Map Reveals What Chinese People Think About Different European Countries, And It May Offend You
All of us have heard a stereotype or two about our own countries, and it’s no secret that we’ve heard some stereotypes about other countries too. Some of them are positive, for example, Belgians have incredible waffles, and Germans have the best beer or that Switzerland makes the best chocolate (did we mention the pizzas in Italy?). But you can never know what somebody thinks about your country when they live far away and they don’t have any direct contact with your culture.
So, in China if you want to know what your country is known for, you can take a look at this map that displays the most-commonly googled questions about European countries, and some of them are not very nice. From Lithuania being suicidal to Italians being weak, this map shows a very weird approach to European culture and history, and we definitely don’t agree with it!
Scroll down and see it for yourself!
(h/t FP)
Recently, a map showing China’s stereotypes of Europe has surfed the Internet
It shows the most commonly googled questions about European countries in China, and it’s not only weird, it is also a bit offensive
It says that France is mainly known for having “so many black people” and it questions why Spain hasn’t “annexed Portugal” yet
Other parts are just totally weird, for example, Bulgaria is known for its “milk-induced longevity”, and Italy is simply called “weak”
Scotland, Nothern Ireland, and Ireland are mainly known for their political statuses
And some of it is just plainly random, like questioning why Belarus is named Belarus
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Share on FacebookI don't believe that this is really what Chinese find out about Europe.
I think that the same result we could get if we make some chart from Google research in any country...
Load More Replies...As a chinese, I share same response with u. What the f**k? Actually, we will think of Vikings and Myth of North Europe When heard of Norway.
Load More Replies...I think the only true statement a Chinese would really think is that we Dutch people are very tall.
As a Dutch person I can testify to that. (at least concerning most Dutch people, I'm too short for them, they didn't even allow me on photo's with my tall mother when I visited Beijing)
Load More Replies...Haha, I am from the country they have the only really positive association with (apart from Ukraine). And they are right, we are tall. Except me. I love to buy Chinese trash though so I should move to Sweden.
This does NOT mean that this is what Chinese people THINK of those nations.
I don't care but, they're right on italy, and I say that as an italian
As one member of G8, Italy not be taken as "weak" by Chinese. In Baidu, the top questions are "Why is alitalia not available at ctrip?" "Why are there so many thieves in Italy?""Why is the netspeed in Italy so slow?""Why are Italian web pages always wrong?" And don't mind these questions cos Baidu works not that good. 2018-03-22...e55244.jpg
Load More Replies...The Switzerland one is a complete cliche and does not always apply. Its like saying all Canadians are super nice.
Pfff! I live in China and anytime I say I'm from Ireland they say it's a beautiful country. Not many that I can remember ever brought up it's political situation.
I've met plenty of Chinese people, they are so nice and most of them have a great sense of humor. However, when it comes to politics.... Not bringing it up seems to be more out of manners than out of thought. But then, again, everyone's different.
Load More Replies...This should just be a fun article and not taken seriously. If you conduct the same survey with US, you would get worse comments and probably a blank of most countries. Most of Chinese have not been outside the country and hence they can only form opinions from what they see or hear on TV as compared to the many readers here.
I lived in China for 4 years and pretty much they know westerns differences just as much as we know about Asian countries. People mostly can't even point Germany in a map just like most of westerns can't point out where south and North Korea or Mongolia are
"milk-induced longevity" I'm cackling! As far as I know we Bulgarians aren't the among the Europeans with highest longevity though.
Hahahaha I think I know the reason behind this one. We have a yogurt brand claiming they use bacteria culture from somewhere in Bulgaria. And they claim people there live a long life because they drink yogurt w/ same type of bacteria culture all their life.
Load More Replies...The spain one is really offensive to us portuguese... I hate it when people just assume we are part of Spain or that we don't exist. We won the Euro that means that Portugal is the king of Europe! :)
Meh. Lots of them like France's "So many black people" or Germany's "Killed Jews" are simply observations, they aren't offensive. Huge difference. SJW's will have a field day though. As a Canadian I think the "annex Portugal" is funny because people say the same thing about America and Canada. Stop being so sensitive. Also, you don't get to be both butthurt AND say "Portugal is the king of Europe".
Load More Replies...Not sure either, but to me the meaning sounds like "white Russia" (bela / bijela = white). It might be because of its landscape in winter, but who knows....
Load More Replies...Well, as Polish man I can't agree. I never had bad thought about China and personally I don't know anyone who hates China. Why should we hate them? If they think so, they are in great mistake.
At least they don't call Portugal, Spain like some other more "developed" and less cultured countries
The effects of any countries propaganda to their own people to create a bias against any other. Growing up in my country I learned a lot of things that may or may not have been true about other countries and their people. We all have a lot more in common than we have that is different.
As a Chinese (now in Sweden) , to be honest , we don't even talk about some of these countries , like Lithuania or Bulgaria ... it's more likely that people suddenly saw some reports or articles about a certain aspect of some countries, then they searched for it, and this is the reason why it's so weird.
Some are real, like questions about Ukraine, Netherlands and Scotland. Yes those are the first response. Some are half-real, like questions about Poland and Turkey. Turkey is anti-China, but to us Chinese she is one of best tour destination. Poland is famous for poland ball. Some are totally wrong. Especially Italy, Denmark and Czech Republic. P.S. Let's focus on question about Russia. There is a translation error. 战斗民族 is not "like to fight", but "not dare to fight and good at fighting ".
How to edit? Sorry it should be "dare to fight and good at fighting".
Load More Replies...Gotta love the fact that England isn't even listed under its own name, just lumped under the United Kingdom yet Scotland and Northern Ireland are there in their own right .
"Other parts are just totally weird, for example, Bulgaria is known for its “milk-induced longevity” What's so weird about it? Bulgaria is famous for its yogurt.
i have to admit some of these make me want to laugh at the pure bluntness of the thoughts even if they aren't a actual general belief. i mean really. "sweden: imports trash, Switzerland: neutral, Finland: good english, Russia: likes to fight" Maybe its just a sick sense of humor but it gives me a chuckle before i think about the implications of these.
I guess it's Faroe Islands. Even though this thing, that's not the question we search about Denmark. When Denmark mentioned, “rich” and “Andersen” will be the first words hitting Chinese minds.
Load More Replies...As a Bulgarian one I can say that we are the only ones that have milk and we are saying it ,,kiselo mliako" "kiselo" is soured, and "mliako" milk, the other countries have yogurt, not milk like we have, the milk you have is just like water like consistency, but like consistency in Bulgaria is like your yogurt but is with no fake taste, so you need to stop saying it so NEGATIVE, actually is so good at taste.
POLAND DOES NOT HATE CHINA, I HAVE 20 CHINESE FREINDS AND MY PARENTS DO TOO THATS SOME BS
Still a nice way to show a positive counter position 😀😀😀
Load More Replies...I'm super confused. Why do we need an article on it? It does show what others think of Europeans though
Well, let's be fair, when Italy was pressured in both ww1&2 it switched sides just like that! That is what I call weak! Pick a side and stay with it!
Nope. When you have fascism, you better get rid of it. Greetings from a half-Italian. ♥
Load More Replies...Mangopirtelo a, Finland is rare country because we have mandatory lessons for 2 foreign languages at school, called A language and B language. A languge (which is the first foreign language we start to learn) is usually English and B language (a language that we start to learn some years later) is usually Swedish (or Finnish if you are not a native Finnish speaker). You have to learn to speak Swedish if you speak Finnish or Finnish if you speak Swedish because both are official languages in Finland, so you have either Swedish or Finnish as A or B language. The other language is optional, most people choose English, Russian, German, French or Spanish. There is also usually option to choose the third language, the C. There are plenty of countries where it is not mandatory to learn any of the foreign languages so because of that we Finnish people are surprisingly good with English. But of course speaking English is often very difficult for us but writing skills are usually good.
Load More Replies...Offend me? That's mostly what I think of Europe ;) 27544680_1...ea846c.jpg
If they did one about America, the would say we don’t have enough men to fight, but they have guns, boi, we have the guns and they have the men, if the try to make war against us, we America, can fly over China, and bomb their country off the face of the earth, so China, don’t talk s**t or you can say bye bye to your sweet Chinese a*s and your country. Does anyone think I went to far, reply if so and upvote if you agree with me
apparently europeans (at least according to the asian countries) smell of dairy? I've always wondered if this is true?
"Imports trash", can agree, Wish is a bloody parasite here and damn everyone uses it. Get rid of it please...
I don't believe that this is really what Chinese find out about Europe.
I think that the same result we could get if we make some chart from Google research in any country...
Load More Replies...As a chinese, I share same response with u. What the f**k? Actually, we will think of Vikings and Myth of North Europe When heard of Norway.
Load More Replies...I think the only true statement a Chinese would really think is that we Dutch people are very tall.
As a Dutch person I can testify to that. (at least concerning most Dutch people, I'm too short for them, they didn't even allow me on photo's with my tall mother when I visited Beijing)
Load More Replies...Haha, I am from the country they have the only really positive association with (apart from Ukraine). And they are right, we are tall. Except me. I love to buy Chinese trash though so I should move to Sweden.
This does NOT mean that this is what Chinese people THINK of those nations.
I don't care but, they're right on italy, and I say that as an italian
As one member of G8, Italy not be taken as "weak" by Chinese. In Baidu, the top questions are "Why is alitalia not available at ctrip?" "Why are there so many thieves in Italy?""Why is the netspeed in Italy so slow?""Why are Italian web pages always wrong?" And don't mind these questions cos Baidu works not that good. 2018-03-22...e55244.jpg
Load More Replies...The Switzerland one is a complete cliche and does not always apply. Its like saying all Canadians are super nice.
Pfff! I live in China and anytime I say I'm from Ireland they say it's a beautiful country. Not many that I can remember ever brought up it's political situation.
I've met plenty of Chinese people, they are so nice and most of them have a great sense of humor. However, when it comes to politics.... Not bringing it up seems to be more out of manners than out of thought. But then, again, everyone's different.
Load More Replies...This should just be a fun article and not taken seriously. If you conduct the same survey with US, you would get worse comments and probably a blank of most countries. Most of Chinese have not been outside the country and hence they can only form opinions from what they see or hear on TV as compared to the many readers here.
I lived in China for 4 years and pretty much they know westerns differences just as much as we know about Asian countries. People mostly can't even point Germany in a map just like most of westerns can't point out where south and North Korea or Mongolia are
"milk-induced longevity" I'm cackling! As far as I know we Bulgarians aren't the among the Europeans with highest longevity though.
Hahahaha I think I know the reason behind this one. We have a yogurt brand claiming they use bacteria culture from somewhere in Bulgaria. And they claim people there live a long life because they drink yogurt w/ same type of bacteria culture all their life.
Load More Replies...The spain one is really offensive to us portuguese... I hate it when people just assume we are part of Spain or that we don't exist. We won the Euro that means that Portugal is the king of Europe! :)
Meh. Lots of them like France's "So many black people" or Germany's "Killed Jews" are simply observations, they aren't offensive. Huge difference. SJW's will have a field day though. As a Canadian I think the "annex Portugal" is funny because people say the same thing about America and Canada. Stop being so sensitive. Also, you don't get to be both butthurt AND say "Portugal is the king of Europe".
Load More Replies...Not sure either, but to me the meaning sounds like "white Russia" (bela / bijela = white). It might be because of its landscape in winter, but who knows....
Load More Replies...Well, as Polish man I can't agree. I never had bad thought about China and personally I don't know anyone who hates China. Why should we hate them? If they think so, they are in great mistake.
At least they don't call Portugal, Spain like some other more "developed" and less cultured countries
The effects of any countries propaganda to their own people to create a bias against any other. Growing up in my country I learned a lot of things that may or may not have been true about other countries and their people. We all have a lot more in common than we have that is different.
As a Chinese (now in Sweden) , to be honest , we don't even talk about some of these countries , like Lithuania or Bulgaria ... it's more likely that people suddenly saw some reports or articles about a certain aspect of some countries, then they searched for it, and this is the reason why it's so weird.
Some are real, like questions about Ukraine, Netherlands and Scotland. Yes those are the first response. Some are half-real, like questions about Poland and Turkey. Turkey is anti-China, but to us Chinese she is one of best tour destination. Poland is famous for poland ball. Some are totally wrong. Especially Italy, Denmark and Czech Republic. P.S. Let's focus on question about Russia. There is a translation error. 战斗民族 is not "like to fight", but "not dare to fight and good at fighting ".
How to edit? Sorry it should be "dare to fight and good at fighting".
Load More Replies...Gotta love the fact that England isn't even listed under its own name, just lumped under the United Kingdom yet Scotland and Northern Ireland are there in their own right .
"Other parts are just totally weird, for example, Bulgaria is known for its “milk-induced longevity” What's so weird about it? Bulgaria is famous for its yogurt.
i have to admit some of these make me want to laugh at the pure bluntness of the thoughts even if they aren't a actual general belief. i mean really. "sweden: imports trash, Switzerland: neutral, Finland: good english, Russia: likes to fight" Maybe its just a sick sense of humor but it gives me a chuckle before i think about the implications of these.
I guess it's Faroe Islands. Even though this thing, that's not the question we search about Denmark. When Denmark mentioned, “rich” and “Andersen” will be the first words hitting Chinese minds.
Load More Replies...As a Bulgarian one I can say that we are the only ones that have milk and we are saying it ,,kiselo mliako" "kiselo" is soured, and "mliako" milk, the other countries have yogurt, not milk like we have, the milk you have is just like water like consistency, but like consistency in Bulgaria is like your yogurt but is with no fake taste, so you need to stop saying it so NEGATIVE, actually is so good at taste.
POLAND DOES NOT HATE CHINA, I HAVE 20 CHINESE FREINDS AND MY PARENTS DO TOO THATS SOME BS
Still a nice way to show a positive counter position 😀😀😀
Load More Replies...I'm super confused. Why do we need an article on it? It does show what others think of Europeans though
Well, let's be fair, when Italy was pressured in both ww1&2 it switched sides just like that! That is what I call weak! Pick a side and stay with it!
Nope. When you have fascism, you better get rid of it. Greetings from a half-Italian. ♥
Load More Replies...Mangopirtelo a, Finland is rare country because we have mandatory lessons for 2 foreign languages at school, called A language and B language. A languge (which is the first foreign language we start to learn) is usually English and B language (a language that we start to learn some years later) is usually Swedish (or Finnish if you are not a native Finnish speaker). You have to learn to speak Swedish if you speak Finnish or Finnish if you speak Swedish because both are official languages in Finland, so you have either Swedish or Finnish as A or B language. The other language is optional, most people choose English, Russian, German, French or Spanish. There is also usually option to choose the third language, the C. There are plenty of countries where it is not mandatory to learn any of the foreign languages so because of that we Finnish people are surprisingly good with English. But of course speaking English is often very difficult for us but writing skills are usually good.
Load More Replies...Offend me? That's mostly what I think of Europe ;) 27544680_1...ea846c.jpg
If they did one about America, the would say we don’t have enough men to fight, but they have guns, boi, we have the guns and they have the men, if the try to make war against us, we America, can fly over China, and bomb their country off the face of the earth, so China, don’t talk s**t or you can say bye bye to your sweet Chinese a*s and your country. Does anyone think I went to far, reply if so and upvote if you agree with me
apparently europeans (at least according to the asian countries) smell of dairy? I've always wondered if this is true?
"Imports trash", can agree, Wish is a bloody parasite here and damn everyone uses it. Get rid of it please...
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