Help!!!did I Offend Chinese People?
 

here's the story:i was dressed with the costume of geisha when there was halloween in my country(Greece) so since here there are a lot of chinese people who usually own stores with clothes me and my friends went to a chinese store and bowed saing nihao(that is hello in chinese language) they all smiled but come to think of that afte leaving the store i was wondering if i offended them since i dressed like a geisha (japanese woman ) and i hear that china is in bad terms with japan.maybe i am overthinking it or not.i really would like your opinion on this

Japan is not at war with China. I am sure they forgot about the moment you left the store.

Not all Chinese hate Japanese, so I think its over thinking it a bit.

My Chinese professor from last semester told us not to worry about offending Chinese people. They just appreciate you making the effort to communicate with them.

She's from Mainland China and didn't mind Japanese people at all, in fact she loves Japan.

It could be that the Chinese store owners didn't speak Mandarin at all. They could've usually spoken another dialect among themselves and they were awkward of listening Mandarin in a foreign place. Perhaps they typically spoke either Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Shanghaiese, generic Min Nan (including Taiwanese), Taishanese, or Teochew.

If I know the meaning of "ni hao" i have a hard time believing a native Chinese person would not know the same meaning.

If you go down to the Guangdong province, they still don't like to use Standard Mandarin. There's a sociolinguistics term for this: covert prestige.

There are Chinese populations who do not encounter speeches in Standard Mandarin in their daily life: half of Chinese-Canadians, most of Chinese-Americans, Hong Kongers, Macanese, Chinese population in the Malay world except for Singapore, etc.

Really? I was under the impression that Chinese-Americans and Chinese-Canadians all spoke mandarin but wrote using traditional characters instead of simplified. Or perhaps I misinterpreted what you meant by this.

D'OHH.

Not every chinese person speaks/writes in chinese. Heck, I'm chinese and I'm CRAP at reading chinese. Don't matter if its simplified or traditional!

Chinese people migrate from all over china to all over the world and some are generation chinese, where they are born in canada/uk/america and have had a more canadian/british/american upbringing.

You are sort of mixing up with Taiwanese and oversea Chinese altogether.

Don't forget to notice "thousands" of Cantonese/Teochew/Taishanese speakers of Chinese in USA and Canada. Mandarin is only recently popular (as in since the 1990s) among North American Chinese.

Odds are they didn't understand you. Not to be insulting, but unless your accent is 100% spot-on, since they weren't expecting to hear you speak Chinese, they didn't understand it.

Alternatively, they understood you, but didn't speak Mandarin, so couldn't reply.

Nope. Until recently, the vast majority of overseas Chinese were from the southern part of China, and likely spoke Cantonese (or Fujian-ese). It is only recently, with the opening up of China, that any significant fraction of overseas Chinese speak Mandarin.

That was my fault, I didn't mean to say that all chinese-americans and chinese-canadians spoke chinese. I was referring to the people who actually do speak chinese.

Out of curiosity, does anyone happen to have a rough estimate of cantonese versus mandarin speakers in these kinds of areas?

Most of the Chinese Canadians I know are Cantonese speakers. Did you think all Chinese Canadians/Americans came from the same part of China? Of course not. I'm sure if you do a search you might come up with some statistics that answer your question.

After about 30 second on google: As Mandarin language becomes standard, Chinatown explores new identity. Reports 30% in Chicago speak Mandarin vs 70% for Cantonese. Without any stats to back me up, I think the number is higher in SF, much higher in LA, and lower in NY. No idea about Canada.

Also, the article is WRONG WRONG WRONG when it equates Mandarin with simplified versus Cantonese with traditional characters. Simplified vs Traditional refers only to the written form, not the spoken form. Simplified is used on Mainland China and Singapore, Traditional is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and most overseas Chinese communities.

If anything, I'd say they were probably entertained by the fact that you even attempted to speak Chinese.

I would say you are over thinking things a bit.

First if the local community was celebrating Halloween, as merchants they were probably familiar with the custom of costumes even if they were not participating. I doubt they would have given a kimon a second thought beyond maybe noticing the fabric or how well you had succeeded in the image you were trying to portray.

Second, nihao (despite the linguistic discourses) is the one word of Mandarin that even when poorly pronounced by a foreigner while bowing, most Chinese living outside the Chinese mainland would understand. No matter how bad you butchered it, they would know that you were attempting a friendly greeting.

Now if you had gone in on just a random day, in western street clothes and greeted them with konichiwa, then you might have sensed some tension for apparently mistaking them for being Japanese.

At the very worst they may have thought you silly or funny and laughed at you, but surely not been offended by your gesture.

The wrong recognition of the foreigner for GEISYA.


GEISYA does song and dance for business.

MAIKO is a young dance girl.

OIRAN is lorette.

Many foreigners cannot tell the difference between these.
A Chinese and the Korean think GEISYA to be be a prostitute.

It was haunted a foreign tourist, and, in Kyoto, MAIKO on the way which faced OZASHIKI was behind with MAIKO at the appointed time.
This becomes the issue of trust for the client of MAIKO.

The foreign tourists protested a tour guide.
"Service of MAIKO is too bad"

MAIKO is not a tourist hostess.

PH-AIL. stop with the generalisation of races, people. just stop it.

thx everyone about the anwers!!!you really help me not to feel guilties!!!LOL!i just feel a little stupid of over thinking it LOVE YA ALL!!! XD:vsign:

Oh really, don't worry, I'm100% sure they weren't offended. I hate the disputes between Asian countries - the past is the past : ).

OK, the Nanjing massacre is a sensitive issue still, yet I think Japan, China and SKorea, Nkorea should help each other out ^^.

hum...
i'm personally never really offended when people try to speak chinese to me....
honestly it comes off as more annoying than anything else...
and very rarely do i ever find it humorous~

but then again, living in the area i do... the people who try to use it are either trying to be silly or are a little over-enthusiastic about cultures...
either way... i personally don't find it all too pleasing >.>'

I am actually suprise that you understood him enough to see the generalisation. I have no idea what he was talking about.....

Something "off topic" (and my apologies):

I do agree with him that Geisha are NOT prostitute. "Gei" just mean "talent", in this case, mostly "artistic" talents.

That whole prostitute thing was something that was caused by the entry of foreigner after the war. What initiated this mentality was the fact that a lot of american troops ended up in Japan THOUGHT that these girls in the geisha outfit (and make up) looks "special" enough that they want to "try" them, as a result, a lot of prostitute decide that it was a good idea to dress like a geish and portray as one to attract customer.

That mentality is no different from how the Japanese sex and porn industry use cosplay to attract client. Its only because there is a demand for it (pervs want service from specific cartoon or game character etc).... Geisha was the same thing.....

I have no idea what he was talking about with Maiko and Oiran....

Ok, but we know you are antisocial, darlinka!
JK....sort of....sumimasen, Wu-san.

But are you talking about whites or other Asians? And this was only an attempt to say hello, not carry on a conversation.

As long as you don't go over the top trying, or as long as you know what you're saying, you should be fine.

hum.. not people whose ancestors speak chinese... but every other ethnicity >.>''

when chinese people cant' speak it all too proper, i find it sad...
and when others speak it.... it depends on how they approach it >.>''
whether they're honestly trying or curious...
or fancy themselves savvy in a language just because they can butcher a word or two
or if they're just trying to be "silly"
ittt all depends

unless somehow you mispronouced "ni hao" but then again i think you might be overthinking it.
Did they look angry to you? xD

they kinda looked like that --> O_O and smiled in a wierd way which i think i can translate it as ''she is crazy''(?) :rolleyes:

do not worry about that too much,mate, i think there is nothing offensive on your behavior.world changes and chinese people change as well, they smile that you could say some chinese word, but that smile is 100% friendly. keep in mind that chinese people do not Hate japanese, especially people born after 1970s. i think you'd overthinking about this.i am a chinese by culture, but Australian by law:)

now i am more relieved ^_^ thx