Streettalk

“I have been to China three times and I am impressed with the rapid development and turnaround. I get the impression that Chinese people are normal people, like all of us. They are working hard to improve lives. They have challenges and a difficult history, like many of us. But they are very committed to a better livelihood, technology and economic development.”

CHANDA MFULA,

media and publicity director of the Patriotic Front, Zambia’s ruling party, in Lusaka. “Almost a year has passed, and no, I haven’t had ‘enough’ of China. In fact, I plan to try to stay in China for at least an extra year beyond the planned two years of my position. For one thing, I want to learn more Chinese. The truth is that I often complain about the pollution, the Internet and generally about how Chinese do things, but those problems are not serious enough to cause me to want to leave already. Additionally, I feel that there is much more for me to discover in China. So my thoughts about China, like about any other country, are a mixture of good and bad. And one reason I decided to come to China, despite all that, is my optimism that it would be better one day.”

JOHAI MEIRON,

a post-doctoral researcher of astrophysics, from Haifa, Israel, who is working at Peking University, Beijing. “China, in my mind, is associated with good food, desirable culture and friendly people, and I think many people around me hold similar opinions. The country’s economy is growing rapidly, which the rest of the world can all benefit from. I am not afraid of China because China does not have a tradition of being dangerous.”

WILLIAM ARMANI,

student of the business school at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, United States.