Chinese Whispers 2.0 – Beijing bikinis and Shanghai Snobbery

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.chinesewhispers.uk/subscribeIn a country as big as China, you will not be surprised to hear that the Chinese people hold many assumptions, prejudices and stereotypes about people from other parts of the country, from other socioeconomic or educational backgrounds, about genders and professions. It’s a topic I’ve wanted to cover for a long time, because it is such an authentically Chinese conversation.So I was delighted when Yaling Jiang of the Following the Yuan Substack covered exactly this earlier this year. Yaling identified six major stereotypes that the Chinese have about each other, from the Beijing Uncle to the Shanghai Socialite or the Shenzhen Drifter.As ever with these cultural labels, they say so much about China, bringing in so much of its history of economic development, the cultural heritage of various regions, gender relations, etc etc. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.Thanks for reading Chinese Whispers! Subscribe to listen to future episodes.