Long as in centuries long.
It's been an ongoing problem.
It's been an ongoing problem.
I personally think it comes from the massive population. As an individual, you MUST present yourself as being the absolute best. If you're "just okay" you blend into the crowd and will never advance beyond your station.
So every minor achievement is talked up as something grander than it is.
And every major shortcoming is either ignored, or mitigated as a minor flaw.
But the Chinese culture is used to this and knows how much is legitimate and how much is BS. Us Westerns don't get it because we generally tell a less exaggerated version of the truth (not the whole truth, just less hyperbolic).
So when we realize a statement out of China is fanciful BS, we assume they're maliciously lying, when they're probably not, they just have a different cultural take on the bullshit multiplier.
I've had a miscommunication before because I told someone who grew up in China that something was "alright". Which as an American I meant "it's really fucking good, but I'm not ballsy enough to say so because there might be something I don't know about which will make it look like a toy". But the person I was speaking to actually thought I meant it was actually "just alright" as in very average.