In my country, that trope dates back to the 19th century. The image of a Chinese merchant in the Qing dynasty style clothes
It often goes that Chinese merchants can be extremely patient in negotiations — they could wait until the other party just cuts the price.
Another one is that the Chinese merchants don’t trust others easily, and it takes a very long time to build trust or trusting transactional relationship (guanxi), etc.
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Do Americans historically have the same tropes about Chinese people? I’m curious because the Chinese people started coming to the US in the 19th century, when there was still Qing dynasty and the emperor.
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I have honestly never heard of this stereotype before
I don’t know any stereotypes specific to Chinese merchants outside of Chinese food stores and counterfeit merchandise sold in ChinaTown’s around the country. Nothing specific about their work ethic or personalities though that I can remember.
Not a stereotype I am familiar with.
Indians and Middle Eastern folks are usually the ones known for haggling or deal making if we are going with stereotypes.
No. It’s kinda the opposite — they’ll say anything to make the sale. Add to that the counterfeit (fake watches, purses, jewelry) and illegal factors (rhino horns, tiger blood, pangolin scales, wet markets, etc) and questionable ethics arise for the informed.
That’s a no for me dog
No sorry, growing up close to canal street I think most stereotypes about Chinese merchants involve counterfeit merchandise
Opposite of the stereotype I see.
We have the trope of a hard, polite and patient worker, who often runs a family business. I think our tropes are based on immigrant experiences more than on Chinese people still in China, if that makes sense.
I guess it depends on how you define “good” but yeah there’s a pretty strong stereotype for Chinese people owning their own business. Almost every city in the US has a Chinese restaurant opened by a Chinese family. I don’t really think there’s a solid stereotype for how they run their business though. I think they’re pretty flexible, and aware of the market they’re in. Some are shrewd, some are honest, some are cheap, and some are even customer centric, but I think the common factor is they all have the best technique that proves success in that area.
They do have a bit of a reputation for frugality, but that is not limited to merchants.
Well, they are merchants here, and the only difference is that their products are Chinese products or are American Chinese food.
We see china as the cheap merchant whos product will break if you look at it wrong
What I’m mostly thinking of is sketchy sales people that will sell you monsters or cursed objects.
Chinese utterly do not understand the concept of intellectual property. I’d say the stereotype is more the shifty business person that will steal or undercut any chance they get.
Our equivalent of the middle man minority that makes a lot of money is Jews. You see this in some parts of Latin America with Lebanese, or in parts of Africa it’s the Igbo tribe
No, like others have said its more of a reverse dynamic here. I believe Chinese merchants are even where the term snake oil comes from.
The only thing you said that rings true for me is that they like to haggle. Yes, the Chinese love to haggle. Learning to haggle in Chinese was a unit of study when I took a Chinese course in Shanghai.
Unfortunately, the mainland Chinese are not known for being very honest businesspeople. It is a country filled with scams and sketchy shit.
No, honestly, there are some bad stereotypes about Chinese merchants being dishonest or untrustworthy.
Quite the opposite actually.
Over here that stereotype mostly applies to Jewish people.
Hmm for like a noodle shop then yes, but a souvenir shop I automatically assume everything inside is cheap and easily breakable
We have a stereotype of Asian Americans being good at math, which I’ve read is borne out in reality in part because this is an area of homework parents can help with without speaking the language.
Merchants isn’t a word that comes up a lot in America. I believe there is or can be some hostility between Korean American shop owners and African American customers.
I’m not sure any of our racism is literate enough to be specific to China, Chinese Americans, or other Chinese people. In American racism, for the most part, Asians is Asians.
Not in the sense that you’re describing, where it sounds they’re kind of a brick wall. In the sense of being business owners, or being industrious yes.
I kind of hesitate to get into the stereotypes we *do* tend to have, tbh, but corner-cutting would be much more common of a trope.
They do laundry, build railroads, eat anything, cheap, swindlers, and they are everywhere. Those are the outdated stereotypes.
I would say merchants in general are not seen as trustworthy or particularly skilled
No, the stereotypes around here of Chinese merchants here in the US is counterfeit goods for cheap and the stereotype of Chinese sellers in China is shit quality for low prices.
The two stereotypes of Chinese *people* who are in the US is hardworking immigrants in science or medicine, or else bus loads of obnoxious tourists just visiting. As with all stereotypes, most Chinese people don’t fit them, but enough do that people generalize.
I wonder if you don’t get a lot of actual Chinese in your country? Our stereotypes are mostly based on our interactions in the last couple of decades, not a hundred plus years ago.
Not exactly. I grew up in San Francisco in a neighborhood with a ton of Chinese immigrants. There isn’t a “good merchant” stereotype but there is the “model minority” stereotype for Asians in general. This means that they are seen as good students, law-abiding, hard-workers that assimilate into America well. It isn’t the worst stereotype but it’s still a stereotype and people should always be treated as individuals first. A lot of Asian people don’t like the stereotype at all.
Guanxi is important to an extent among Chinese businesses in SF, but nowhere near like it is in mainland China. Among the second-generation, it’s probably not much of a thing at all.
We don’t have a stereotype of them being good merchants, more so as being “Sleezy” merchants, like lying and counterfeiting. I think our “Good merchant” stereotype might go to Indians and Middle Easterners, at least that’s how I see it. Something a lot of Americans might know is the “For you, my friend, I offer a good price.”
What country are you from…
The old stereotype of Chinese involved in commerce in the US is them operating a laundry. I think this supposedly goes back to Chinese-run laundries in the old west.
Nowadays, Chinese merchants are known for low-quality, fake, counterfeit, or otherwise questionable merchandise. . .this goes more to merchandise you’d buy online that is shipped from China.
The only time I’ve ever seen that type of trope around Chinese merchants is in video games. And pretty much all the ones I can think of off the top of my head that do that are Japanese made games.
Not really.
While I was visiting some family in China I got to see a pair of Chinese people negotiating over the price of a kid’s table (my aunt helpfully translated). There was way more shouting and dramatics than I thought there would be. It was amazing. By the time we had to walk away the buyer had gotten the seller down to ten yuan.
What. The Chinese merchant reputation for the US is peddling either cheap or knock off products, sometimes both, also haggling over price. The word shrewdness comes to mind. Not good or bad, but thats just the image that pops into my mind when I think of ‘Chinese merchant’.
No, id say the trope is academic and business achievements
If by good merchants you mean selling cheap counterfeit garbage then yes.
i would say that certainly *used to* be a trope but you don’t see it much anymore
Not Chinese people particularly but Asians are known for working hard and saving enough money to open businesses even as first generation immigrants to the US.