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Comment by onemoresoop | Hacker News Reader

Re-posting this sad and yet amusing comment from RalphWise:

This story helped me recall an article I read in the FT about 10 years ago. A Germ an businessman set up shop in China and hired locals to help him run the business. After about six months, he came to work one day only to discover he was fully cleaned out. No cash anywhere, all the books and inventory gone.

His employees had figured out how his business worked, started their own business within his business, siphoned off the cash and profits and took him hook, line and sinker.

When the locals were asked why they did it, they said it was simple..."he was a foreigner, and he deserved it."

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Disclaimer: I'm a Chinese.

But I believe there's a mistranslation or misunderstanding about 'he was a foreigner, and he deserved it'. I perfectly understand this kind of things happens a lot in China, but it has nothing related to the concept of 'foreigner'. Chinese people are more likely to do the same to each other.

The word 'deserved' is obviously '该', which means, in this particular context, more like describing 'That is how things work, and he should not be so careless about other people' instead of being a foreigner is negative for local people or he should be punished by being a foreigner.

But which statement is true is that, where there is profit, there would be Chinese people doing it, despite if it's not ethical. There are a bunch of examples like gutter oil, gene edited babies etc.

As for the foreigner part, generally speaking, Chinese people are much, much more xenophile than xenophobia, at least to western people. Anyone has been to China can confirm this. Most Chinese people would more gladly to lend a helping hand to a foreigner rather than other Chinese people because there is far less chance they would be scammed.

He's a foreigner, and that's just how we roll.

this reminds me common sight of foreigner with local Chinese girlfriend/wife and sellers in markets blaming her for helping foreigner

so much for possibility of integration into Chinese society as foreigner, no matter how good it's your Chinese or culture knowledge you will never be accepted

Give it 30 years. Including a lot of uncomfortable call outs when someone starts going on about how great the Chinese are genetically.

I think some people have to be 'pioneers' on that front; in this case, I wouldn't be so offended that someone who is trying to swindle me doesn't accept me. Part of growing as a person is identifying, challenging or accepting your biases, which can be uncomfortable; if a person (Chinese or otherwise) doesn't accept me as a result of not doing that, it's on them, and it's their failure as a person. At most I can advocate that others challenge their beliefs so the next person in my (hypothetical) position doesn't have to suffer such fools.

you will give up after few years if it's majority of society around you, you don't really wanna spend life in society where you are not accepted and always seen as outsider even after decades while you may be bigger Beijinger than most of new Chinese arrivals

Not just China, Japan too. No level of language fluency will get you accepted into the Japanese society. If you don’t look Japanese, you’ll always be a foreigner. You can even be born part Japanese and if you look mostly white then you’re still on the outside.

How did Japan came to the discussion in the first place? You wanted to add a random fact you read on the internet?

And to add my own opinion, for the people that know you, you are considered one and the same. Yes people who don't know you will assume you are a foreigner due to your looks, but why do you think this is a Japanese and Chinese thing only? Do you really think an asian man is seen as local in the first glance in Sweden or Ethiopia?

Not everywhere is America.

well it's known fact Japanese are even bigger racists than Chinese, although i would not call it for most of the Chinese really racism, more life ignorance and lack of knowledge or just curiosity, for sure I experienced more racist/xenophobic behavior in few months in Prague than in years in Beijing, so in hindsight Chinese are not really that racists, which still doesn't negate fact that you will be always outsider not accepted and feel uncomfortable after few years

There is probably a lot of that going on everywhere.

There are some studies done to demonstrate that such possible bias exists even in America -- eg, "Xenophobia in American Courts" KA Moore.

I noticed some oddities during the epic Samsung vs Apple trials years back. There were some lopsided procedural rulings against Samsung, a foreign business entity, that crippled their defense; when Samsung prevailed in ITC, Obama reversed Samsung's ITC win against Apple that would have banned import of iPhones (or would have forced Apple to settle with Samsung) on some nebulous "public interest" ground; and, finally, absurd infringements and equally silly huge monetary damage unseen elsewhere by American court jury and judge.

But who cares. Trump, like its predecessor Obama, ought to be able to do whatever necessary to protect successful domestic businesses against foreign competitors. I think we just need to stop thinking it's all about fairness.

China likewise should be able to do whatever it sees necessary to protect and promote their domestic economy.

Are you endorsing the illegal behaviour outlined above?

I'm saying that xenophobia exists everywhere in all shapes or forms (legal or illegal).

We take America too much for granted. I came as an immigrant child 25 years ago and aside from maybe 4-5 relatively minor incidents, I haven’t faced any major racism. Considering that I have maybe 2 dozen interactions daily and have encountered likely 10,000 people in my life that’s quite extraordinary. A recent survey came out that 60% of millennial believe America is one of the most racist countries in the world.

Have significant immigration to any other country and watch the tribalism rise up. America post 1990s has been the most welcome place for mass immigration in human history.

In regards to China, I think they are great with foreigners. Urban China is quite fantastic. Might get a few dirty stares if with a Chinese woman but all things considered that’s not bad at all. Hopefully soon it’ll get better over the coming decades.

Canada is also quite welcoming of immigrants.

Basically the same country, just more left leaning.

No guns, better healthcare, and legal weed.

Sign me up :-)

the comma signifies a lot tho. they did it because he was a foreigner, period? or because he was a foreigner and a terrible, mean boss?

The fact that the response started with it means that it was a sufficient cause.

> The fact that the response started with it means that it was a sufficient cause.

That's a fairly odd interpretation; if there were multiple causes, none of which were sufficient without the others, one would still need to be mentioned first.

remember the url ?

Another interesting tail, an interview with the first Mr. Softee operator in China: http://arithegreat.com/ari-shaffirs-skeptic-tank-221-mistu-s...

The operator tells stories of how the local workers did everything possible to skim, copy, and swindle; the money quote for me was something like, "If you want real honest-to-god free market capitalism, go to China."

I've got a friend in the packaging business over here. Was a babe in the woods until he found the agencies working with him on sourcing taking an extra cut of $125,000 kickback from the factories (on top of their negotiated fees). No honor among thieves.

I wouldn't consider that theft because it's common dealing with China knowledge that kickbacks are involved especially depending on who you work with. Being paid by both parties are not uncommon for an agent.

Not the one you're looking for, but 'Brits get rich in China' is in a similar vein:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSHax1Dic1o

Possibly a better quality copy out there in torrentland...

This read like a joke until the end.

So this is just some random anecdote that has literally zero details in it? I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from this, can someone help?

I mean they had museum exhibits dedicated to comparing black people to animals

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/14/chinese-museum...

And then the whole million muslim concentration camp. Chinese are pretty big on xenophobia. It's basically how the communist party is able to hold every thing together, the century of humiliation and us against the world mentality

China today is somewhere around the 1900s US when it comes to racism. Lynchings and eugenics included.

So this is what HN has come to? Why is this downvoted? I'm interested as well and would like to read more depth in this comment. Where's the source? The two other replies to this comment are not related whatsoever.

The "foreign" business man in this international business fairy tale doesn't sound very smart. He transferred his knowledge and money to strangers and walked away from his business for about six months in China. Did he expect red carpet ceremony and a firm welcome handshake from the president of Bank of China upon return?

Wonder if it's fair to blame the observant locals for what was most likely careless, condescending and delusional in foreigner's poorly thought-out business plan.

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