Polonia /
Polish people have no presence in China and most people are confused! [16]
Well I'm a senior school student in Guangzhou, I must say that Chinese generally hold favorable impression towards the Polish people, but they are unaware about Poland as in most Chinese' view, Poland is only an Eastern European country partitioned for three times, with little significance for China and the world.
There are many reasons we didn't pay attention to Poland, all Chinese knew that Poland was partitioned for three times and fought heroically against the invaders as our gov't used it as part of our patriotist education, so in our view, Polish are brave people with glorious history of fighting but petty history as a state, and no significant dominance and a humiliated sovereignty, making Chinese people consider Poland a small and poor nation although it was not the case.
Poland was the first democratic country that got rid of the Communist regime, this made the gov't aware of to much discuss about Poland, actually about many Slavic countries. They wanted us to memorize Poland as a country against western powers rather than a country against communism, that's why we seldom mention today's Poland which thrived after the Communists were overthrown. If we knew to much about today's Poland, or Poland's development, Chinese people will, urm you know that. If the Chinese people are still considering Poland a country that always follow USA and didn't have much significance, it will do the government good. Pope John Paul II is Polish, he opposed communism, and he is the leader of Catholicism, and Chinese Catholics are a problem for the government as well as we sought for unification with the Holy See while the government imposed bishops upon our Church in China without Vatican authorization.
And there aren't many Polish here, and your diplomatic missions didn't do much things in promoting your culture and commerce. Poland is insignificant for China in today' lives, also, Poland is a country which didn't play a very important role after all compared with those countries mentioned in our news, like USA, France, etc.. I really hope one day your mother country will become stronger and more dominant, so that our news mention you everyday.
I have to say that currently more and more students who are interested in politics and history are paying attention to Poland. I'm studying at one of the best high schools in Guangdong province which is expert in liberal arts and I have some friends around to discuss about Poland sometimes. I know about Poland and so I often mention about her at school like a civillian propagandist for Poland, mentioning it at speeches and classes and conversations and microblogs. Everyone knows Poland after my efforts and they knew that Poland is indeed a respectable state in many ways. Make more friends with Chinese and especially those who are interested in history and politics, and tell them more about Poland, Poland and China have lots in common after all.