by Charles Liu
Have you noticed how the question “Where are you from?” is always among the first questions a Chinese person asks? Do you wonder what they think of you depending on your answer? Well, to answer your question, here’s Baidu’s 2015 “map of prejudice” that summarizes all the stereotypes about each of China’s 34 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, SARs, and even Taiwan into one handy map.
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The People’s Daily reports that the map is the culmination of search results on the Baidu search engine, signifying there could possibly be respondents numbering into the hundreds of millions for this infographic.
Reporting on regional differences is a long tradition in China whereby people “celebrate” their differences by having them revealed in such maps, as seen in past submissions from Xinhua. As the People’s Daily says, this map is a “delight” that should be “used for purposes of fun.”
With that in mind, here’s a complete province by province breakdown of the main thing each region is known for. Our list starts in the northwestern corner of China and goes mostly clockwise. Including the areas of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, this list includes some oddly specific references:
Xinjiang: Warm and friendly men and women
Qinghai: Keepers of the Earth (implying that they are very knowledgeable and wise)
Gansu: Representatives of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (implying they are “team players”)
Ningxia: Aces every exam
Inner Mongolia: Geeks at horse lassoing
Shaanxi: Inventors of roujiamo (fatty meat paste inside unleavened bread)
Shanxi: Changed professions to become coal bosses
Hebei: Baby, My Heart is Tired (a 2011 break-up song, here referencing the 2008 Sanlu milk scandal)
Beijing: Worriers since time immemorial
Tianjin: Iron Man (implying residents have armor to protect them from the August 2015 explosion)
Liaoning: Everybody is a secretary
Jilin: Mission: Impossible in China’s northeast (alluding to the high number of North Korean spies and defecting soldiers that wander into the province)
Heilongjiang: Holy rice warriors (implying that even though it is very difficult to grow rice in the north, the people of this province still do it)
Shandong: Dragon Gate Inn (a movie that featured cannibalism, implying that the meat in this province is often fake)
Jiangsu: Gods of Lottery ticket gambling
Henan: TVXQ (a South Korean boy band, implying that this province’s economy has changed quickly, making them as flashy as the reference)
Shanghai: National alliance of the rich
Anhui: Romanc-aholics
Hubei: Pretentious
Zhejiang: The Story of a Noble Family (a 2002 CCTV drama, and a tuhao reference)
Jiangxi: Drama binge-watching house angels
Fujian: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind(a 1992 CCTV drama, implying that the province has been hit by many cyclones)
Hunan: Beauty-loving angels
Taiwan: Experts in superstition
Guangdong: Sad workers of overtime
Hong Kong: Keepers of milk powder
Macao: Count their money while lying down
Hainan: Kings of sailing
Guangxi: Naturally into sadomasochism
Guizhou: Wolves of Wall Street
Yunnan: Masters at minesweeping (referencing the high volume of mines still placed along its border with Vietnam)
Chongqing: Mountaintop moneycounters (references the saying, ‘Other people try to see their fate, while we just count our money,” implying that they are very practical)
Sichuan: American Dreams in China (a 2013 Chinese film about Chinese teachers of English; content implies Sichuan people are avid entrepreneurs, like the movie)
Tibet: Falcon of the Snowy Realm (a song and a 2015 CCTV drama, drawing a metaphor that the struggles of the province, such as trying to develop a cross-provincial highway, is like a bird taking flight)
The post A “Stereotype Map of China” Goes Viral by Explaining the Nation’s Prejudicesappeared first on The Nanfang.
https://thenanfang.com/here-is-chinas-map-of-prejudice-for-2015/
