Opravy

During the rugby world cup, I watched the French national team’s matches in a bar located in the French Concession.

I had already gone sightseeing in the French Concession before.

I had noticed that that area was relatively similar to a French city (architecture, plan trees, shops….) and a lot of French people were living there.

However, what I found out during the first match I watched in this bar surprised me a lot.

In China, people speak Chinese or sometimes English with the foreigners.

In this bar, nothing was written in Chinese.

I am the first to say that it is a problem when there are information written only in Chinese (like in the buses for instance).

I do think everything should be translated in English, above all in a city such as Shanghai, because it is the international language.

However, to my mind, it is not normal that in a bar in China nothing is written in Chinese.

Once again, I think that it is a very good thing that everything is translated in English but I feel also extremely shocked that a Chinese people who does not speak English could not understand anything in this bar whereas it is in China.

But what surprised me the most was what happened at the beginning of the match.

During the French National Anthem, 95% of the people in the bar sang La Marseillaise (the French National Anthem).

We were in China but everything happened as if we were in a French territory.

French people seemed to live in Shanghai as if they were in France, keeping to themselves.

Nevertheless, I have to confess that, even if now I am criticising that behaviour, I was part of the process.

I did not planned to go there to watch the match “as if I was in France” but I found myself with other French people and I feel very comfortable with this situation.

But what is paradoxical is that French people criticise this kind of behaviour in their country.

For instance, there are a lot of Moroccan and Algerian immigrants in France.

Every time they celebrate the victory of the Moroccan or Algerian national soccer team in the streets, it becomes a public outcry in France: people say “you are in France, you cannot support foreign national teams in the public space” (Chinese people are not used to it but in France it is very common to go in the street to celebrate the victory of the French national team or the victory of the club you support).

Moreover, French people criticise the Moroccan and Algerian communitarianism in France but behave exactly in the same way in China!

I also met a French 32 years old man who has been working for a western firm in Shanghai for 5 years and the very single Chinese word he knows is ”thank you”.

I noticed a lot of foreigners come to Shanghai to work in a western firm and do not try to get integrated into the Chinese society.

They work with other foreigners (and very occasionally with Chinese people), live with other foreigners, go out with other foreigners… They seem to live in Shanghai just because they find a business opportunity but live here as if they were in a Western country.

Of course, we should not generalize, there are some exceptions but most foreigners who come in China to work live like that.

The Chinese authorities/government seems to feel comfortable with that.

Nothing seems to be done to force foreigners to get integrated into the Chinese society.

It surprised me because in France it is completely different.

The French government tries to get immigrants to live in the same areas as natives and, if they want to stay working in France for more than some years, they must learn a descent amount of French…