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Red Hair

3634 views. 2010-12-12 23:00 |Individual Classification:Thoughts|

"Red Haired Barbarians", that's how the Chinese described my ancestors when they dealt with the first Dutch mercenaries who sailed to China about 500 years ago. According to the Chinese stories around that time. The Dutch are into piracy. They live on their ships, along with their children and wives and they have no land.

 

Most of those prejudices have been disproved  since my ancestors visited China for the first time. Nowadays, on Chinese schools, every Chinese student is learned that the Dutch come from a Country called The Netherlands or Holland and that they are not really into piracy but that they are true mercenaries. As most of you all know, most Dutch do not have red hair, but have blond or dark hair.

 

From the ones who do have red hair, an official scientific research have proved they are also common people. Every year, the famous British Medical Journal publishes a funny research in their Christmas edition. This year, a research on red haired people was published. The article proved that the prejudices about red people are based on rumors, not on truth. They do not lose more blood than others when they are wounded, they do not have a bigger chance to get a Hernia and they can resist pain as good as others. The research proved, however, that red haired people cannot stand extreme heat or cold as others. This is a remarkable conclusion if you take in account that those Red Haired Barbarians tried every way, in despite of the cold or the Barentsz sea or the Indian and Chinese sea to find their way to China.

 

What ever history tells us, due to technological advances, we know much more about each other now. What that is exactly I hope to learn from you: What is your view on the Dutch?

Post comment Comment (75 replies)

Reply C.Robert 2010-12-26 21:31
rich: what an interesting topic! to tell the truth, i've never met a dutchman in person. however, i do know some, if not much, about that country. first, th
Well, becarefull, they might bite you, haha.

No, kidding you. But seriously, you know a lot about my country. Taiwan was a Dutch colony. The Dutch didn't plan it, they planned to trade with mainland China, but for several reasons, it was impossible to trade so they set up a trading post in Taiwan, which became later on a Dutch colony.

The Dutch fought several wars with the English in the 17th century. I think most expressions are from that age...

All other things are correct, except one thing: the Belgian National Team is called Red Devils. The Dutch are famous for their orange color. The belgians however, have never learned to play football propperly, hehe.
Reply rich 2010-12-27 12:21
thank you for your explanation and the correction. and sorry about the mistake. hehe. i know that the Dutch are, actually, all nice people, despite the bias existing in the language of english. and you're just an example. hope some day i will have a chance to visit your homeland. :-)
Reply C.Robert 2010-12-27 19:28
rich: thank you for your explanation and the correction. and sorry about the mistake. hehe. i know that the Dutch are, actually, all nice people, despite th
Welcome to Holland, hehe
Reply maweixin 2010-12-31 14:23
In light of the interview with Mr. Wittich, I find that Dutch are really good at and put extremely emphasis on mercantilism.
Reply C.Robert 2010-12-31 22:48
maweixin: In light of the interview with Mr. Wittich, I find that Dutch are really good at and put extremely emphasis on mercantilism.
Hmm, as historian, i have to disagree with you. We always have commercial interests, we want to make money, that's all. We never cared much about land or power, like most other nations do.

Mercanitlism is a way to organise the economic system, like capitalism or feodalism. Big difference is that in mercanitlism, people believe that there is a fixed number of wealth in the world, it can never grow. Nowadays, we believe that this is not true.
Reply loong 2011-2-1 22:15
red hair savage, too many cultural gap here.
Reply landor 2011-3-31 06:47
the way for us to know about a nation and her natives is complex . however it is easy for us to konw one person concerning his or her disposition ,hoppy and virtue .at the same time we can learn about his bad evil .so we should learn about how to be a honest guy .we all every one have our country and we stand for it .
Reply sharontiantian 2011-5-3 21:14
red-haired people?I never see one....
tulip and windmill are full of pastoral atmosphere
I appreciate that....
Reply duriankate 2011-8-8 22:04
I wonder how Dutch food taste like. We meet a lot western restaurants here but could hadrly tell weather Dutch food is included.I'm interesting to learn that.^^
Reply C.Robert 2011-8-20 06:33
well, trust me, Dutch food is not that interesting, that's the reason there are no Dutch restaurants. It's boring, like german food,haha
Reply leslielee 2011-10-18 14:25
Dutch was beatened by England. That is what I know about Dutch.
Reply C.Robert 2011-10-18 14:48
leslielee: Dutch was beatened by England. That is what I know about Dutch.
Haha, I know a Dutch king was sitting on the English trone for a while...
Reply leslielee 2011-10-18 16:26
C.Robert: Haha, I know a Dutch king was sitting on the English trone for a while...
Really? Holland was great! but it was an old story.
Reply C.Robert 2011-10-19 14:26
leslielee: Really? Holland was great! but it was an old story.
Much of the old glory is still in place
Reply leslielee 2011-10-20 09:33
Yes,but world is now,not the old time.
Reply C.Robert 2011-10-21 18:35
leslielee: Yes,but world is now,not the old time.
That's what i'm saying, we're still big. Look at some of the worlds biggest brands, such as Philips or Heiniken. Look at the Dutch investments in the world (3rd biggest invester in the USA), look at Dutch military involvement all around the world, look at the transportsector, biggest harbor and one of the biggest airports in Europe, one of the strongest consumer markets in the world. That's wat i'm saying, we're still big, maybe bigger than we ever were. Don't forget the country is smaller and less populated than Shanghai...
Reply leslielee 2011-10-22 11:42
Whether it is No.1 is not important. Dutch is amazing,So what do you think of China?
Reply C.Robert 2011-10-22 21:02
leslielee: Whether it is No.1 is not important. Dutch is amazing,So what do you think of China?
China is a very interesting country, that's why i'm here, trying to learn about it, trying to understand it
Reply leslielee 2011-10-24 09:38
You like it.Beacause you are unfamiliar to China.
Reply C.Robert 2011-10-24 18:15
leslielee: You like it.Beacause you are unfamiliar to China.
Are you implying i wouldn't like it if i know China very well?
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