carilyn:Heard of Taiwan 228? They also go through a long period before they are what they are now.
I had a Taiwanese colleague who look down on South east Asian countries including Singapore totally. But she is a nice lady as a friend. I saw how dramatic and chaotic taiwanese can be - and never have good impression of them until I visited the place not too long ago and found most of the people there are nice and helpful.
I used to be quite biase against mainland Chinese. Until I visited the country and again found most of the folks there to be nice and helpful. Some simple folks even warned us of how sly and cunning some of their fellow people are, and they too fall victim to them.
I used to believe most of the westerners agree civilized and friendly, until I went to stay there for a year...
Sometimes I feel paiseh to admit I am Singaporean when I saw how our own people behave overseas, and I am sure at times I made them feel ashame of me too.
It's the individual that matters, not the nationality.
I agree with you, actually most of the local folks in mainland China treat foreigners better than the China people been treated by the foreigners when they are in foreign countries, this maybe due to the chinese tradition \"should give guests better thing than own people\", but the western culture is just opposite.