Hey everyone, this is Stephane Fouche from Talkways

Today, we are going to talk about my favorite topics, and it has to do with languages

Languages, that’s a very vast topic,so we are going to cater it to stereotypes

So I remember when I first came into China

I was talking to my co-workers, talking to some friends

and I asked them to teach me some basic words in Chinese

You would think that they would teach me how to say thank you

or like hello, simple words, but no

They went straight into the stereotypes and they went deep into the story

The first word that I learned in Chinese was Gaofushuai

So you have your rich, your handsome, and your tall, your beautiful man

who is looking for someone

That someone is the Baifumei

Once he gets the Baifumei, and spends a little bit of time with her, and throws the Baifumei away

She becomes the Heimuer

The funny thing about the Heimuer, aside from the name, is that there is someone else

You have the Gaofushuai, and you have the opposite of the Gaofushuai

Which is the Diaosi

The Diaosi sees this chance and goes for the Baifumei

That is now, as we know it, the Heimuer, and tries to go for that

But sometimes, the Diaosi still doesn’t get the girl

So what happens at the end?

So, the Diaosi puts his head down, lifts it up, and admits that he’s a Jiyou

So this is the first story that I pretty much heard in China

My friends taught me all these words, so I would go to a club and I would be like

“Wo bu shi gao fu shuai, dan wo ye bu shi diao si, wo shi Stephane”

The girl would look at me, ohhh, asking, how does he know all these words

But from a more serious note

if you are comparing stereotypes in China in stereotypes in the U.S.

There is a small little difference

If you in the US you have your typical nerd

You have the geek, which is similar to the nerd

You have your jock, which is your buff guy, who’s the one that plays sports and so on

You have your preppy, your pretty boy who takes care of himself

So the stereotypes are not so much about status

They are a lot more about someone’s interest, what they are doing

Something having to do with their personality

The jock of course has to play some sport, or he has to be very built, that’s the image of the jock

But then, for the Gaofushuai or the Baifumei, it’s still very much linked to status

So what does that say about Chinese culture?

What does that say about the culture in the United States?

Well we need to go back to stereotypes

Stereotypes are a way that we can create an image of someone

It’s a preconceived notion that we have

Oh, someone who is this would probably do this, and this, and this

So it’s nothing too specific, it’s just a label

So that label, what’s the focus of it?

In the US, again, it’s that person’s interest

So if you are trying to extract a little bit of information from the stereotypes in China

That idea of status still comes up

So, this is again me talking to one of my friends in China

He was telling me that he was talking to his parents about ohh

How he’s almost ready to marry his girlfriend and so on

And he thought his parents were going to tell him

Oh, he needs to finish with school, you need to do this first and so on

But, unexpectedly the things that his parents were telling him were

Oh, you don’t have a house, oh, you don’t have a car, oh, you don’t have this

Or you are not stable yet, or you don’t have that status yet

So it all goes back to this idea of standing

Like is that person stable? What’s their status in society?

Looking at it from a different perspective in other countries

Again I’m going to take the States as an example for this one

What makes or breaks a relationship is really the personality

Does the personality of the girlfriend and the boyfriend align with each other?

Can the girlfriend get along with the boyfriend’s mother?

These are the things that tend to either break a make a relationship

It’s less about having a car, it’s less about having a house

These are the decisions that people usually make after they get married

That’s what I personally notice from looking at my friends, acquaintances, so on

So are stereotyping someone a good thing or a bad thing?

We don’t have a choice in a way

Because you meet someone for the first time, your instincts are to pretty much judge that person

And you are going to take all the notions that you have

So if you take someone from Haiti, where I grew up when I was younger

You put someone who’s Chinese in front of them

They probably have never met someone who’s Chinese

So the first thing that’s going to pop up in their mind is going to be Jackie Chan

Second thing, probably Bruce Lee

So not everyone in China is Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee

But that’s the preconceived image that they have

Going over that image is the good thing because you are not stuck to this image

If it’s a very bad image

you are giving this person a very bad identity without even knowing them

That’s the danger in stereotyping someone

On the opposite end, it gives you an idea

And it’s also a great way to joke around with friends, if not abused

But what I want to leave with you guys is probably a simple question

From your perspective, stereotypes in China, what do you think they are pointing out exactly?

Status? Or that person’s personality?

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to find me on Talkways, or on Weibo