Why do so many US people not understand how advanced China has become?

为什么很多美国人不明白中国已经很发达了？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Brooks Hurd

I have been to China many times. I understand what is happening in China. It is hard not to be impressed after landing at one of the world’s largest airports and taking the Maglev to Longyang Station at 430 km/hr. This is the fastest commercial ground transportation system on the planet.

Shanghai has huge and growing subway system. In the downtown area of Pux, there are multiple levels of highways .

I went to Semicon China last year and saw a vending machine that only accepted WePay, no cash or credit cards. This simply follows the trend to allow everyone to accept payments phone to phone.

我去过中国很多次了，我了解中国的情况。在世界上最大的机场之一着陆，搭乘时速430公里/小时的磁悬浮列车到达龙阳站后，很难不给人留下深刻印象。这是地球上最快的商业陆上运输系统了。

上海拥有庞大且不断延伸的地铁系统。在浦西还有多层高速公路。

去年我去过中国半导体公司，看到一台自动售货机只接受微信支付，不接受现金或信用卡。这只是顺应趋势，每个人都接受手机支付。

The high speed rail system connects the country in a way that makes the ICE, V or Shinkansen look small by comparison.

When I first went to China in the 1990s, little of this exsted. There were no multi-level highways in Shanghai. There was no Maglev, nor Pudong airport. The subway was partially built but the high speed rail network was still a dream.

There may be people who believe that China is a poor country living in the last century without the benefits of modern technology. All I can say is that they should visit China and see the reality with their own eyes.

相比之下，中国的高铁网令ICE、V或新干线相形见绌。

当我上世纪90年代第一次去中国时，这些都还没影呢。上海没有多层高速公路，没有磁悬浮，也没有浦东机场。当时地铁才刚开始修建，但高铁网还只是一个梦想。

可能有人认为，中国还是停留在上个世纪的贫穷国家。我只能说，他们应该自己去中国走一趟，亲眼看看现实中的中国。

Colin Riegels

To be fair, it is not just China but Asia generally (well, probably the world generally - but let’s keep it manageable). When I lived in Asia and my wife’s relatives would come to visit, they were invariably taken about by just how developed the airports, transport systems and cities were in Asia. Compare landing at Boston Logan and taking the decrepit subway into town with landing at Hong Kong and taking the express to the centre of town (or better yet, being able check in and drop your luggage in the centre of town at the airport express terminal when leaving).

公平地说，不单是中国，整个亚洲(嗯，可能是整个世界)都是如此。

我在亚洲生活时，我妻子的亲戚们来看望我们，他们都不约而同地谈论亚洲的机场、交通系统和城市有多么发达。

把在波士顿罗根机场降落并乘坐破旧的地铁进城的体验，跟在香港降落并乘坐快线到市中心的体验做个比较(甚至更好的是，我们在离开时可以在市中心的机场快线终点站办理登机和行李寄存手续)。

Popular perceptions in America about what Asia is like don’t bear much resemblance to the reality, and relative few Americans travel there. So the world of gleaming, super efficient airports, and hi tech cities might as well be on the moon for all that it enters their daily perception.

美国人对亚洲的普遍看法都跟现实有所出入，去亚洲旅游的美国人也相对较少。因此，在他们的日常感知中，这个由崭新、高效的机场和高科技城市组成的世界就像海市蜃楼。

Godman Andrew

There can be a number of reasons why some people in the United States might not fully appreciate the advancements that China has made. Some possible factors include:

美国有些人可能不太清楚中国所取得的进步，原因有很多，其中可能包括：

Lack of exposure: People may not be well-informed about China and its advancements due to a lack of exposure to accurate and diverse information about the country.

Media coverage: The media can play a role in sha people's perceptions of other countries. Some media outlets in the United States may emphasize negative stories about China and downplay positive developments, which can give people a skewed view of the country.

缺乏接触：由于缺乏关于中国的准确、多面的信息，人们可能不太了解中国和中国取得的进步。

媒体报道：媒体会影响民众对其他国家的看法。美国有些媒体可能一味关注中国的负面报道，淡化中国的积极发展，这会使民众对中国产生偏见。

Cultural differences: Cultural differences between the United States and China can sometimes lead to misunderstandings and misperceptions.

Political factors: Political tensions between the United States and China can sometimes cloud people's perceptions of the country and its advancements.

Education: Some people may not have had the opportunity to study or learn about China's history, culture, and recent advancements, which can limit their understanding of the country.

文化差异：美国和中国之间的文化差异也会导致误解和误会。

政治因素：美国和中国之间的政治紧张局势也会影响人们对中国和中国取得的进步的看法。

教育：有些人可能没有机会学习或了解中国的历史、文化和最新成就，这可能会限制他们对中国的了解。

Ultimately, it's important to seek out accurate and diverse information about other countries and to be open to learning about different cultures and perspectives. This can help to reduce misunderstandings and promote mutual understanding and respect.

最后，我们要浏览其他国家的准确、多面的信息，对不同的文化和观点持开放态度，这一点很重要，有助于减少误解，促进相互理解和尊重。

Sthitapragnya Deshpande

Disclaimer - The author currently lives in China and used to live earlier in UK and India.

A few reasons (and this is true for people outside US as well) -

免责声明：作者目前居住在中国，以前曾在英国和印度生活过。

我认为有以下几个原因：

1) Most of them do not know what a typical Chinese city looks like today. How modern they are, how financially better off ordinary Chinese people are (clue - a worker in China also has a proper brick and mortar house to live in, eats good fresh meals thrice a day, gets reasonable medical health care, gets a bonus each year, and usually signs on contracts of 1 year, and rarely has to worry about unemployment)

1) 他们中的大多数人都不知道，如今一个普通的中国城市是什么样子的。这些城市有多么现代，普通中国人的经济状况有多么富裕(提示—中国工人也有房住，有一日三餐，有医疗保健，每年还有奖金，通常都签一年的合同，很少担心失业)

2) Most are brought up either on nat geo ‘megafactories’ documentaies, the popular news media rhetoric (clue - NYT and WaPo hardly have many reporters living in China), or old time documentaries dating from 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s!

2) 大多数人要么看着国家地理拍摄的“超级工厂”纪录片长大，要么看着新闻媒体的报道长大(提示—《纽约时报》和《华盛顿邮报》几乎没有几个记者常住中国)，要么看着50年代、60年代、70年代和80年代的纪录片长大！

3) We have all been indoctrinated into the idea .... Hence we simply cannot imagine that a country that is not a conventional dem racy can be developed.

3) 我们都被灌输了一些错误观念。因此，我们根本无法想象这么一个国家也能得到发展。

4) Few Americans have visited China and seen the country and its development for themselves. Few of them have interacted with peopel who have visited teh country. Chinese language websites that regularly show this are unknow outside the country. Ditto even for English language Chinese websites (Peoples daily and inhua give a pretty accurate idea of what the country is like, especailly if the iamges - and they are flush with thousands of images - even if what they type is partly propaganda)

4) 很少有美国人去过中国，亲眼看看这个国家及其发展现状。他们也很少和去过中国的人有过接触。中文网站在国外无人能懂。英文版的中文网站也是如此(《人民日报》和新华社如实准确地描述了中国的情况，网站上有海量图片—尽管文字内容上有一部分是政治宣传)。

Ty Yang

I’m not surprised because even as a Chinese like myself, I feel little about how advanced China has become. When I was in high school, I was so used to the nice and neat subway newly built and thought to myself that those stuffs out there are so surely better than Chinese. So the conclusion I have to draw here is that those people, who understand little about how advanced China has become are the people who have not been traveling to the advanced parts in China too much.

我对此一点也不惊讶，因为即使是像我这样的中国人，我对中国的发展也没有太大的感觉。我上高中的时候就已经习惯了漂亮整洁的新地铁，心想国外肯定比中国好。因此，我觉得那些对中国的发展知之甚少的人，肯定是那些未曾去中国发达地区旅游过的人。

Defining what it means to be advanced. From how I see it, the advancedness of a country does not reflect on how well being of any individuals but reflecting on people as a whole. Therefore, to see how advanced a country could be is to see how much effort a country has put into the well being of its public. For example, the construction of fundamental infrastructures, CPI and crime rate will be very good examples here. I will discuss CPI and crime rate in some other answers, and focusing on traffics and educations on this matter.

什么才算发达呢。在我看来，一个国家的发展程度看的不是一个人的生活水平有多高，而要看全国民众的生活水平有多高。因此，想知道一个国家有多发达，就要看这个国家为国民的福祉付出了多少努力。例如，基础设施，居民消费价格指数和犯罪率都是很好的参照物。我以后再谈谈CPI和犯罪率吧，这次先把重点放在交通和教育上。

Like anything I’ve written on Quora, I’m open to all kinds of comments, if you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. I won’t take it as you hate me if you don’t disagree with me, and I admit flaws exst in my writings. So, feel free to comment or anything you want.

This is how nights look like in China. As you can see there are still a lot of places unlighted on nights.

就像我在Quora上写的一样，我接受各种评论，如果你不认同我的观点那也没关系，我不会认为你讨厌我，我承认我的回答存在缺陷。所以，你大可以随便评论。

这就是中国夜晚的样子。正如你所看到的，晚上还有很多地方没有亮灯。

In the link above, you can see how much has China been working to raise the economy of less developed parts of China. It’s a sophisticated answer, so please read this. But since all the high ways and bridges are built in China, and to be honest, before I read this answer I had no idea that China has been contributing so much about its people.

你可以在上面这个链接中看到中国为提高欠发达地区的经济做出了多大的努力。由于所有的高速公路和桥梁都是在中国建造的，老实说，在我读到这个答案之前，我压根不知道中国为自己的国民做出了这么多的贡献。

The 9-year basic education in China is compulsory. There were many very traditional and very wrong ideas in China regarding women. Some of them are still very popular in South Korea and Japan. That is, 女子无才便是德, which means that the ignorance and lack of skills of a woman is her virtue.

中国实行九年制义务教育。中国有过很多对于女性的非常传统和非常错误的观念。其中一些在如今的韩国和日本仍然大行其道，这就是所谓的女子无才便是德，意思是说一个女人的无知和无能是她身为女人的美德。

Zhipeng(Jason) Wang

When I was a kid, our family never traveled to US. All of my impressions of US came from media, TV and magazines. In the 1990s, a lot of American movies with topics related to US Civil wars shown in Chinese TV channels. The background is mostly sugar cane farms in the triangle area of Mississippi, which is extremely depressing and rural. To be honest, before I turned 12, that is the my impression of US.

当我还是个孩子的时候，我们家从来没有去过美国。我对美国的所有印象都来自媒体、电视和杂志。20世纪90年代，中国电视频道播放了大量与美国内战有关的美国电影。背景主要是密西西比三角地区的甘蔗农场，这是一个非常萧条和乡下的地方。老实说，在我12岁之前，这就是我对美国的印象。

If you go to the triangle area of Mississippi even now, you will see a completely different US, US is not only SF, New York, Chicago, Boston and DC, even in our world No. 1 most powerful country, we still have some places which are less developed. So does China.

如果你现在去密西西比的三角地区，你会看到一个完全不同的美国，美国不是只有旧金山、纽约、芝加哥、波士顿和华盛顿特区，即使在号称世界最强国的美国，也仍然有一些地方并不发达。中国也是如此。

David Barry

Plain stupidity or wilful ignorance. It is the same reason why people voted for Boris Johnson and Adolf Hitler. It is the same reason why people voted for Trump. However in the USA the alternative is even worse. The Democrats are likely to cause WW3 if they get elected. Pelosi, for example is more dangerous for the world than Trump.

纯粹的愚蠢或故意的无知。这正是人们投票给鲍里斯·约翰逊和阿道夫·希特勒的原因，也是投票给特朗普的原因。但如果美国民 主党当选，他们可能会引发第三次世界大战。举个例子，对全世界来说，佩洛西比特朗普更危险。