The man repeatedly tells the woman that cut in front of him, in flawless Mandarin, “Hello? Hello? Can you please line-up in the queue behind?” The woman pretends not to understand him, and ignorantly says in a Wuhan dialect, “What is this ‘zebra’ talking about? I don’t understand a word you are saying.”

The man responds in the Wuhan dialect, “Don’t cut in line. Do you understand me now?”

The woman tries to gain the upper hand by responding in a Dongbei dialect. “What do you want? When did you see me cut in line?” and used a common Chinese insult meaning “You must be sick.”

Without breaking a sweat, the man answers in the Dongbei dialect, “Go stand in line, otherwise everyone here will criticize you. What do you mean ‘What do you want?’ Your cutting in line should have a rational reason.”

The woman, clearly (and rightly) giving up, said “Are you sick? I’m not eating, not eating!” as she walked away from the line.

We applaud this unnamed man for not only calling out someone for jumping the queue, but also for calling out her ignorant comments with dignity. Good on you, sir!

Watch the video here.

The post Foreigner Yells at Person Cutting in Line In Three Chinese Dialects appeared first on The Nanfang.

The three were identified as first-year Russian design students, Roman Chaikovskii and Kirll Karpuk, and a French teacher, known only as “Bastien”, said school official Xi Lijun.

All three were standing on Bastien’s balcony when they saw the woman bobbing in the nearby river. The three went to investigate and, seeing the woman in distress, Chaikovskii plunged into the river to help. With Karpuk and Bastien’s aid, the trio managed to pull her out.

The woman was taken to a room in the school used by cleaners and was given basic medical attention. Afterwards, her parents and the police were called.

The woman did not suffer from any life-threatening injuries.

QQ News reported the woman was suffering from too much academic pressure and had recently argued with her parents, while Shanghai Daily said she was a drop-out from a local vocational school and had returned to visit her former classmates.

“She said she was roaming around after seeing former classmates in the vocational school and jumped into the river to commit suicide because she was depressed,” said Xu, the university’s security director. “But she regretted her decision when she was in the water and held onto a net until our students and teacher managed to pull her back to land.”

The post Heroic Foreigners Rescue Drowning Woman From Shanghai River appeared first on The Nanfang.

At around 7pm last Wednesday, a fight broke out at Jintai Lu Station on Line 6 after a passenger prevented another passenger from getting on the train. As the doors shut, the offender got off the train to continue the argument that escalated into a full-on physical altercation. It got so bad that one of the men was seized by the throat as he lay on the ground, prompting an intervention by a foreigner.

Nobody made a report to police, who showed up fairly quickly after the fight began. The incident drew scorn and criticism from people online, who said the Chinese “lost face” as a result.

However, that’s not the end of the story. Yesterday, one of the men involved in the fight came forward to say that it was the expat who couldn’t get on the subway due to the line cutter, and that he was trying to “protect his rights”.

As reported in the Beijing News, a man named Li said the expat was standing in front of him waiting for the subway when he was prevented from getting on board the train because a person who didn’t wait in line jumped the queue. Li came forward to the expat’s defense, only to get embroiled in the fight.

The expat didn’t appear to take any sides in the fight if it meant escalating the violence. When Li was knocked to the ground, the expat asked for the other man to desist, saying in Chinese, “Let him go.”

Li said, “I was only trying to protect [the expat’s] rights.”

Li has since made a report to the police, and is asking the subway to release surveillance video that can exonerate him after having been thrashed in the court of public opinion.

The post Foreigner Injured While Stopping a Fight on the Beijing Metro appeared first on The Nanfang.

Statements made in the US by Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina that Americans shouldn’t fear competition with China because Chinese are “not innovative or imaginative” have unsurprisingly become a thing on the Chinese internet.

Chatting with political blog Caffeneinated Thoughts, Fiorina said:

I have been doing business in China for decades, and I will tell you that yeah, the Chinese can take a test, but what they can’t do is innovate. They are not terribly imaginative. They’re not entrepreneurial, they don’t innovate, that is why they are stealing our intellectual property.

Fiorina went on to add that teaching innovation, risk-taking, and imagination “are things that are distinctly American and we can’t lose them.”

Fiorina’s stance on China was previously spelled out in her book, Rising to the Challenge: My Leadership Journey:

Although the Chinese are a gifted people, innovation and entrepreneurship are not their strong suits. Their society, as well as their educational system, is too homogenized and controlled to encourage imagination and risk taking. Americans excel at such things , and we must continue to encourage them.

Chinese versions of the article published shortly afterward quickly attracted attention. So what did the home of Alibaba, Xiaomi and WeChat have to say? Actually, they were largely in agreement:

贫穷老百姓2015:
There’s not a single word she said that isn’t wrong. She’s completely right! What’s more, this is just what I was saying twelve years ago.

sleipnir71:
Creative thinking has most definitely been a problem for Chinese education. Some people are too sensitive in considering these words to be an insult.

laotie:
Fiorina is basically correct in saying that some parts of China’s systems are not conducive to technological innovation and development.

兰陵客微博:
Not only is [Fiorina] not insulting China, but she’s giving China a free lesson. ‘Chinese are good at taking tests, but don’t have any imagination, entrepreneurism, or innovation.’ This is a fact. In my opinion, we need to find the source of this problem, for only then can this situation improve.

用户5280479276:
Right on the money! What else are Chinese good at besides cloning?

斑马左使的祖宗:
[Directed at other commentators] The enemy all know your weakness, how can you fucking pretend you don’t know this?

fjfhuuje:
[Fiorina’s words] hit the nail on the head. How can these words be construed as an insult? There’s hope for those who change their ways if they don’t know enough, while the worst situation is someone who’s not willing to change if they need it. Writer [of the article], do you have a mental problem? Your mother is telling you to go home and take your medication.

liulele888:
Not a wrong word said.

凯林皇:
[Fiorina] is right. As well, this exactly the reason why we Chinese have never once had one of our scientists win the Nobel prize.

任静斋:
Even though there are some problems to Fiorina’s argument, what she said is still a fact: Although Chinese are talented, their senses of innovation and entrepreneurship are not their strengths. Their social and educational systems overzealously pursue the homogenous development of its students who are over-managed and not encouraged to take risks or use their imagination.

神奇的国度1999:
Even since taking tests in elementary schools, displaying any creativity results in a wrong answer. Why let us imagine in the first place?

林513707:
I don’t think that she’s insulting China, but that she’s pointing out where we can improve.

o土豪xo:
As the saying goes, ‘No culture, no worries, but a culture based on slavery is one of terrible crime and sin.’

蓝天锤18:
Hard to hear, but true!

A few spoke out against Fiorina, taking shots at her dubious track record as a CEO:

看的见听得清想不明白:
Since we Chinese lack imagination, who would have thought that one person would be able to so thoroughly topple two Fortune 500 companies – Compaq and Hewlett Packard –(from the inside)? (Who could have thought) these two world leaders in IT during the 90s would allow themselves to be utterly destroyed by this stupid woman? Who could have imagined someone with such poor leadership skills could run for the Presidency of the United States? This is all simply too much for the imagination of we Chinese. We welcome Sister Fiorina to come to China and apply to the administrative department for a position as a street cleaner!!!

无菌大王:
Heehee, what about those times when you steal and rob scientists from China?

无限轮回的马:
US citizens are rich in imagination? First in the world at ruining things is more like it.

A-郝维:
[Remember a thing called] the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China? American IQ remains very low.

Some netizens went so far as to explain why there may be a lack of imagination and innovation in China:

威士818:
If the people’s imagination and creativity isn’t restrained, then China will fall into chaos.

积德在家:
[Fiorina] is basically describing the image of our national civil servants.

天涯沦落人_
I don’t feel it’s about a lack of innovation so much as it is about not having a spirit of adventure, and being under the worship of money.

And proving that there’s no lack of sarcasm in China:

huangyi1125:
I downright refuse to accept (Fiorina’s argument)! If Chinese all lack the ability to be imaginative, then explain to me how the life-changing inventions of hair soy sauce, shoe capsules, melamine milk, and gutter oil – each one amazing enough to make gods and devils to weep in heaven and hell – were all invented by the hand of Chinese people? Once again, I express my downright refusal to accept these words!

积德在家:
We sincerely hope this kind of person will be elected as the next President of the United States.

The post Many Chinese Agree With Carly Fiorina’s Claim That China Can’t Innovate appeared first on The Nanfang.

Mother’s Day on Sunday was a busy night for restaurants in China, and the Runqing Four Seasons Restaurant on Xinsha Road in Shenzhen’s Futian District was no different. Mr Tang, the owner of the restaurant, said 100 people were waiting for a table at the time when a bare-chested man arrived with his friends.

According to an eyewitness, the bare-chested man wanted to “drink some tea” but was unwilling to take a number and wait in line. Even though friends of the bare-chested man wanted to leave, the man became irate. “He messed up things on the front counter,” Tang said. “I went over to stop him, but he threatened me, reeking of alcohol. Then I went to call the police.”

The bare-chested man then lost his temper, pulling out payment machines located at the front counter, smashing things, and assaulting other people in the restaurant that included restaurant staff and an elderly customer.

This was all too much for an expat that was having dinner in the restaurant with a female companion. The expat tried to rally other Chinese to work with him, making gestures when they didn’t understand the words he spoke. “The foreigner said some stiff words in Putonghua to the other male clients in the restaurant,” Tang said. “He said, ‘Let’s… subdue… him… together…’, accompanied with some hand movements.”

However, getting others to cooperate did not prove to be easy. “All the people in the vicinity advised him not to do anything out of fear something may happen to him,” Tang explained. “The wait staff was worried, and blocked (the foreigner) from doing anything.”

Despite these obstacles, the drunk man was subdued at the entrance to the bar by a group of people working together under the direction of the expat. The foreigner sat on top of the drunk man, and used hand gestures to get other people involved. “(The expat) was very brave. He continually called out for others to help out and join in as he took the lead.”

Once police arrived, the unidentified expat left the scene. He is described as being in his thirties, possibly European, and has eaten at the restaurant before. He is thought to live in the vicinity of the restaurant.

A suspect named Zhou was taken to the Tian’an police substation where he is under criminal detention and has been charged with causing public disorder. Tian’an police say the drunk man did not cooperate with police at the station, and remained aggressive. One officer is described as having suffered injuries to his face and hands as a result of dealing with Zhou.

Here is a video report of the incident with some footage taken at the scene:

Related:

• Expat Cyclist Becomes Hero for Blocking Chinese Driver from Beijing Bike Lane

The post Expat Hero Takes Charge in Subduing Rampaging Drunk in Shenzhen appeared first on The Nanfang.

READ: Chinese Pedestrians Have No Problem Obeying Laowai Traffic Warden

A foreign exchange student at Beidong University, Asha has been in Shenyang, Liaoning for eight years. Concerned with Shenyang’s growing traffic problems, she decided to be part of the solution and dutifully, aid pedestrians at one of the city’s busy intersections.

Having a unique perspective on Shenyang, Asha has plenty to say about the state of Shenyang’s roads:

In the eight years that I’ve been here, traffic conditions have improved. The major traffic posts are still being manned by police officers directing traffic. As well, city residents are starting to comply with traffic regulations; there aren’t as many pedestrians running red lights as before.

Whether Asha will start a new trend among expats remains to be seen; however, given the traffic situation in most Chinese cities, pedestrians can use all the help they can get.

Related:

• Expat Cyclist Becomes Hero for Blocking Chinese Driver from Beijing Bike Lane
• Foreigner Gets Whipped With A Leather Belt In Beijing Traffic Altercation
• Mainlanders Perplexed by Polite Traffic Etiquette in Macau

Photos: Caijing

The post Russian Expat Working as a Traffic Warden in Liaoning appeared first on The Nanfang.

Let this be a lesson for any state news outlets that want to drum up favorable coverage by using innocent foreigners in propaganda stories: choose a foreigner that does not speak Chinese or have a huge vocabulary of Chinese curse words.

Chongqing Evening News, a major newspaper in the city, discovered this the hard way. On December 19, the paper published a photo essay called “The Story of the Reception Bench at the Police Station,” a piece that documented some of the drug addicts, drunks, derelicts and various other people who had to wait on the police station’s bench. One such person was a foreigner who had some housing issue. The photo essay showed a police officer, who had apparently passed English Level Eight in China, helping the foreigner in English on September 8.

In a detailed description, it said: “Police officer Wan Pitao is using English to help a foreign student in Shapingba District … Wan Pitao graduated from Sichuan Foreign Languages University and is the only police officer who passed the Level Eight English Test.”

Little did the newspaper know, but the foreigner in the piece reads and speaks Chinese and said the story was inaccurate. He took to Weibo to rebuff the story, claiming the police officer in the photo didn’t speak English, nor did he solve his problem, nor did he give his permission for his photo to be used.

The foreigner, known on Weibo as @boogjohn小觉, has been living in China for nine years. He said he used Chinese to communicate with the officer and wasn’t aware a photographer was there taking his picture. In addition, the officer was unable to help him solve his problem immediately, adding it dragged on into the next day.

The original post, which has been deleted from the user’s account but is still circulating as a screen grab, was filled with colloquial Chinese and local Chongqing curses. Some online user even said, “Teach me Chinese. I think you must have passed Level Eight Chinese,” reported Nandu.

The foreigner wrote again on December 21:

Stop, alright? I am just a happy person. How come a post like this goes viral on the Internet? I don’t have any intentions. But some Chinese media are quite stupid too by doing such useless things. Everyone loves to paste gold on one’s face, but I am just very straight forward.

Within just a few days, boogjohn小觉 got 67,000 followers.

So far, no word from the local police station.

The post Chinese-Speaking Laowai Embarrasses Newspaper by Debunking Propaganda Story appeared first on The Nanfang.

READ: Chinese Pedestrians Have No Problem Obeying Laowai Traffic Warden

This all started when a Weibo user took several photos on Yaojiayuan Road that show a cyclist blocking a car from using the bike lane.

We don’t know much about this guy, but we do know he’s probably frustrated at the continuing use of bike lanes by drivers in the capital.

READ: No More Free Rides: Expats “Lose Face” Trying to Sneak Bikes
onto Beijing Metro

We also don’t know who retreated first, as photos don’t show the driver or the cyclist backing down.  All we can tell from the pictures is that the driver is sheepish at having been caught driving in the bike lane, and that another cyclist, perhaps a local, was completely caught up in watching the proceedings.

Online reaction has been largely supportive, commending the man for taking a stand. But many wonder why it was left to a laowai to take matters into his own hands.

The Weibo account of a police morality squad pointedly asked: “In confronting uncivilized acts, would we (Chinese) be as brave as him?” Meanwhile, netizens had an assortment of comments, like the following:

五楼的鱼维：
(I don’t) dare to do this (myself) because I’m not a laowai. A Chinese (who did this) would surely get beaten up. [angry.emoji]

京城郎叔：
I’m guessing this laowai has been in the capital for under a year.

MM_傑：
The life of regular Chinese people is cheap. They don’t dare to start a fight with the higher-ups.

乱飞扑的Becks懒得理你什么世界：
If a Chinese national blocked the car, he would surely be badly beaten…

homer-BB：
(Is this foreigner) interfering with the internal affairs of our country?

狂人9号：
Fortunately it’s a laowai, otherwise he’d be beaten up.

菁华108：
We should learn from the good side of this foreign guy. [thumbsup.emoji]

别逗俺丶俺会打你的丶：
Good thing it’s not Li Gang’s son. (An infamous case in which a driver who had struck and killed pedestrians was adamant he was above the law by telling police officers, “My dad is Li Gang!”)

LQL奇妙之旅：
It’s all because he is a laowai.

As pointed out by China Daily, expats have previously been involved in instances of blocking cars. In June 2012, an expat in Chengdu blocked others cars at an intersection in order to allow an ambulance to get through. In April 2011, an expat in Guangzhou blocked a car that was driving the wrong way down a road.

Related:

• American With Good Intentions Ridiculed For Helping Victim In China
• Foreigner Gets Whipped With A Leather Belt In Beijing Traffic Altercation
• Expat A Bit Too Tense, Tackles Chinese Woman Over Innocuous Comment
• Foreigner In Chengdu Grabs Steering Wheel of Moving Bus, Assaults Driver

Photos: Southern Daily

The post Expat Cyclist Becomes Hero for Blocking Chinese Driver from Beijing Bike Lane appeared first on The Nanfang.

Juan and Fabio are among the foreign experts who arrived in China and are loving it, as seen in this March 2008 news photo.

Common sense may have told us this, but we finally have confirmation from the Chinese government: the typical expat in China is male, doesn’t speak Chinese, and loves his adopted country.

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs sent a questionnaire to expats as part of its study on the living environment for expatriate workers. It found China is already among the world’s top destinations for expatriate workers and by far the most lucrative, but it still needs “to do better to hire and keep professional expats”, reported China Daily.

More than 2,000 people responded to the survey. It showed 74 percent of expats are male, and an astounding 73 percent could barely understand simple Chinese.

The study outlined a number of problems that concerned foreigners, such as medical and social insurance issues, as well as the educational needs of their children and the application process for work visas.

Chinese authorities have tried to make the work visa application process easier for expats, and even announced reforms to China’s rarely-seen green card program. In 2012, only 0.2 percent of China’s 633,000 expats held a green card.

The report failed to mention air pollution, an issue so important to some expat workers that Western companies are willing to pay “hazard pay” bonuses to those willing to work in China’s big polluted cities.

When asked what conditions could be improved for expats, the study found that 56.9 percent of respondents want better compensation, while many of their employers reportedly are unable to meet those demands.

Whatever their salary, expats are generally very happy to be in China. Over 70 percent of professional expat workers in China reported being very satisfied with their lives, and 75 percent of employers reported being similarly satisfied with these foreign expats, even if they are mostly males who don’t speak the language.

Related:

• 25% of Expats in China Make Over US$300,000 a Year
  
• Coke Now Paying Expat Staff Extra To Deal With China’s Air Pollution
• Foreigners Who Want To Work In Beijing Must Now Meet These Requirements
• CCTV Investigates Sketchy English Teaching Industry in China
• Getting a Chinese Green Card Will Now Be Easier Than Ever

[h/t the Beijinger]

Photo: FY News, dahe

The post China’s Typical Expat: Male, Doesn’t Speak Chinese, and Loves It Here appeared first on The Nanfang.

Expats living in China may have a thing or two to complain about, but they have certainly picked a lucrative country to work in.

While China is the third-most popular expat destination following Singapore and Switzerland according to a study by HSBC, expats in China earn more here than anywhere else in the world, reports CNN.

The HSBC study says a quarter of expats living in China make an annual salary of over US $300,000 a year. China is described as a place where expats can enjoy better job prospects, pay packages, and lower living costs.

“China is the best place for expats looking to make their money go further, with 76 percent of expats in the country experiencing growth in their spending power once they’ve moved,” the report said

In contrast, a Barclays study showed 47 percent of wealthy Chinese respondents said they planned to move abroad within the next five years.

Photo: Travel Baidu

The post 25% of Expats in China Make Over US$300,000 a Year appeared first on The Nanfang.