'It seems every society goes through this and Qatar is no exception...' i agree eve.
long time ago (1930'ish) when my country was in a better economic standing, chinese traders abound conducting their trades in the streets of manila. locals always make fun of them because of how they look and how they were dressed. comic actors imitate them and were always a hit in the stage or in the movie theaters.
but now the tide has turned. almost every big businesses are owned by the chinese and china is now hundred (maybe even thousand)times wealthier than us.
the last time we went to hongkong we felt that we were not treated right by some of the locals there...sad but hey that's how the cookie crumbles as they say :-)