Like I’d feel comfortable saying I’m an American, but like “I’m a Chinese” sounds so like… gramatically wrong.
Like, idk if its the -ese suffix. Or ifs its because the term “Chinese” can be 中国人 (Chinese National)，华人 (Chinese Person (as in ethnicity))，中文 (Chinese Language)，中国的 (China’s)，华裔 (Ethnic Chinese)，汉字 (Chinese Characters)… so it feels so like imprecise as a term, where as “I’m Chinese” is obviously refering to ethnicity (or nationality)
When someone say “the Chinese”, like when they refer to China’s success or failures, as in “the Chinese have managed to do XYZ”, idk why, but I half expect the speaker to be subconciously racist for some reason… like I feel like that phrase is categorizing me into the CCP’s decisions… like as if they’re assuming I’m part of a monolith that doesn’t have independent thoughts or something.
Maybe it’s just me and I’m overthinking this weird grammer rules.
I would say “the Chinese invented many things in the last two millennia.” And “China is constantly posturing against Taiwan” to separate the people from their government.
“The Chinese” doesn’t have to be racist it can just include all the people of the region across all times. It can be a bit ignorant but doesn’t flag maliciousness
Language is so weird tbh.
Like I’d feel comfortable saying I’m an American, but like “I’m a Chinese” sounds so like… gramatically wrong.
Like, idk if its the -ese suffix. Or ifs its because the term “Chinese” can be 中国人 (Chinese National)，华人 (Chinese Person (as in ethnicity))，中文 (Chinese Language)，中国的 (China’s)，华裔 (Ethnic Chinese)，汉字 (Chinese Characters)… so it feels so like imprecise as a term, where as “I’m Chinese” is obviously refering to ethnicity (or nationality)
When someone say “the Chinese”, like when they refer to China’s success or failures, as in “the Chinese have managed to do XYZ”, idk why, but I half expect the speaker to be subconciously racist for some reason… like I feel like that phrase is categorizing me into the CCP’s decisions… like as if they’re assuming I’m part of a monolith that doesn’t have independent thoughts or something.
Maybe it’s just me and I’m overthinking this weird grammer rules.
I would say “the Chinese invented many things in the last two millennia.” And “China is constantly posturing against Taiwan” to separate the people from their government.
“The Chinese” doesn’t have to be racist it can just include all the people of the region across all times. It can be a bit ignorant but doesn’t flag maliciousness