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Lovemore Chikova Assistant Editor
My experiences in China last year where I spent 10 months on a media programme opened my eyes to the reality of that country. Like in any society, one needs to stay in a foreign country a little longer to understand how that society functions. You will never come to understand a country’s system, be it political, social, economic or cultural, without experiencing them first hand.

Otherwise most of your knowledge about that society is influenced by what you read and what you hear from folklores and storytelling, and the media these days.

Last week I indicated that I discovered a lot of things that I had never imagined in China, which also helped me to understand Chinese people better.

One of the things that I also observed is that there are a lot of prejudices held by Africans about the Chinese and vice-versa.

This is despite that China and African countries have cordial social, political and economic relations.

A Chinese scholar and expert on African affairs, Professor Li Anshan, delivered a lecture at Renmin University of China to my group, touching on this sensitive issue.

As part of my media programme in China, my group of 28 African journalists attended lectures at Renmin University of China’s School of Journalism and Communication.

When Prof Li came to the lecture, the first question he asked was on what we thought about China and the Chinese people before we came to the country.

Reactions were varied, but not too different in their input.

Then Prof Li cited a poll carried out by Chinese Youth Daily in 2006, which revealed the stereotypes that exist.

The Chinese who took part in the poll said they thought Africans were very poor and backward and were always afflicted by hunger and HIV and Aids.

They also said Africans were very primitive and that chaos reigned on the continent.

Africans who participated in the poll said they held the view that the Chinese had very limited desires and simple pleasures and very little legal consciousness.

They said the Chinese do not pay attention to image, do not hang out together, do not have religious belief and eat everything and anything they come across.

But when you stay in China for a longer period you start to discover that in most cases, the people there are different from such widely held stereotypes.

I am one person who had always thought the Chinese were reclusive, not interested in interacting with foreigners.

But as soon as I got used to my surroundings around the Jianguomenwai Diplomatic Residence Compound where I was staying, I also started to discover that the Chinese were very sociable.

Though they always seem to mind their own business, the Chinese are willing to assist foreigners – with directions, how to catch the subway, etc.

They are also always keen to ask you: “Ni jiao shenme mingzi?” (What is your name?), “Ni shi na guo ren?” (Where do you come from?).

It is also common when you pass a group of Chinese to hear shouts of: “Ni hao Feizhou” (Hallo, Africa).

There is no doubt that Chinese people try their hardest to understand foreigners.

When I returned from China in December last year, most of my friends asked me how I survived for all those 10 months when it came to food.

I asked them why they were so particular about food because my understanding was that the Chinese eat healthy food.

One of my friends whispered that his concern emanated from his understanding that the Chinese “eat everything with four legs, except a table, and everything with wings except airplanes”.

Then one of the friends asked with a straight face: “How does dog meat taste?”

I tried hard to explain that during my stay in China I never ate dog meat, neither did I come across someone eating that kind of meat.

In fact, dog meat is eaten in isolated areas of China, but the habit is facing a furious resistance from many locals.

For instance, a small town in southwest China’s Guangxi region called Yulin has a tradition of holding the Yulin Dog Meat Festival where the canines are slaughtered and eaten in broad daylight.

Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, reported last year that the edition of that year festival faced so much resistance from all over the country, as it was deemed to harm China’s rep- utation.

About 64 percent of the survey group, aged 16 to 50, said they would support a permanent end to the infamous annual event.

The survey also showed 51,7 percent of the respondents – who included Yulin residents too – wanted the dog meat trade banned completely, while 69,5 percent claimed to have never eaten dog meat.

“The poll shows most people here don’t eat dogs,” Mr Qin Xiaona, director of the Capital Animal Welfare Association charity, one of a cluster of animal welfare groups that commissioned the survey, was quoted as saying.

An unprecedented eight million Chinese voted online in support of lawmaker Zheng Xiaohe’s legislative proposal during the National People’s Congress in March last year to ban the illegal dog and cat meat trade.

Apart from that, the Chinese generally like their food and they really eat a lot, but healthy food.

A foreigner will not struggle to find something to eat in China, even if they have to eat from a hotel or buy from supermarkets.

The staple food of China is rice, which is mainly grown in the southern parts of the country.

The Chinese also eat a lot of noodles, made from wheat flour or rice flour, especially in the north of the country.

When it comes to relish, the Chinese eat a range of items such as beef, pork, mutton, chicken, duck and pigeon.

It is also common to find special types of frog, tortoise, snails and lots of sea creatures forming part of the dishes in some areas of China.

I found this list not surprising since some tribes in Africa, like the Shangana in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, eat special types of frog and lizard, while tortoise and snails are also eaten elsewhere on the continent.

Vegetables are a popular dish in China and rarely a meal passes without plenty of them.

The vegetables range from Chinese cabbage, spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, and dark leafy greens which can be found easily in supermarkets.

The Chinese also have their own special types of food which are prepared the traditional way.

For instance, the Gong Bao Chicken is made up of diced chicken, dried chilli and fried peanuts.

As part of the programme in China, I had the opportunity to have lessons in how to prepare this type of chicken, which is also popular with foreig- ners.

Then there is mapo tofu, with a history of more than 100 years, and is spicy and has a hot taste which comes from pepper powder.

Dumplings, consisting of minced meat and chopped vegetables wrapped into a thin piece of dough skin, are also another popular food among the Chinese.

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