BEIJING: Although I have lived and worked in China since October 2010, I am a native of Dallas, TX USA, born and raised there while I spent some time in the East Coast pf US, Washington DC, New York City and New Hampshire. So I have some familiarity about how average Americans think of China.

北京:虽然我从2010年10月开始在中国生活和工作,但其实我是美国德克萨斯州达拉斯市人,我在那里出生和长大,同时我在美国东海岸、华盛顿特区、纽约市和新罕布什尔州呆过一段时间。因此,我对普通美国人如何看待中国有一些了解。
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I was anti-China person myself until after moving to the Asian continent in South Korea from 2001 to 2007. At the time, I was just an ESL (English as a Second-language) teacher and not doing anything remarkable with my life. When I decided to move to Seoul, I was struggling professional career wise after graduating from college with a B.A. degree in Political Science.

到2001年至2007年搬到韩国的亚洲大陆之前,我都是个反中国人士。那时候,我只是一个ESL(英语作为第二语言)教师,人生中也没有做过什么了不起的事情。当我决定搬到首尔时,我刚从大学毕业并获得政治学学士学位并且正在职业上挣扎。

I learned the hard way that when studying at a Liberal Arts’ school and deciding not to pursue a career path as professor or lawyer you will likely confront many challenges finding a stable and high-paying job.

我深刻地认识到,当你在文法学校学习,却不将教授或律师作为职业追求时,你想找到一份稳定的高薪工作,就会面临许多挑战。

Despite my love for reading Shakespeare, Aristotle and Tolstoy, it’s not easy persuading potential employees that my passion for reading the Western Classics should should place me as top priority in the hiring process.

尽管我喜欢阅读莎士比亚、亚里士多德和托尔斯泰,但要说服潜在的雇主将我对阅读西方经典的热情放在招聘考核的首位并不是件容易的事情。

But I have lived and learned from it and moved on. Nonetheless, I felt more comfortable among Asians as many of them are eager to learn, hard working and ambitious.

但我试过了,并从中吸取了教训,继续前进。正因如此,我在亚洲人中间感觉更舒服,因为他们中的许多人渴望学习,努力工作,雄心勃勃。

But there was a harder edge to life in South Korea than I had anticipated. It was my experience that many South Koreans were perfectionists, quick tempered and impatient.

但是,在韩国的生活比我预想的要艰难。根据我的经验,许多韩国人是完美主义者,脾气急躁,没有耐心。

But when people ask me why I chose to move to Korea back then it was simple. I wanted to try a new adventure and loved to travel. When reviewing job ads, there was a message about teaching English in South Korea and it captured my curiosity but to be honest I was not interested in teaching just wanted to try something new.

但是,当人们问起我,为什么当时选择搬到韩国时,我的回答很简单。我想尝试一种新的冒险,并且我喜欢旅行。浏览招聘广告时,有一则是关于在韩国教英语的信息,它吸引了我的好奇心,但说实话,我对教学不感兴趣,我只是想尝试新的东西。

So I called up the recruiter and two weeks later I was on a plane to work there. If the job ad said teach English in Japan, Vietnam, China or any other Asia-Pacific country I would have gone there without pondering the differences among Asian nations.

所以我给招聘人员打了电话,两周后我就坐飞机去了那里工作。如果招聘广告上写的是在日本、越南、中国或任何其他亚太国家教英语,我肯定也会去那里,而不会去想这些亚洲国家有什么不同。

I mention this story to explain the notable ignorance on foreign affairs among average Americans. I was anti-China but I went to school, read books and most Americans I spoke to had hated China. I was young and never visited China so I made the logical conclusion that China is bad because most of my fellow Americans thank that’s true.

我提到这个故事是为了解释普通美国人在外交事务上的明显无知。我原本是反对中国的。无论是我在学校时,还是阅读时,和我交谈的大多数美国人都讨厌中国。我当时很年轻,从未访问过中国,所以我做出了中国不好的逻辑结论,因为我的大多数美国同胞都认为这是事实。

My perspective had changed dramatically after moving to South Korea and meeting local businessmen who told me they loved making trips to China and said the country was much better than what many others were saying.

搬到韩国并遇到当地的商人后,我的观点发生了巨大的变化,他们告诉我,他们喜欢到中国旅行,并说这个国家比许多人说的要好得多。

I took a weekend trip to Shanghai in 2005 and discovered the Chinese were not brainless Marxists, fanatical political zealots or ideologues, they were regular people and loved to enjoy life just like average Americans. The trip opened my eyes and knew I could feel comfortable in China if I choose to move there.

2005年,我利用周末去上海旅行,发现中国人不是无脑的马克思主义者、政治狂热者或意识形态主义者,他们是普通人,像普通美国人一样喜欢享受生活。这次旅行使我大开眼界,并且使我明白,如果我当初选择搬到中国,我一样会感到舒适。

And that’s what happened. I came to Beijing over 10 years ago and have stayed here. I point out that average Americans are not hearing the real story about China.

这就是在我身上所发生的事情。10多年前,我来到北京,并一直留在这里。我可以肯定地说,普通美国人从来就不了解真正的中国。

Many scholars with fancy titles and prestigious academic resumes are claiming to be ‘China experts,’ but they do nothing more than spew China hate. Their only expertise is knowing how to criticize China and sound convincing to others.

许多美国学者喜欢用一些花哨的标题和所谓的权威学术研究履历来宣称自己是研究中国的专家,但是他们除了输出对中国的仇恨以外什么都不干。他们唯一的会的就是如何批评中国并且如何使别人相信他们。

My recommendation for average Americans would be to encourage you to visit China and check it out for yourself.

我对普通美国人的建议是,你们应该亲自去中国,看看中国是否真的如你所认为的那样!

Latin experts not reading Latin and arabia experts not reading arabic are total jokes. China "experts" not able to read or understand chinese are total frauds .

就像拉丁文专家不会读拉丁文,阿拉伯专家不会读阿拉伯文这句笑话一样。中国专家不会阅读甚至不认识中文,他们就只是在欺骗。