Well, first of all, it is not beat the foreigner, it is run against of the foreigner. The word is not aggressive at all, and an actual description for the situation.

And in Chinese culture, your hometown and your homeland is your home forever. For example, inn ancient age, those have been studying and working away from his hometown for his whole life must be buried in his hometown, even if the transportation takes half a year or more and across the whole country. Because those who have been buried in a foreign country or even a neighboring province is the ultimate misfortune for the person.

No wonder, homeland means so much more for Chinese than for other people around the world. For Tammy and Victor, they are A.B.C, American born Chinese. Of course, they are American citizen, but they are also Chinese by blood. Well, plus their Mandarin is really good, they are no "foreigner" in Chinese eyes.

The feeling is like your kid went to the boarding school for a long time and just go back home. Obvious, you have a lot to catch up, but he is still your kid. Right?

For "Our parents will cry themselves to death." is a very ordinary sentence in Chinese. Most people will say "scary to death" instead of "very scary". And we even use "laugh to death" to emphasize how funny something is.

Hope everyone who felt annoyed by Tammy & Victor's word will be pleased with my explanation.

• RE: Cultural Shock - About Tammy & Victor's Word,suzzee, 09:54 AM, 04-21-09
• RE: Cultural Shock - About Tammy & Victor's Word,kidflash212, 07:48 PM, 04-21-09
• RE: Cultural Shock - About Tammy & Victor's Word,huihui, 10:08 AM, 04-22-09
  • RE: Cultural Shock - About Tammy & Victor's Word,kidflash212, 01:03 PM, 04-23-09
• RE: Cultural Shock - About Tammy & Victor's Word,huihui, 09:33 AM, 04-24-09

Welcome to the boards, when you get a chance click on the complete guidelines link on the page above the posts, it'll help.

Speaking for myself I wasn't annoyed at all by Tammy & Victor's words. I'm almost envious of their cultural strength and respect myself being a cultural mutt. Thanks for the lesson in Chinese culture and come back to post .

Suzzopolis by Tribe

Welcome to the boards hui hui!

The way I see it if the situation was reversed, and a white American team attempted to recruit other white Americans to help them beat a team that was not white, most would be highly offended. Tammy & Victor displayed very poor sportmanship in my opinion - not just once but several times.

"No wonder, homeland means so much more for Chinese than for other people around the world"

I think everybody is proud of their heritage and their homeland - I don't think any one country feels this stronger than any other.

Suzzee and kidflash212,

Thank you for your comments.

I want to explain more about the unique part of Chinese culture.
Well, I actually felt very moved when in Singapore, I heard that the first generation of Chinese immigrates always wanted to go back to China, even though they left China as an teenager. And the tour guide even told us that these immigrates' plan was to south-east Asia to make some money, and some of them only thought China is their home after 50 to years living in Singapore. Those who can't come back in their life passed the idea of going to China to their children and grand-children.

I also have that experience. My grandparents came to Shanghai from different places. Although both my parents were born in Shanghai, we all love to visit the hometowns.

And, another example, of all 13 million local residents in Shanghai, 8 million of them have just visited their ancestors' tombs during the last Qing-ming festival. That is, 8 million people go out of the city and back on the same day within a total 6 days' season. Cars piles all the way from Shanghai to Suzhou, and there are high-speed trains leave Shanghai to Suzhou in less than every 5 minutes. Shanghai and Suzhou must be the cities to have most travelers in the world.
And it all comes from our traditions and culture. (A long and boring journey, no fun at all. I don't like it at all.) Which is very strange, because no one like it, and we all have to do it.

For Tammy and Victor, their intension came from the Chinese background. They all want to be the best team, and they are hard on themselves if they can't do it perfectly. The same thing happened to Ronald and Christina in season 12 before.
The difference between the two teams are R/C have more Chinese influence and T/V have more American influence.

Ni Hao, hui hui

I appreciate your comments and want to be clear that my personal dislike of Tammy & Victor is not a dislike of Chinese culture. I live in the most diverse area of land in the world (Queens, NY) and work in an area that is pre dominantly Chinese. I have been awed and fascinated by many of the customs and traditions I have encountered but Tammy & Victor I have found to be spoiled ("I've never driven anything bigger than a Mercedes!"), elitist ("Who doesn't know who Chekov is? Ha, ha") and phony (Victor talking about being protective of his little sister yet seemed to be protecting himself when he allowed her to do the roadblock in Moscow that forced Tammy to run around in her underwear.). Whatever their motivations are, I just don't like Tammy & Victor.

Umm, I like them generally, but I do dislike their behaviors sometimes. For example, Victor left Margie/Luke and another team in Russia without any notice. And they are not so happy with it.

Well, actually, Victor is always been on a decision-maker role, which makes him quite numb about other's feelings, even his baby sister who he swear he will protect.

Lots of people here have that problem. My ex-boss love to take all the credits and let me take all the blames. He hates me when his boss asked me whether I have checked something with him, and I told the truth. He tells me even my work ability is way much better than his ex-assistant, he still prefers her. She is always take all the blames, I mean, anyone, everyone, and everyone else think she is a very cute idiot.

Dark side, right?