MAINLAND CHINESE STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES

The number of foreign students at American Universities is, roughly, around a million, of which one third are from mainland China. And a number of these are not sympathetic to the protests in Hong Kong. This blogger would guess that that is because they've been long accustomed to sneer at Cantonese speakers along with all other overseas Chinese out of a mistaken sense of superiority.

Which shows when they wander about in Chinatown.

It did not used to be like that.


In the past, before Mainlanders arrived, the sneering outsiders were always Taiwanese, who also thought that speaking Mandarin and being superior were charming and divinely inspired. The Taiwanese have gone native here, their United States born children sometimes still speak Mandarin, though they often wish that they could actually also read Chinese -- one reason for "Northern" style eateries to have menus with a lot of English and pretty pictures is so that they can cater to those people -- but since then Mainlanders have discovered that an easy escape route during the next crackdown on corruption is to have relatives in America.
Hence large numbers of fuerdai (富二代 'fu yi doi') on college campuses, and precisely like tourists, descending on nearby Chinatowns.


That, partially, accounts for all the bubble tea places.


This blogger can think of at least five such establishments, where Mandarin is spoken, Cantonese just isn't understood at all, and most of the patrons are of very limited character development. But "expensively" dressed and equipped.

More hospitable places insist that their staff be trilingual.

That usually means local people.





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