Americans Know Little About China

美国人不太了解中国了!
　　 [英文原文]
　　 "Let the world know China and Let China know the world." I can't remember exactly where I have seen this slogan in Beijing and what the context has been. Given the simple fact of the ardor people have for learning foreign languages and the number of people going abroad each year, everyone can tell how hard China and Chinese people are trying to know the world considering. But I didn't know how equally important and urgent it is for the world to know China until I came to the States.

　　 First let me give you an idea of how little China is known to the Americans with some of the questions I was asked by the GRADUATE students at the department of communication at Purdue University.

　　 "Where is Beijing? Is it a coastal city?"

　　 "Why do you carry on the one-child family policy? Don't you know it is a crime?"

　　 "(I hope you don't mind my asking this question, Tan) Do Chinese people still live in poverty and oppression? "

　　 "Is it true that anybody who practices religion will be prosecuted in China?"

　　 The list of surprises I was given by my fellow American graduate students can go on and on，but let me turn to give you some examples of the surprise we gave to them.

　　 In the self-introduction during our first class in a Ph.D course, when I told them I wanted to finish the degree as soon as I could and then go back to China, The American students looked at me in both surprise and disbelief. Their assumption is that everybody including the Chinese of course, who comes to the States will stay here to seek a better life and that this is the only place where one can find a better life.

　　 When I asked my officemate for advice about buying a new car, she stared at me, asking me incredibly: "A new car?" Later I found out that her surprise was due to the popular image of Chinese students: either too poor or too economical.

　　 When an American TA asked me what I told my undergraduate students about my feeling of September11 Attack, I repeated my
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