Best part about a lot of these articles are the coping comments.
Growing up I've met lots of people that thought Chinese still lived in lil temples and wore lil dresses. Perhaps those are the same people.
I went to university in New York - during my first day of orientation, we had to do a self introduction shizzle. When I said I was from Hong Kong (this was a two years before the rioting and notoriety), the conversation went as follows:
Them: Oh is that like near Japan and Singapore
Me: No Hong Kong is in China
Them: Ohhh so you guys are like Communists and shit?
Me: Yes we had to wake up before sunrise, wear our little red scarfs, went to school, and pledged our allegiance to the Communist Party with our Mao booklets while we raised the flag of China to "March of the Volunteers"
Them: Wait really???
Me: No you dumbasses