Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

One friend recently flew to Portugal, and was intercepted twice by staff at the Lisbon airport. On one occasion he was even called off from his flight to be asked questions about his stopover in Croatia.

He wrote angrily on WeChat, "The Portuguese staff didn't have the common sense to know that foreigners with multiple entry Schengen visas can enter the EU or transfer in Croatia without a visa issued by local government!"

What's more, the staff member didn't seem familiar with the passport for public affairs issued by the Chinese mainland authority. Instead, they asked three times whether that was a passport issued by Hong Kong or Taiwan. This inflamed his indignation.

This WeChat complaint was soon followed by a thread of comments from other friends. "No wonder they stay in a secondary country in Europe," one joked. "I cannot believe the European visa process is still so complicated for the Chinese, but I'm sure they will simplify it to attract the Chinese sooner or later," another said.

Incidents like this visa farce can especially irritate Chinese travelers nowadays. When the story of "China's rise" is so heatedly discussed worldwide, the global mood that we've become used to is that we Chinese are always talked about and we are the media's target group everywhere, be the talks positive or negative. Therefore, a typical Chinese mentality nowadays is that it's unbelievable someone on this planet could be so unfamiliar with China!

I still remember a few years back, in 2008, a classmate was in the US pursuing a PhD degree. One summer morning a neighbor who'd never talked to her before knocked at her door excitedly, "I heard you are from China? I watched your Olympic Games opening ceremony last night! It was fantastic!" Before that, in the US, she had even met someone who'd never heard about a country called China. But that surprise was totally offset on the summer morning when the Beijing Olympic Games kicked off.

When she told me the story, her pride obviously overwhelmed her face. It is interesting that just in the past couple of years, the national psychology of the Chinese has undergone very subtle and meanwhile tangible changes. From our relatives, friends, and even ourselves, we can clearly feel how the changes have unfolded.

It was a complex, mixed mentality. On the one hand, the Chinese could suddenly feel foreign attention and were favored everywhere, especially in shopping malls. And foreign media never stop reporting about Chinese buying sprees abroad these years. In duty free shops of every international airport I've been to in the past couple of years, the Chinese are always the most eye-catching group.

This is also why my friend finds it very unacceptable that with a China passport, he received unbelievable suspicion rather than due hospitality.

But on the other hand, the Chinese want to be recognized as "decent" and "graceful" too, as they know how their compatriots are judged and commented on by foreigners. This explains why there's increasing debate among Chinese themselves about codes of behavior in public places.

One Chinese cultural scholar, in his bestseller about works at the Louvre, joked that a funny scene at the museum is that there're always tourists running hard, trying to take a look at every work before they leave. And the running groups are changing with the times. First it was Americans running all day long, then Japanese, South Koreans, and now the Chinese start to run there. With a very large number of people, the scene could be very spectacular.

Apparently, among the Chinese nowadays, there is a basic agreement that it takes time for us to look better in the eyes of our foreign counterparts.

There are studies and polls about Chinese mentality in regard of how they position themselves in the world nowadays. There is also a warning that the Chinese should avoid putting themselves at the center of global attention. Probably Chinese will go toward that direction in the future. But like it or not, this is indeed a period when unprecedented confidence among Chinese can be felt.

The author is an opinion editor with the Global Times. chenchenchen@globaltimes.com.cn