Those of us who live in China are frequently confronted with…interesting assumptions about other cultures from our Chinese friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. Many Chinese have precious little experience interacting with other cultures and so what cultural knowledge there is tends to be an odd collection of stereotypes, half-truths, and myths.
Witness this report from WaPo (hat tip: Frog in a Well):
SHANGHAI — Showcased in bookstores between biographies of Andrew Carnegie and the newest treatise by China’s president are stacks of works built on a stereotype.
One promises “The Eight Most Valuable Business Secrets of the Jewish.”
Another title teases readers with “The Legend of Jewish Wealth.” A third provides a look at “Jewish People and Business: The Bible of How to Live Their Lives.”…
Several of the books, despite their covers, focus on basic business acumen that has little to do with religion or culture. But others focus on explaining how Judaism has ostensibly helped Jewish people’s success, even quoting extensively from the Talmud.
Practically every book features one or more case studies of the success of the Lehman brothers, the Rothschilds and other Jewish “titans of industry and captains of finance,” as one author put it.
Some works incorrectly refer to J.P. Morgan (an influential Episcopalian leader) and John D. Rockefeller (a devout Baptist) as Jewish businessmen.
The article notes that even “positive” stereotypes of Jews have in the past formed the basis for anti-Semitic propaganda and some in Shanghai’s Jewish community are frankly disturbed by the attention. This doesn’t really seem to bother the Shanghainese too much however.
Positive stereotypes about Jews and their supposed business prowess have given the Jewish community iconic status in the eyes of the Chinese public.
The cover of January’s Shanghai and Hong Kong Economy magazine wonders, “Where does Jewish people’s wisdom come from?”
Jewish entrepreneurs say they are bombarded with invitations to give seminars on how to make money “the Jewish way.”
Last year, a Jewish businessman’s family was featured on a popular TV show. As the husband and wife gave viewers an introduction to the Jewish faith, the cameramen went around filming the family in action as they performed mundane household tasks. Reporters asked them what they ate.
Zhou Guojian, deputy dean of the Center for Jewish Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said people in China may be so fascinated by Jews because they feel both cultures share a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
In his opinion, though, there is one big difference. Many Chinese businessmen have “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” Zhou said. “They are content with small-scale enterprises; they are happy just to make a living. But Jewish people want to be the best and make a huge company.”
Wang Zhen, a researcher at the Center for Jewish Studies, also says he recognizes that the stereotypes can be considered anti-Semitic but thinks it’s important that “even if people in China have the wrong impressions of Jewish people, the Chinese are very kind to them.”
Jonathan Dresner, a Japan historian and brilliant blogger, writes at Frog in a Well: “This kind of stuff has been common currency in Japan for years, where the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are still sold in bookstores…as a model for Japanese admiration and emulation, usually.”
Oy, vey indeed!
1
By Brendan
I remember seeing one of those books in Wangfujing last year — 犹太人的æˆåŠŸç§˜è¯€ (“Jewish People’s Secret for Success”), as I recall. The book cover said something along the lines of “Out of the Fortune 500 companies, over 400 are controlled by Jews!”
Who knows, maybe they’re onto something. Maybe the whole block on displaying images of the pig on CCTV’s New Year gala this year is really just because Jews control the media in China, and they’re tired of seeing treyf all over the TV.
February 7, 2007 @ 4:36 pm | Comment
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By richard
While some might say this argument isn’t kosher, there are interesting similarities between Chinese and Jews, or at least there appear to be. Look what happens wherever the Jewish and Chinese diaspora go: they quickly become influential in the business community and often become disporportionately wealthy. Look at Indonesia and the Chinese, and the Jews in the US and most other places. Of course, this may have nothing to do with race, but rather the fact that both cultures famously value their children’s education above nearly everything else. Thus, they simply know more, and are taught both literary and business skills at a tender and impressionable age.
In an infamous book from the Reagan years, The Bell Curve, the authors use lots of questionable statistics to prove that successes like the Jews’ and the Chinese are indeed the products of race; the “study” claims that the two groups with the highest IQs on the planet are the Chinese and Sephardic Jews. Take it with a big grain of salt.
Hope that didn’t take us too far off-topic…
February 7, 2007 @ 5:06 pm | Comment
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By Brendan
successes like the Jews’ and the Chinese are indeed the products of race; the “study” claims that the two groups with the highest IQs on the planet are the Chinese and Sephardic Jews.
Similarly, children of both groups do not eat enough, and hardly ever call their mothers. Not that their mothers mind, noooo; carry a child in you for nine months and then raise them to adulthood and then they move away and never call. A fine thank you that is! And why didn’t they go on to medical school? They had the MCAT scores!
February 7, 2007 @ 5:12 pm | Comment
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By richard
ROFL! Thanks so much for that.
Do Chinese mothers also say they have a headache whenever their husbands want to have sex?
February 7, 2007 @ 5:22 pm | Comment
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By Brendan
Going by the various call-in radio shows I’ve heard, most of them presumably just say “no; too much sex is bad for you.” “Too much” defined, as one caller had it, as “more than once every couple of weeks.”
February 7, 2007 @ 5:24 pm | Comment
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By Pha
Well, when I was at the underground bank complex that controls the world’s wealth the other day I was noticing……
February 7, 2007 @ 6:03 pm | Comment
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By davesgonechina
I’ve been taking photos of those books off and on in bookstores since 2004. I keep meaning to post them to flickr. I’ve got a couple of dozen or so. The really interesting thing is I’ve never seen the same one twice. I figure that they sell reasonably well, and the publishing houses make sure to crank out a couple every year.
Are there really 10,000 Jews in China? Is that included Chinese who claim to have Youtai ancestry. or is that all expats? And how would they count how many Jewish expats there are? Unlike Chinese passports, your ethnic group isn’t on American or European ID.
February 7, 2007 @ 10:21 pm | Comment
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By davesgonechina
I’ve been taking photos of those books off and on in bookstores since 2004. I keep meaning to post them to flickr. I’ve got a couple of dozen or so. The really interesting thing is I’ve never seen the same one twice. I figure that they sell reasonably well, and the publishing houses make sure to crank out a couple every year.
Are there really 10,000 Jews in China? Is that included Chinese who claim to have Youtai ancestry. or is that all expats? And how would they count how many Jewish expats there are? Unlike Chinese passports, your ethnic group isn’t on American or European ID.
February 7, 2007 @ 10:28 pm | Comment
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By Sonagi
Koreans also have an interest in the Jews but with a slightly different angle. Like other Asians, Koreans admire the success of the Jews, but are also envious of the solemn attention accorded the Holocaust in the West.
Korean author Jo Jung-rae “claimed that occupation by Japan was psychologically harder on Koreans than Nazi Germany was on the Jews.”
Read his logic here: http://hunjang.blogspot.com/2005/07/jo-jung-rae-on-holocaust-and-japanese.html
The writer of a hugely popular social studies comics series for children devoted an entire chapter to the Jews in a volume about the US. Unflattering racial caricatures are the norm in Korean children’s educational materials, and this book was exceptionally awful. I uploaded the most offensive cartoons at Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62177820@N00/
February 7, 2007 @ 10:37 pm | Comment
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By Dennis
Let’s see the Jewish titans of business : Larry Ellison of Oracle, Michael Dell of Dell computer, Sergey and Page of Google, and Ben Bernanke of the Fed. Hmm, I think the Chinese are onto something…
February 8, 2007 @ 6:42 am | Comment
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By chengb02
there are definitely a lot of similarities between the Chinese and Jewish culture. It reminds me of a story an Israeli prof I had shared with me about a trip he took to China. He was taken to dinner by professors of the school he was visiting and he didn’t speak Chinese, they didn’t really speak English, and he was forced to explain the ideas of Kosher dining and why he couldn’t eat the pork dishes. At one point he explained how its one part of the Jewish culture, which dates back thousands of years. To this, his Chinese colleauges could understand, because of the equal pride the Chinese share in how old their culture is.
There is also the constant stereotype that Jewish=smart. Admit you are Jewish to Chinese and they’re expectations of you will rise.
As for 10,000 Jews, I can’t imagine that would be expats, because it would be so hard to calculate, unless it’s just a guess based on the number of American visitors/expats multiplied by the percentage Jews make up of the American population. If its just the Chinese who have Jewish ancestry, it would be surprising the number is as high as that.
February 8, 2007 @ 8:17 am | Comment
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By chengb02
there are definitely a lot of similarities between the Chinese and Jewish culture. It reminds me of a story an Israeli prof I had shared with me about a trip he took to China. He was taken to dinner by professors of the school he was visiting and he didn’t speak Chinese, they didn’t really speak English, and he was forced to explain the ideas of Kosher dining and why he couldn’t eat the pork dishes. At one point he explained how its one part of the Jewish culture, which dates back thousands of years. To this, his Chinese colleauges could understand, because of the equal pride the Chinese share in how old their culture is.
There is also the constant stereotype that Jewish=smart. Admit you are Jewish to Chinese and they’re expectations of you will rise.
As for 10,000 Jews, I can’t imagine that would be expats, because it would be so hard to calculate, unless it’s just a guess based on the number of American visitors/expats multiplied by the percentage Jews make up of the American population. If its just the Chinese who have Jewish ancestry, it would be surprising the number is as high as that.
February 8, 2007 @ 8:17 am | Comment
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By michael
Being Jewish myself, what you’ve said above is obvious to me every day of my life in China. Here’s a typical business lunch scenario:
Chinaman A: Michael is Jewish, you know!?
Me: Yes, yes.
Chinaman B: Oh! Jews are the smartest. So great!
Me: Yes, it’s true. Jews are very smart.
Chinaman A: Einstein, Marx… they’re all Jews!
Chinaman B: And Kissinger, Rothschild, Soros, Dell…
Chinaman A: Hey, did you know that C is from Henan? Henan people are the Jews of China!
Me: Really!? I am a Henan person from a foreign country.
Everybody: Hahaha! He is a Jew of China and he is a Henan person from the West! Let’s all drink Baijiu!
Somebody: Yes, Jews are really terrific.
February 8, 2007 @ 11:12 am | Comment
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By LA
Using racial slur! That’s just sad and pathetic.
February 8, 2007 @ 12:36 pm | Comment
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By leah
Looking at the religious and cultural systems at work among a group of people in order to find factors that lead to economic success is an interesting project to undertake– now as well as a hundred years ago when Weber was writing “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.” But any new project with these sorts of conceptual parameters should also take into account the critical revisions that have been made to Weber’s ideas, namely that successful Protestant capitalists didn’t/don’t have a monopoly on the entrepreneurial spirit. If the trend in economic success that Weber identified among Calvinists is now the same trend that Chinese pundits are finding among Jews, then this would seem to reinforce the notion that any kind of cultural disposition towards entrepreneurialism (if that argument can be made) is always contingent on historical (etc.) context.
Even as most Chinese “know” about Jewish intelligence/business acumen, Su Fei’s “Sexy Beijing” holiday special did a great job of showing some gaps in the knowledge of things Judaic. (“Hanukkah? What’s that?”) So maybe these books have an important place after all, if not exactly as their authors envisioned!
February 8, 2007 @ 2:23 pm | Comment
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By China Law Blog
Enough with the seriousness and I do hate to jump in here and use this as a forum to steer people to my blog (actually, I don’t hate it at all, I am just saying that), but I did a post on this and it contains THREE (yes 3!!!) Chinese-Jewish jokes: http://www.chinalawblog.com/chinalawblog/2007/02/china_where_eve.html#comments
February 9, 2007 @ 9:21 am | Comment
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By samuel da jewtoo
I live in america and jews do own everything…law, hollywood, investment banking, and us bigoted americans also get perked up when we stumble onto a crafty business trick since we know we might be able to learn from the jews
here is a typical dialogue I hear:
jewboy A: what’s a good place to go, not get your ass kicked by neonazis, and date women who have no expectation of you as long as you look like a white boy.
jewboy B: why, the orient of course, I live here because I am too much of a loser to have a profession back home in the UK!
February 9, 2007 @ 3:43 pm | Comment
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By richard
That’s a conversation you often hear, “jewtoo”? What’s up – are you being humorous (if so you may need to try again) or…?
February 9, 2007 @ 3:57 pm | Comment