My experience with Chinese and generally Far East people is positive. There are some things I do not understand culturally, but in school I was very good friend with Chinese/South Koreans who were extremely gifted in math and computer science. First they were distrustful but when I helped them with humanities and philosophy classes, we did study groups together and helped to get through college. I worked with several Chinese who studied in USA and were excellent workers. However, my neighbors.. different story. They are extremely unfriendly to rude and they loiter into my backyard. In Czech Republic and Hungary there is a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese and they are well assimilated and considered as ideal immigrants.
The changing world - The Chinese in the west.
by fulltimestudent 13 Replies latest social current
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kaik
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fulltimestudent
joey jojo : Many Chinese families can trace their heritage back to the day's of the Australian gold rushes which means they were here long before many European families.
Joey, I'm not sure how deep your interest is in the this topic. But you may find Eric Roll's ( a dinky di Aussie) books informative. Most particularly his, "Sojourners: Flowers and the Wide Sea." In that book, Rolls demonstrates that Chineselikely 'discovered' Australia long before the Dutch or the Brits. Chinese ships had been sailing around the Indonesian archipelago for centuries, so it is extremely unlikely that they never reached our northern shores.
And, as you say, the discovery of gold in Australia, brought many Chinese to the goldfields (among the many other nationalities. On the evidence presented in Eric Roll' books , the Chinese however were the best organised. They brought with them seeds, seedlings, and baby pigs, and within weeks of arriving on a goldfield they were producing their own food. They were meticulous in finding alluvial gold. The European and American diggers were only interested in finding nuggets, but the Chinese dug over inch of their claims and washed the soil and found lots of smaller pieces. It was likely that meticulous technique that caused 'western' miners to be jealous of the Chinese and caused some of the unrest such as the Lambing Flats riots.
A JW connection to that time:
A one-time Circuit overseer, by the name of Farleigh James, was a descendent of one of those nineteenth century Chinese miners. His grandfather (I think) by the name of Hung Fee (from south China) discovered some gold in the area around Bright in Victoria, bought a small inn in Bright and married a half Chinese girl from Bendigo. Their descendents, who anglicised their names to Humphrey, still live in the Wangaratta area. My good XJW friend was married to his daughter, but was divorced by his wife, when he was disfellowshipped.
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Bonsai
It would be a smart investment to study Chinese. I originally came to Asia to study Chinese, but fell in love with Japan. Now I'm starting to wonder whether or not I should have stuck with Chinese. -
fulltimestudent
Bonsai : It would be a smart investment to study Chinese. I originally came to Asia to study Chinese, but fell in love with Japan. Now I'm starting to wonder whether or not I should have stuck with Chinese.
Well, maybe? Surely it all depends on your goals. IS all your effort solely for making money? (Reading your posts, I do not get that impression).
If you want to, or need to, and think you have the ability, the possibility of making money does exist. But, I think the competition could be horrendous. And that is at all levels. Particularly as the next few hundred million Chinese become urbanised. But in that situation opportunities are there to be seized by the astute.
As it is, Japanese culture, as a variant of East Asian culture, is also fascinating. Are you living a satisfying life? Then maybe the path chosen was the right path.
I could imagine living a 'rich' life, in a small Japanese village located in the foothills of the mountains or somewhere near the ocean.