But from my experience foreigners here respect the 外地人 in service jobs a lot more than my beijing friends. I think it’s because most of my western friends probably have worked in some service jobs back when they were in the west, and know what annoying customers are like, while a lot of young beijing kids live off their parents’ money until they graduate from university, and head straight into white-collar positions using their extended family’s guanxi. There are good and bad people in every lot, of course.

Your experiment is interesting. I think it’s worth it that you do this: the knowledge, wisdom, and entertainment gained through this surely outweighs the apparent patronizing aspects.

I currently work in a bakers in a small tourist town in the UK. We get tourists from all over the world coming in to our shop. Some people are pleasant others deem you to be beneath them because you work in a shop serving them. Several foreign customers come & struggle to speak a word of English, so you have to spend more time helping them with their order using facial expressions & other methods of communication. Many of them smile back at you & nod, others though grunt, shout out instructions in their own language & barely acknowledge the time you have taken to help. At the end of the day people from completely different cultural backgrounds & who speak different languages can still be polite to each other in they try. It is all about taking the time to show one another respect.

Rudeness is not just a Chinese or Western problem it is a global problem. Great blog by the way.

In the west, we have many words for friends, indicating closeness or distance. It seems to me that these people were not very close friends. So, they came to your shop, and made jokes. It seems you cannot take a joke. If you cannot talk to them seriously then do not use the word “friends”.

Why are you upset? Are your “friends” basically “white trash” living in Shanghai? Come on, why do you call them your friends.

A lot of Chinese are all over the world, doing their thing. If people start calling overseas Chinese “Chinese trash”, maybe you would be very hurt. Here in Japan there are certainly a lot of Chinese with a big shelf. I am not Japanese, I am from Europe, and one thing I can notice is that Chinese here in Japan are not so good at the old adage, “When in Rome, do as the Romans”.

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Ever heard about Israel and the chosen people who rule that place? But sure, in China, being Jewish does help – ethnic purity, superiority are some of the values that Chinese share with the,. Sionist organizations are, as you may know, very active in this country (but then again, so are various other US-sponsored sects – including Amway and Herbalife). Did I mention the blackstone deal?

Believe it or not, but posting this could get me into major trouble under the laws of my country (heavy fines, losing my job etc).

Speaking personally, I am always concious that whenever I go to somebody else’s shop/workplace/company/etc, I am a guest and the employers (and employees, to a lesser extend) are the hosts. I would expect certain kind of respect to be given on both side. Many people nowadays seemed unconcious about the role of host/guest.

I dont see this as a Western vs. Chinese issue. With all due respects, your friends sound like ignorant brats. Most likely young English teachers from the US. And your boss has a whole theory about Westerners because he hasnt met that many or the few he has met were complaining when he almost ran over them with his car at the pedestrian crossing. In any case, the most obnoxious bastards you meet here are not the white trash that has poured on Shanghai since 2004 (your friends) but the officials in the big black cars and rich “entrepreneurs” (those who stole SOE’s assets).

I know your post has had a lot of success – good comments all over the internet, especially in China-related blogs (that how I came here). Congrats for that but I think your analysis is incorrect.

Cheers and keep up the good work at the barbershop