New Delhi and Beijing may be talking shop, but Indians and Chinese still know little about each other. In fact, PM Modi may have had a fair idea of this when he made the Joint Statement with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang this morning.
Ordinary Beijing folk still think Indians dance on trains and keep their streets dirty, as Wall Street Journal finds out.
The Asian Competitors
When 28-year-old IT professional Mr. Wang was asked if he ever wanted to visit India, he said he would never visit the country as nothing about India attracted him. But he did say he thought India was the only country in Asia that could compete with China.
No Modi Magic?
All that retired Liu Yumin knew of India was that it was a huge country with a large population. She also didn’t know too much about Prime Minister Narendra Modi apart from the fact that she had seen his name on news.
“A Nehruvian Mistake”
Beijing resident Yang Baozi, 65, thinks India and China’s dispute over territorial borders is Nehru’s doing. He believes the issue has been shelved multiple times before and that it needs to be resolved sooner or later.
“India is a Buddhist Nation”. Really?
26 year old real estate worker Jin Di said she wouldn’t want to visit India as the place didn’t seem very popular among tourists and had dirty streets. Interestingly, she thought India was a Buddhist nation.
“Indians Dance on Trains”
The most entertaining answer came from Ke Min, a consultant from Hubei, who said the first things she thought of when someone asked her about India was Bollywood, religion and images of people dancing on top of trains.
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