Next Gen Journal

By Xinyi Yang

As a Chinese citizen, I’d bet that a great portion of us believe that New York is only a big and much developed city in the US. Not until two or three years ago did I come to understand that “New York” can also be interpreted as a state, not only a city. Despite small mistakes like this, one thing is clear: no Chinese treat the U.S. as China’s enemy, but instead as a very nice competitor known for both freedom and culture diversity.

Xinyi Yang in China

Most Chinese perceive America as a country of freedom. The concept is that there are very few restraints on Americans. Unlike Chinese, Americans have a lot of freedom to choose what they like. In China there are a great portion of students who are truly good at certain sports or musical instruments. Yet they learn to play them because their parents ask them to do so; some of them may actually hate to do what they are capable of. However, Americans don’t necessarily need to follow their parent’s demands or select a profitable major that they don’t really like.

My American friends seem to be able to study whatever they like at school, which to us is almost an unachievable thing, unless one likes all the subjects. Moreover, censorship is comparatively serious here in China, at least we think it is. For example, we always hear in America people are free to say anything, even about politics. People are allowed to criticize whatever they think is wrong. Although we won’t be punished for commenting on governments, it is still rare to see Chinese talking about our leaders.

America is made to be a cross-cultural place. We used to think racial discrimination would be a great problem in America, that we Asians, especially Chinese, would be seriously separated. Luckily, however, we’ve already changed our minds: America is a friendly nation. I could still remember when I was small, seeing a foreigner walking on Beijing’s streets was just like confronting an alien. Yet right now almost all Beijing students have English classes taught by Americans or Canadians. We no longer think that every American hate Chinese people; I’ve met some really nice Americans at school as well as when traveling to the US.

Just to take myself as an example: this summer I went to the University of Notre Dame and had a chance to meet some really nice peers. At first I thought I might be isolated because I was the only Chinese citizen among the 40 people, but actually I made some very good friends, and to my surprise, some of them were interested in Chinese culture. Almost all Chinese who have been to the US said that, unlike what they previously thought, Americans are extremely kind and it just feels like home.

The only thing that may upset us is that Americans have so much outdated or inaccurate information about China. I do believe there is a great portion of Americans who think we don’t even have Coca-Cola in China. Even my American friends once asked if I had gone bowling before coming to America. My answer to all these questions is yes, we have everything in China, and you can find whatever you desire in China.

Moreover, some Americans hold inaccurate perspectives about China’s politics, which sometimes annoy Chinese a lot. What we heard was that the news sources of most Americans were biased, directly leading people to form inaccurate impressions about China. We can’t say ours news is totally unbiased either, but by learning both perspectives, the previously biased ideas would certainly be neutralized. I believe as globalization progresses, the western world as a whole will be able to gain a better understanding about China.

Our information about America may not be fully accurate either. Maybe the US in our eyes is not as it actually is, but according to what we know already, the US is a great friend who we’ll always associate with.

Xinyi Yang is a NGJ Contributor and a 17-year-old student in Beijing, China.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.