal opinion that it would not be feasible; reneging on a previous promise or suggestion is not acceptable to their culture. Respect is a fundamental aspect in Chinese culture and interactions. It has been a pleasant surprise to see how important respect and the accommodation of others, local or foreigner, is here in Beijing particularly in contrast to our lifetime experience in Vancouver.