Not just about culture, I think, but also history.Gaybutton wrote:How much experience do you have and what do you know - not guess, but know - about their culture?
I'm sorry but it's really impossible to quantify. But I'll just give you some basic facts. I lived and worked in Hong Kong for two periods – 11 years till late 1990 and then again for 9 years from late 1992. I first visited Guangzhou in September 1979 just after the effects of the Cultural Revolution were dying away (many Mao suits in evidence) and Deng Xiao Ping was starting on his reforms. I have visited Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou so many times I have not kept count, the former two since 1985 and 1986 respectively. My travels have also taken me to Chengdu, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Harbin and Shenyang. I have Chinese friends in all three major cities, some of whom I meet virtually every year.
As to history, I immersed myself in the history of southern China from the landing of the Portuguese in Macau in the mid-1500s. Re China in general, my knowledge becomes more detailed from the time of Lord Macartney's Embassy to Beiiing in 1793. This failed so spectacularly that it ultimately led to the First Opium War and the gradual colonisation by many powers of large chunks of China's coastline, including Shanghai.
I admit my knowledge of the interior is scanty. But I trust the opinions of my Chinese friends who live in China, some of whom I have known for more than 20 years.
Is that enough?
