• YouTuber Matthew Tye as he talks about making friends in China.

YouTuber Matthew Tye as he talks about making friends in China. (Photo : YouTube)

Matthew Tye, a YouTube star who is also known as Laowhy86, posted a video on YouTube that went viral. This video shows him walking in Hizhou and talking about meeting Chinese people who are also known as "language rapists."

In the 11-minute video, Laowhy86 explained how Chinese gets away with making friends for the convenience of learning Chinese for free.

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"They see your white face or they see that you're a foreigner and assume they can learn English for free," he said.

He added: "Conversations may be had at foreigners instead of with them. And expect a one-sided relationship where the Chinese side gets more than the foreigner."

Tye advised that it is better to learn Chinese to make friends. He admitted that when he found people in China who shared his interest in motorcycles, it was easier to integrate.

The American said, "It helped further to start conversations with shy locals who might not take initiative and to meet northerners instead of southerners."

"Southerners see one another as connections for practical purposes. They bond in a hey-let's-get-a-beer kind of way only after someone's proven to be a trusted aide in getting business done. I guess my advice would be, go north," Laowhy86 added.

China-based journalist Ralph Jennings agreed with Tye. He wrote, "When I lived in China, I met aggressive English speakers who generously taught me big swathes of Chinese and who had plenty of local friends, some of whom became mine, as well."

However, Jennings said that cultural differences and making friends of other cultures is non-disruptive.

He said, "And while hobbies would form bonds, cultural boundaries never totally melted away. Friends and I usually found the lingering boundaries interesting rather than disruptive."

The journalist said, "Figuring out cultural differences could become itself a hobby. But southern or northern, fellow hobbyist or otherwise, people in China will almost always see a foreigner as a foreigner, a factor that could change their interaction."