It is all about stereotypes. When people think of mainland Chinese, they would have this stereotypical image of a Chinese who talks loudly in public, spits everywhere and suffers from extreme poverty. I am a Chinese born and bred in mainland China and I know very well that not everyone is like that. In fact, many people are very courteous and well-behaved in public. One bitter experience with a Singaporean student in a local secondary school is constantly reminding me how detrimental stereotypes are in inter-cultural communications.
A few years ago, my mum bought me a very fancy limited edition Swatch watch in London. I loved it very much and wore it on the first day of school. During recess period, one classmate noticed my new watch and asked me to pass it to her so that she could take a closer look. I gladly agreed. How awesome it was for a teenager to show off her coolest watch! However, to my utter disbelief, she glanced at it, threw it back at me and then said light-heartedly in her perfect Singlish, “Is it real or not? Must be faked la… You Chinese all love to buy faked products…” What a heart attack! Why do people always hold those stereotypes against people of different backgrounds? I was speechless and silently watched her walk away. It was meaningless to talk more about it and prove her that my new watch is actually not faked.
Since then, I never spoke to her again because the scar was already there. I could forgive her now because I believe that everyone does some bad things during teenage years. The moral of this story is that we should never hold any negative stereotypes against people. This rule is crucial in inter-cultural communications. Very often, we match the stereotypes and people in a sub-conscious way. “Oh he is from China, so he must spit a lot.” “ He must be very poor because he is from a developing country.” “The litter must be thrown by him because he is from a third world country.” These stereotypes should be avoided by all means. Only then could we communicate with sincerity and respect.
