Essay on the Perceptions and Values of the Chinese This book is the result of a study carried out in Guangzhou (Canton), financed by the European Union and focusing on the perceptions that the Chinese have of Europe and Europeans.
The perceptions tell us nothing or little about the social reality and the real behaviour of others.. They are above all an implicit confrontation with the values of those who pronounce them. They act as a projection. Here, they express the framework of thought and implicit values of the Chinese, at the same time as they give a true idea of what the Chinese think of Europeans.
It is the role of the social sciences to deconstruct these perceptions in order to objectivize them, that is to say put into perspective their link with the reality described. This done, it is possible to create a certain distance in relation to what is expressed, a certain relativism, the existence of which is necessary in an intercultural perspective.
