HANGZHOU, China — For starters, the general take is pretty much like that of Americans. Some love him, some hate him, but mostly they are interested in him. The primary difference is they care about Donald Trump less than Americans do—which makes sense given that they are thousands of miles away in a country that prides itself in marching to the beat of its own drum.

Drill down a bit though, and you get some more nuanced views. Among internet and financial elites in Hong Kong for instance, Trump is perceived as you might expect, with dismay and eye rolling. “Is he really that crazy,” I was asked at a fancy dinner there.

But on the mainland, the U.S. President elect has supporters from various quarters, which is maybe surprising given Trump’s get-tough-on-China rhetoric. What’s important to remember is that many Chinese overlook his bluster and focus instead on his celebrity. When a roomful of 100 or so undergraduates at Zhejiang University, (a prominent school in Hangzhou), was asked if they knew of Trump on “Celebrity Apprentice,” nearly all of them smiled and nodded their heads.

Remember too that there is little love for Hillary Clinton in China because of her own tough talk on China, which was directed towards social issues like human rights in addition to economic ones. So, either the commentary on social issues matters more, or Clinton had no cool reality TV show to mitigate her criticisms.

Michael Wu

Consider Michael Wu, 30-year old CEO of Sunshine Construction Company, in the smaller city of Xinchang. Wu, who lives in a mansion with a giant swimming pool and basketball court (“…a dream since I was a child”) adjacent to a sprawling nursing home complex he’s building, is sanguine about Trump.

“I support him more than Hillary,” he said, “Even though I don’t agree with everything Trump says, at least it’s not the same old political talk. Hillary was not honest and was the same old talk.”

What about Trump’s anti-Chinese remarks?

“We’ll have to see if he does anything,” Wu says.

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And that seems to be close to the position the Chinese government is taking—even in the wake of Trump receiving a call from the President of Taiwan, which is a bit of provocation by Trump. For three days in a row, headlines on the front page of the China Daily newspaper, an English language mouthpiece of the government here, sought to downplay the brouhaha: “Wait-and-see approach urged on ties after Trump Twitter remarks,” and “One-China policy reaffirmed by US,” etc.

China Daily

China Daily

And indeed in a country with an economy growing two to three times faster than in the U.S., as evidenced by the endless construction projects everywhere, and poised to eclipse the U.S. as the biggest economy in the world, the Chinese can likely take that attitude.

Indeed most of the questions in the discussion with students at Zhejiang University, were concerned more with social media than with Donald Trump.

Andy Serwer is editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance.