A survey organized by the Communication University of China (CUC) in Beijing shows that foreigners like China better after the Beijing Olympics, but still hold negative opinions about some of the Chinese people's behavior.
A total of 2,400 foreigners took part in the survey through either face-to-face interview or online questionnaire from July 23 to Sept. 9 before, during and after the Olympics were held, said professor Ke Huixin of the CUC earlier this week at the Asia Communication and Media Forum in Beijing.
Online survey was carried out among citizens in the United States, Britain and Singapore, according to Ke. Face-to-face interviews covered foreigners from Europe, America and Asia who were staying in Beijing during the Olympics.
The company Survey Sampling International's Beijing office was in charge of the online survey, said Ke. Face-to-face interviews were done by the company CSM, a joint venture between China Central Television (CCTV) and the Taylor Nelson Sofres Gruppe (TNS), a leading market research group listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The survey was designed using the format of a typical five-level Likert items, the most widely used psychometric method in questionnaires developed by American educator and organizational psychologist Rensis Likert.
When responding to a Likert questionnaire item, respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement, namely, "strongly agree", "agree","disagree", "strongly disagree", "don't know" or "not sure".
Statements on China's politics, culture and economy, of the Chinese people and the city of Beijing, such as "I think the Chinese people always keep their promises", "Most of the stuff I buy is made in China", "I love Chinese food", "In China, people enjoy religious freedom" were used in the survey.
The answers were transferred into figures which reflected the degree of affection toward China. The higher the figures are, the better the images of China and the Chinese people are.
According to the survey, foreigners' general impressions of China were better after the Olympics, whether they came to the Games or not.
China's economic image in their eyes rose from 3.1 to 3.2; cultural image rose from 3.0 to slightly higher; political image remained the same, at 2.6; image of the Beijing city rose from 3.0 to 3.1.