Stereotypes - Americans as we knew it

fr.gments

For the past years I've watched my relatives and family friends in China struggling to travel across the seas. I've always been baffled - to me, China was just as great of a place as America was deemed to be.
When I first came to the United States, I had carried with me a little heart but a big dream. I remember reading 哈佛女孩刘亦婷 when I was still in China and it led me to contruct an American Dream of my own. When I arrived in the states, however, I learned that things were much more different than I had imagined.
For the past years I've watched my relatives and family friends in China struggling to travel across the seas. I've always been baffled - to me, China was just as great of a place as America was deemed to be. I guess from a more realistic point of view, America does have more opportunities readily available. However, a common misconception that was prevalent in China (and perhaps still is) is that the Americans are lazy bums who are only into pleasuring themselves and have little ideas on being financially intelligent, etc - making America a great place of easy success. While this does apply to some people, the majority of Americans are hard workers who are just ambitious as anyone else in the world. The only difference is that they know how to utilize the abundant resources and enjoy life as it is instead of being working bees all their lives. Therefore the 'white people' are always portrayed as constantly satisfied - simply because they know how to appreciate life?
Stereotypes are ubiquitous, so let me generalize too. In comparison to the Americans, Chinese people seem to be more ambitious and hardworking. This is probably true - I won't deny it. Because think about it, those who have made all that efforts to get to the land of opportunities sure as hell have enough drive to work their butts off. But to refute this common perception, people often fail to scrutinize the situation in China and how there are just as many people equivalent to the 'lazy Americans' residing there.
I guess my point is, sure you can place a common label among the white people and another among the yellows, but it doesn't mean anything because there are always exceptions. I'm not trying to defend the Americans but rather to offer another perspective from dealing with them on a daily basis. It takes one rotten apple to ruin the stew, but just because one apple is rotten doesn't mean the entire apple tree is, right?

Janice

Stereotypes are impressions deep rooted in our cuture and left upon our mind.They may apply to many people，but not all.And our society has been changing day by day.