“Chocolate City” - Africans seek their dreams in China
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In Guangzhou, a 10 square kilometer area centered around Hongqiao has been given the name “Chocolate City” by taxi drivers.
Every day after noon, “Chocolate City” begins to turn lively. Tens of thousands of black people seem to erupt from the ground in groups of twos and threes. Carrying large black plastic bags or wearing backpacks, they look through the stalls along the street. The stalls are filled with “tail goods” (尾货, excess production that did not meet quality standards) from thousands of small factories throughout Guangdong: blue jeans, unbranded television sets, hand-assembled cell phones.
In distant Africa, nearly 50 countries exploding with demand have opened their arms wide, and are rapidly digesting all of these consumer products not produced locally. Based on Chinese official statistics, during this period of China-Africa trade fever that started in 2003, the number of Africans headed to Guangzhou has been growing at annual rates of 30-40%.
Enticed - “Go to China!”
Clem quickly cuts through the flow of car traffic, like the fish you can never catch. He hesistated when he saw the Southern Metropolis reporter, but finally crossed the road using the pedestrian bridge nearby. He embarassedly stuck out his tongue, saying: “Sorry, I still don’t have the habit of waiting for traffic lights and crossing at pedestrian bridges.” When he’s warned that “Guangzhou’s public security isn’t very good, be careful with your backpack”, his eyes open wide with shock. “Are you joking? Public security here is the best!”
25 year old Clem comes from Nigeria. Before, he saw Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, as heaven. But after he arrived in Guangzhou, he felt he truly stood at the gate to heaven; China is the true heaven.
He couldn’t stop explaining to this reporter: many public buses in Lagos don’t have doors, so that during heavy traffic some passengers will hang outside the bus! The roads in Lagos basically don’t have any traffic lights, only on major intersections will here be two traffic police officers. Lagos doesn’t have so many passenger cars, instead, motorcycles imported from China dominate the streets…
If he hadn’t come to China, Clem would have continued managing his auto parts store. He would be working with partners to resell tires, steering wheels, and seats imported from China at up to 10 times profit. Every time he went to pick up parts, he’d run into clothing store, leather store, jewelry store, or just convenience store bosses, all of them waiting together for packages from China. Every time they see a Chinese person walk-by wearing a suit and carrying a leather suitcase, someone would whistle. “Look at that, we buy all this cheap crap from their country, but they’re shipping away Nigeria’s valuable oil!”
About five years ago, Chinese petrolem companies and businessmen poured into Africa. This led many locals to feel that China was grabbing their resources and rice bowls (jobs). And yet from tractors to toothpaste, everything was “Made in China”; this stimulated many of them into looking in China’s direction. Many of Clem’s friends encouraged him, “Go to China! Nigeria’s using petroleum to trade for foreign currency, and the Chinese are buying it to build heaven!”
When he watched CCTV’s satellite broadcasts, Clem saw Chinese cities were filled with skyscrapers, wide boulevards, orderly traffic. And the most shocking, factories in the Pearl River Delta (Hong Kong/Shenzhen/Guangzhou) were as dense as an ant hive! And Nigeria, other than oil resources, seemed so difficient. Manufacturing industries were extremely backward, and 80% of every-day consumer goods were still being imported - this is in fact the situation in many African countries.
In September of 2007, Clem’s father, working at a Nigerian embassy in Europe, was able to arrange a Chinese visa for him. His friends were envious. More and more Africans are patiently lining up in front of Chinese embassies in Africa, fighting for visas permitted under a limited quota. A guy who received his visa at the same time as Clem had paid a fee to a visa application service nine months ago. When he finally received the visa he had been waiting for, the guy who had been muttering and cursing under his breath finally calmed down; he fiercely kissed his passport.
In October of 2007, Clem dragged a few large suitcases out of Guangzhou Baiyun airport. After trying three or four times, a cab finally stopped for him. He handed a piece of paper with a Chinese address to his driver, and didn’t say another word. Clem’s new home is a 10 square meter single room; another Nigerian had arranged it for him. The room has a single bed, a set of drawers, and a sofa. He shares the bathroom with three other African drivers. He opened the window, and then quickly closed it. No more than half a meter outside his window was another building. He quickly crossed himself, praying that he’d see some sunlight in the morning.
The first impressions many Africans have of Guangzhou start in these local villages.
A mutual divide - “Annoying, so annoying!”
Many taxi drivers aren’t willing to take on “chocolate” customers. They don’t like the nose-irritating perfume, nor the constant bargaining on every trip. Some drivers will use excuses that “you’re too big, the car won’t fit you”, or “I don’t understand your foreign language”; but some don’t care, “driving anybody is just business.”
Based on official statistics, since 2003, the number of Africans in Guangzhou has been growing at 30-40% annually. Based on a report in the Guangzhou Daily, there might already be 100,000 in the community. They come from Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon, Liberia, and Mali. Amongst these, Africa’s most populous country Nigeria claims first place.
They primarily live in village-districts in the city of Guangdong (like Dongpu, Dengfeng Jie, Yongping Jie). They do their business in a few large-scale China-Africa commerce malls.
The stalls in these commerce malls don’t have much in terms of decoration; at most, there will be a black plastic model at the front door. Samples are piled up the ground, and hung up on the walls and placed in display cases. In one building, the warehouse and sales offices are one and the same. Stall owners pile their blue jeans on the walk-way itself. When it gets busy, you have to step over the piles of pants.
These centers have accumulated basically all of the world’s top brands — Dolce and Gabbana blue jeans, Adidas shoes, Gucci high-heels, Louis Vuitton purses, Chanel purses, Armani underwear. Their prices are ridiculous: Dolce and Gabbana jeans are 20 RMB (3 USD), Gucci high-heels and purse together for 100 RMB (15 USD)…
AP reporter Arnold previously lived in Africa for 10 years. He told a Southern Metropolis reporter that because Africa has almost no factories, most people don’t really distinguish counterfeits: “As long as the shoes have the Adidas stamp on it, that’s good enough. The key is it has to be cheap.”
Cote, a clothes merchant from Liberia, is a frequent guest in these stores. Many of the Africans who’ve come to dig for gold in China are, like him, n the clothing business. They consume many of the out-of-fashion goods in China. A Chinese stall-owner said half-jokingly, “they don’t care about style, but it has to be flexible, and should wrap a woman’s thigh tightly, like a dumpling (zongzi).” According to a manager at one clothing mall, the total amount of commerce at their mall had reached more than 70 million RMB in 2007.
While picking through clothes, Cote claimed that he had many Chinese friends here. To prove his point, he walked up, and pats the store-owner on his head. Or, he playfully kicks at the store-owner’s leg. He’ll loudly greet them, “Friend, how are you recently?” His “friends” don’t respond. Some pull out a cell phone and intentionally ignore him. Others impatiently wave at him, and say in a combination of Chinese and English: “if you’re not buying anything, then go… quickly GO!”
It seems friendship only exists between the Africans. When he runs into a fellow clothes dealer, Cote trades fists and claps with them, and quickly chats in their native tongue. Not many travel alone like Cote, most are in groups of twos or threes. They walk all of the malls from afternoon until the evening. They fold up the plastic bags full of clothes, and use a rented car to haul it away.
On one stall, Cote is told that the jeans he’s interested in are 20 RMB a pair. He fiercely throws the pants at the stall-owners head, angrily asking, “how it can be that expensive!?” He turns and goes. After the shocked stall-owner recovers, he stares at the back of the thick shoulders of the departing Cote. He opens his mouth, and then closes it, changing to a single phrase in Cantonese: “Crazy black guy!” (痴线黑佬)
After 40 minutes, Cote finally decides to buy 500 pairs of women blue jeans. He asked that the store owner remove the packing material and label for every pair. “Most customers only care about a low cost. But me, I care more about shipping costs!” He explains to the reporter, even as he keeps an eye on the store owner working with the clothes. When he finds packing paper isn’t removed from a pair, he shoots up and rips it out, screaming: “I’m buying so much of your stuff, can I get some service please?” The store-owner rolls his eyes and mutters, “Annoying!”.
This sort of unhappy encounter is seen in these Chinese-African trade malls every day. Sometimes, the police are called. A security guard in the mall says he really doesn’t understand it; how can some people be so poor, and yet still so outlandish!
Talking about the customers they deal with every day, stall-owners often pout their lips. The ability of some black people to bargain for discounts annoys many Chinese businessmen. Some will order 200 pairs of pants, but then only purchase 10, insisting on the original price. Some, when they’re picking up their products, will reach down and grab another pair as he walks out the door. Many stall-owners are too lazy to learn English; they feel using a calculator to deal with the black people was good enough. One stall-owner says that if she could do business with white people, she’d definitely improve her English.
Cote has stayed in China for 8 years, but he also doesn’t know a sentence of Chinese. “Why does that matter?” He loudly tells the reporter. His visa is only good for a month at a time, and just like a bird, he has to constantly fly between China and Africa. “I don’t care how you Chinese see us; we’re only here to make money, and then we’ll go home and build a home!”
Boredom: “Guangzhou is still Guangzhou, Chocolate City is still Chocolate City”
Clem doesn’t like to hear “criticisms” of China. Whenever he hears friends complaining about Chinese visas, or Chinese not being trust-worthy, Clem doesn’t say a word. The only thing that he agrees with is, it’s very difficult for Africans to make Chinese friends.
He likes to walk outside this little kingdom. The Guangzhou outside these village-districts is like the one that he saw on TV. Every time he sits on the bus or subway, he lets his friends who speak better Chinese help him buy a ticket, as he stands on the side watching. When he sees the automated machine spit out the subway ticket, he always says softly, “Not that hard at all”. But when friends encourage him to give it a try, he sees the curious looks from all sides, and quickly slides away to the side.
“After I’ve been here longer, after I learn Chinese, I will make Chinese friends”. Clem always comforts himself this way. He feels the problem is in language, and his shy nature. “I will try and change.”
But every time Clem praises China without reservation, Williams will coldly interrupt him. “Once you stay longer, you’ll know. China isn’t just like what you’ve imagined; it’s not only a language problem!”
25 year old Williams is also Clem’s countrymen, a good friend always by his side, and a young man with excess energy. When he has free time, William turns on the stereo and dances to the rock music. He points at a reporter next to him, “I admit it, China is better than Nigeria in many ways. But in music, you can only copy us!” A customer walks in, and he quickly turns off the stereo, takes off his sunglasses, and goes to work. “I’m busy, don’t talk to me,” he points at the reporter. “But you can take a few more pictures of me, try a few different angles!”
Williams came to China a year ago, and opened a hair salon in one of the malls. Everything in the salon, from wall paper to sofa to the customer’s chairs, are all the same color: bright red. His customers are all the same color: black. “Chinese salons don’t understand African hair styles, so they all come to my store.” He says boastfully. Although his “design” (of hair style) often just involves a total shave. “Africans especially trust, and depend on their fellow people; that’s why we call each other ‘brother’ and ’sister’.” Mall management Chen Lianren told the reporter that every store opened by an African becomes a focal point, and attracts many of his fellow countrymen, increasing the traffic flow for other stores in the mall. For that reason, they lowered the rent for African tenants.
Unlike the always migrating Cote, Williams and other Africans with an economic foundation all share a “Chinese Dream”. They hope that by struggling for 4-5 years, they will be able to open a trade company or service center, and make large profits from servicing the rapidly growing Chinese-African trade. Based on published research, more than 20,000 Africans are long-term residents in Guangzhou (more than six months).
But just like Clem, the lives of many Africans never extends out of the 20 kilometer “Chocolate City”. Just about all African visitors can’t name a single tourist spot in Guangzhou, and can’t name many Chinese friends. They don’t open accounts with Chinese banks, and few purchase bus passes, even though it’s their primary mode of transportation. If all of the Africans in Guangzhou evapored overnight, they would leave almost no mark in “Chocolate City” or Guangzhou. “My daughter asked me what I saw in China.” A Nigerian getting his hair-cut said, “I answered, jeans and black people!”
But Williams likes to interact with Chinese, and uses every opportunity to learn Chinese. Once, he chatted with a little Chinese girl, and had a picture taken of the two of them together. He developed the picture, and has kept it in his wallet ever since. He joined a local amateur African soccer team, and competes with local Chinese teams.
“Interacting with Chinese people, it’s really complicated,” Williams said. On this point, most of the people in his circle of friends agree.
Once, on a bus, he chatted with an university student for half an hour. Right before separating, they traded telephone numbers, and agreed to watch a ballgame together next week. But when he called that number the same night, it was an unused number.
Another time, he was chatting with an old lady in front of a church. When he learned she had a grand-daughter, he asked, “Your grand-daughter must be beautiful! How old is she?” The old lady suddenly turned around in anger and left, saying, “Why are you asking so many questions?…”
“I really didn’t mean anything by it, just wanted to practice my Chinese.” Williams shrugged his shoulders. “This time, after you’re done with the interview, will we still be friends?” He asked the reporter. Without waiting for an answer, he laughed drily, “Whatever.”
Another method Williams uses to learn Chinese are TV shows and movies. But the more he watches, the more he feels he’s living in a foreign country. “I never knew Chinese women were tougher than the men. You can refuse to do housework, refuse to have kids, or have only one kid!” He called out to Clem, “You love China, but how much do you know about it? Did you know this? Can you accept it?”
As if he forgot he denied he had chased Chinese girls before, he puts on an exaggerated expression for the reporter, “Luckily, I’ve never successfully dated a Chinese girl!”
“Of course they can’t get a Chinese girl.” 23 year old Ms. Lee is both angry and amused as she talks about this topic. She feels “being normal friends with them is okay, but dating is too strange”. Besides, friends will mock you. From her point of view, many young Africans flirt with girls out of boredom, as a form of entertainment. As soon as they’re refused, they turn around and start expressing their love to someone else.
When Cote was walking around the mall, he repeatedly asked the reporter, “How many boyfriends do you have?” “Just one? Why not get a few more?” Before separating, he graciously invited in a gentlemanly manner, “Will you have dinner with me? Come to where I live, I’ll make the best African food for you.” After being denied, he could only spread his hands, “Why are Chinese girls so hard to date?”
After watching a Chinese TV series, Williams had some insight into the reason for his failure in love, “Maybe Chinese are shy, and prefer to take it slowly.” But his guess might also be a case of wishful thinking. Wang Jia, a girl working in the same mall, once screamed at a suitor who refused to take no for an answer: “Stay away from me, even if you wait 100 years, I won’t be your girlfriend!”
On Christmas Eve, still-single Williams invited Clem to go bar-hopping, but was refused. The reserved boy who usually preserves peace and quiet instead pulled out a newly purchased phone card. He called his parents in the Nigeria capital of Abuja, “I like China, I really want to stay here as long as I possibly can! My New Year’s wish, would be starting a clothing company in Guangzhou!”
Williams put on his jacket, and went through the door. At 1 AM, he came to Dafengche Bar. The heavy beat of rock music booming, and black brothers wearing Santa hats and held beers. They danced and laughed loudly together. The afternoon of Christmas Day, just sobering Williams gave the reporter a telephone call, “Remember how you said the place where I live is called Chocolate City? That’s too true! I’ve been here a year, and Chocolate City is still Chocolate City, and Guangzhou is still your Guangzhou.”
Love - “I’m already very China!”
Compared to the Africans who live in peasant-villages in the city, young Omar belongs to the minority that the Chinese people like. He lives in a small gated apartment community. His life had long moved passed the lonely phase, everything was already in his grasp.
Although business was busy, Omar arrives at the Stone Chamber Church every every week. English mass is held from 3:30 until 4:50 every Sunday afternoon. The church capable of fitting more than two thousand people still can’t squeeze in all of the religious. Some late arriving Africans kneel quietly in the aisle. The sound of softly sung hymns, along with the sharp scent of perfume, circle in the space above the heads of the faithful.
Religion and business are the two things that most closely bind Africans and Guangzhou. Catholicism and Islam are the two dominant religions. Every Friday is the holiest day of prayer for the Muslims, and African Muslims also stop their work. They congregate at the mosque across from Yuexiu Park; carefully they wash their head, hand, and feet, and kneel in the direction of the mosque, saying their prayers to the true Allah.
After prayers are finished, Omar walks over to the adjacent hall, and joins a ceremony unique to African Catholics. A few hundred Africans clapped and danced to a religious music that only they can understand. With the dance finished, one person stood up, and called on everyone to raise their hands, close their eyes, their mouths muttered and gradually grew faster and faster; their faces showed a frantic expression. After Omar faithfully finishes the ceremony, he returns to his typical well-mannered attitude. Pulling out his cell phone, he uses fluent Chinese to tell his wife that the brothers are meeting for dinner that night, he won’t be returning for dinner.
Amongst the Africans who’ve come to Guangzhou, Omar belongs to the small number who’ve received higher education. He even studied Chinese in university. He came to China from Nigeria three years ago, thinking that his advantage in language would allow him to quickly adjust to this new life. But he tried Beijing, no luck; moved to Shanghai, still no luck; continued onto Zhejiang, and still no luck. At the time, one of Omar’s countrymen in America tried to talk him into going to the United States. There, people of different skin colors live together, and no one can tell at a glance that he’s a foreigner.
Finally, he ended up in Guangzhou and set down roots in Chocolate City. Guangzhou has the densest concentration of African businessmen in China. Areas and cities surrounding the area has thousands of factories that take tens of thousands of African orders, originating from Chocolate City, every day.
To Omar, brothers and the factory are equally important. “When I got to Guangzhou, I finally realized why I could never stay in any other place, ” he said, “in Chocolate City, at least no one is coming over and lecture to me, ‘Hey, this is China!’”
This is the attraction of Guangzhou. On Yongping Street, many black illegal immigrants live together in homes that rent for 100-200 RMB per month. They come out only at night, either selling physical labor by offering to carry goods, or sell drugs and other illegal activities. According to police in the area, starting in November of 2007, they had searched out a group of Africans in the country illegally. They were sent to Yunnan and deported.
Omar’s life was all smooth sailing. After he had been in Guangzhou for a year, he opened a clothing store. Quickly, he built a reputation. Everyone knew that Boss Omar not only spoke fluent putonghua, the way he behaved and did business was also very solid. Omar’s store was almost always the last to close at night, including Christmas Eve. After the lights to the store are extinguished at 7 PM, he rushed home to spend the holiday with his wife. In his homeland of Nigeria, on Christmas Eve, the only thing working are the Christmas lights. But in China, both people and the Christmas lights remain as busy as always on Christmas Eve.
His skinny wife comes from Shandong. She met Omar on business about a year ago. After they were married in 2007, Omar’s parents came to China to visit. They couldn’t stop compliment their son and his yellow-skinned wife, and even agreed to their daughter-in-law’s preference to delay having kids.
In their building, there are four or five African bosses who, based on their talent, sincerity, and of course a certain level of economic foundation, won the love of Chinese women. Some have had kids; yellow skin and curly hair, they look just like Barbie dolls. Based on the understanding of the mall’s manager Jiang Ganglong, for an African to lay down roots and open a store, it typically takes around four years of hard work. The primary reason they’re successful, is because they “have integrity, do things the Chinese way.”
The changes that marriage brought Omar go beyond becoming accustomed to a new way of celebrating Christmas Eve. He gradually left Chocolate City, and was accepted and welcomed by his wife’s family and friends. As the other stall-owners in the mall complained about the low quality of Africans, they always add a sentence, “but look at Omar, he’s not at all Africa!”
“I’m already very China!” Omar laughs as he says this. Today, the man from male-chauvinist Africa has happily been infected by China’s specialty: “management by wife”. Friends are always teasing him that the first he does with every cent earned, is to hand it over to this wife. He’s not offended by this, and laughs along.
Future - “I hope she has a Chinese brain”
From the perspective of AP reporter Arnold, formerly stationed in Africa, the various collisions between Chinese and Africans are a necessary part of the “wearing in” process, between two peoples who’re only in the early stages of establishing contact. Chinese aren’t prejudiced in a racial sense, “compared to Americans, the amount of contact between Chinese and Africa is still very little, far too little for mutual understanding. So-called prejudice, is more analogous to the way city-dwellers with money view poor villagers who don’t understand manners.”
Arnold feels that the primary difference between the way Africans are pursuing their “Chinese dream” and the way Chinese are seeking the “American dream” lies in that most Africans don’t really wish to integrate into China’s mainstream society, and become true Chinese citizens. The harsh conditions behind China’s emigration policy, as well as a drastically different culture, and the lack of religious tradition makes China unattractive to many Africans. They like to drink milk, but have no interest in living in a dairy farm. They prefer to squeeze the milk, and then bring it home with them.
The boss of the #9 stall in Building B, Cisse, his “Chinese dream” is designed for his CBB (China-Born Baby). He raised up his less than one year old black baby, and excitedly said: “Look, she’s a Chinese girl!”
Cisse and his black wife have no plans to apply for a Chinese green card. Cisse has another wife and four kids back home in Nigeria. Cisse is Muslim; three years ago, he brought one of his wives from Mali to Guangzhou. They gave birth to their darling daughter in a Guangzhou hospital.
Two months ago, they hired a Chinese nanny to teach their baby Chinese, and Chinese manners. “In the future, our baby is going to go to kindergarten, middle school, and university in China!” He emphasized, “China’s influence in Africa is growing more and more, and Chinese brains are very sharp. I hope she has a Chinese brain.”
After his business becomes stable, Cisse’s long-term plan is to spend three months in each of Guangzhou and Nigeria. Normally, he’ll call his wive in their homeland every few days, and in front of his present wife, pour out his guilt and sadness for not having her there.
In response to the shock on this reporter’s face, this calm Muslim volunteered to explain, “According to the Koran, you can marry the women that you love; two wives, three wives, four wives. But if you can not treat them equally, then you can only have one wife.” He smiled as he said, “I think I’m a good husband.”
As far as China’s one-wife/one-husband and family planning policies, Cisse said that from both a male/female ratio and national population point of view, he understands. “These policies benefit China, so they’re good policies.”
Cisse’s younger brothers don’t share his benevolent feelings. When China is brought up, just like many other recently arrived Africans, he’s filled with anger - Chinese get African visas far easier than Africans can get Chinese visas, and this is unfair; Chinese don’t believe in religion, too terrifying…
Whenever this happens, Cisse smiles without responding. After his younger brother is done complaining, then he’ll say, “One day, you’ll understand.”
On December 22nd, after Islam’s holiest holiday Ramadan has passed, Christmas quickly follows. And every year at this time, Cisse’s store, and indeed the entire mall enters the off-season, and Chocolate City becomes almost empty.
And during this time, workers at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport’s international airport enters into their highest level of alertness. Behind the tens of thousands of African passengers, trails a small mountain’s worth of luggage.
Cote, the “migratory bird” from Liberia, almost looks drowned in his luggage. As he’s picking up his boarding pass, he’s told that his luggage is overweight. He tries to talk his way through it, even calling the workers “sister”, and begging his “sister” to give him a break. After this is denied, he’s frustrated as he stuffs his luggage back onto his cart. “China, so annoying! Really annoying!”
Finally, he still paid the surplus. As he crossed the security check, he seems to have forgotten that momentary unhappiness. He turns around and waves at the reporter, “March of next year, I’ll be back!”
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June 14th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Interesting piece. Right now it is pretty much impossible for someone to put down permanent roots in China because of excessive amount of time you have to spend in China to gain citizenship, but one of these days each Chinese city will have its own substantial population of foreign-born residents. I remember when I first lived in Nanjing there were fewer than 10,000 non-PRC citizens (including HK/Macau/Taiwan folk) in a population of several million, and the total foreign-born population in China is still only a few hundred thousand.
June 14th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Good piece. I always wondered what all those African traders did in Guangzhou. It’s definitely not a business for the weak at heart.
June 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
This is what an African(?) American businessman living in Suzhou have to say about racism in China:
http://silkrc.com/chinadialogs/2007/11/16/black-like-me-in-china/
June 14th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
@AC
I read his post and I think he makes a valid point that doesn’t only hold for foreigners in China, but in basically any country. Needless to say, it also applies to Chinese who are ready to call almost any negative press coverage of China “racist” or “anti-China.”
I also want to add that the way your perceive prejudice in China is often tied to living circumstances. If you have a comfortable job and a comfortable apartment, it is much easier to deal with the small nuisances of everyday life. If you live in a ordinary neighborhood and you get stared at the moment you leave your apartment, it is more likely that you will get increasingly annoyed.
@Buxi
I browsed the Chinese original yesterday and I had a look at it now. The writers seem to have found more or less the type of Africans that do satisfy various stereotypes they already have and then they wrote accordingly. If someone wrote a piece about Chinese immigrants in the US as greedy, oversexed people who refused to learn English and adapt to local culture, I’m sure you would provide us with a lengthy rebuttal.
June 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Anon,
I disagree that they were stereotyped. They come off as anybody else would adjusting to a new environment while at the same time, strongly connected to their old. Different perspectives where presented, with some liking the environment, some not so much.
June 14th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
@Anon,
It’s rather sad that you read this article and came away with the summary that it’s about stereotypical views of Africans. I see it as presenting the lives of 5-6 different Africans, all holding different perspectives on life, and life in China specifically. Stereotype? What exactly is the stereotype being perpetuated?
Which, I guess, demonstrates the difference between you and me. I’m not insisting on a conclusion before hand and looking for examples that back up my conclusion.
If an article on Chinese immigrants was careful enough to present a picture of different facets of the Chinese community, just like this one tried to do, I wouldn’t complain about the negative aspects.
Why would I rebuttal an English article that talked about the significant segment of the first-generation Chinese community that refused to learn English, if it also talked about the significant segment of Chinese desperately trying to integrate as quickly as possible? That’s a fair picture of the Chinese community overseas. I’m interested only in the truth, or at least the closest approximation possible.
June 14th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Buxi,
What “negative” traits were displayed in the article? After reading the article, I didn’t get any sort of negative impression from the people being interviewed.
June 14th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I didn’t see anything incredibly racist in this article, and much of what it says about Africans in China goes for all the China expats. I don’t think that starring happens out of racism, except when you get the occasional blatant hate-filled stare. What I count as racism is having your girlfriend called a whore for going out with a foreigner by random strangers and then kidnapped by her parents and ordered never to see me again - but this was several years ago.
June 14th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Just to clarify, I didn’t say that the article was racist, but I didn’t find it remarkable either. The way the Chinese press works, it usually doesn’t get much better than this.
Neither am I sure that China is more racist than any other country in the world right now. What I do say is that there is very little discussion about racism, racial prejudice or whatever you’d like to call it, in today’s Mainland China. I think that is a big problem and at the end of the day, China will pay a price for that.
Is staring racist? I don’t know, sometimes it is. What I do know is that it is very disrespectful to stare in almost any culture. Reverse the stare and you will see what happens.
June 14th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
You can’t use the political correctness BS (sorry, but I think it’s just what it is) in the West to measure China. China had very different racial/ethnic relations in it’s history from the West. The PRC has never systematically discriminated against any race, therefore we Chinese don’t suffer from the guilty complex that most white liberals in the West do. You have a big baggage on your back and you don’t even notice it. Discovering racism in China won’t make you feel any less guilty.
Some Chinese stare at you because they have met very few people from a different race. They are curious and it’s just bad manner. They never refused to sit next to you on a bus, did they? Don’t read too much into it, OK?
June 14th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I got to say, race dynamics in China seem different from what I’m use to in the U.S. I agree with AC in that we can’t apply our “liberal guilt” uniformly into the context of China because the racial mixture and historical backgrounds are much different compared to “western” countries like the U.S. Interesting discussion by the way.
June 14th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
@AC
China had very different racial/ethnic relations in it’s history from the West.
The West is not a single country or a single culture, neither is China. Racism, xenophobia and nationalism have taken very different expressions in different countries. You better read up.
The PRC has never systematically discriminated against any race, therefore we Chinese don’t suffer from the guilty complex that most white liberals in the West do.
Sorry, but I feel that you do not have any first hand experience of racism in China, so I would steer clear from statements that this is all about “white guilt.” Just a decade ago, I would be refused service at hotels just based on my looks: “We do not serve foreigners.” The next moment, a foreigner of Chinese origins steps in and get a room. One of the innovations of PRC policy was the so-called waishi gongzuo, which outlined detailed instructions on how foreigners should and should not be treated. On the surface, this was part of “friendship” policies, but the grim reality of the policy was to institute a an apartheid of sorts between foreigners and Chinese. In reality it did mean that many foreigners did suffer discrimination, while Chinese believed that all foreigners lived in luxury and privilege.
Some Chinese stare at you because they have met very few people from a different race.
That is a very convenient myth, but it doesn’t match with reality. I have traveled in small mianbao buses in the countryside and not a single person would bother me with staring. I have been in small villages and people ask me politely which part of China I’m from. The next day I step unto a university campus and you get gawking crowds and you are asked inappropriate questions about almost anything. You go to the university library to read some stuff and people talk behind you back if he “really” understand what is written in the book. You are involved in a minor accident and people speak eloquently in English why you as a foreigner are a despicable person.
I do not have an explanation for this, but it seems to me that exposure to foreigners doesn’t necessarily mean that people necessarily behave in either this or that way.
June 15th, 2008 at 12:05 am
@Anon,
The West is not a single country or a single culture, neither is China. Racism, xenophobia and nationalism have taken very different expressions in different countries. You better read up.
Sorry I didn’t make it clear enough. So please allow me to be more specific. When I say “the West”, I mean US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium etc. That pretty much covers the “West”, wouldn’t you say? Most of these countries have a colonial history and all of them practiced some form of institutionalized racism in the past. China has done none of these.
Just a decade ago, I would be refused service at hotels just based on my looks: “We do not serve foreigners.” ….
They forced you to stay in the best hotels and apartments the country can offer. You call that racial discrimination?
…The next day I step unto a university campus and you get gawking crowds and you are asked inappropriate questions about almost anything. You go to the university library to read some stuff and people talk behind you back if he “really” understand what is written in the book. You are involved in a minor accident and people speak eloquently in English why you as a foreigner are a despicable person.
So these people are rude, but I still can’t understand why this is related to racism.
From what you wrote here, I can tell you have never been on the receiving end of racism.
June 15th, 2008 at 12:16 am
@Anon - I still have a copy of that dumb-assed book of ‘rules for foreigners living in Nanjing’ that the local foreign affairs people gave me when I first arrived telling me not to ‘molest chinese women’ - they gave this book to all foreigners, women and men both. Is this racism? I don’t know, but it tells you how people see foreigners.
Likewise I don’t know if all the hassling that foreigners get in China are racist, just reflective of deeply held attitudes. Attitudes which you simply cannot change however hard you might try.
June 15th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Sigh.
How fortunate we are to have the self examination of the West to use as a mirror to reveal no flaw in ourselves.
June 15th, 2008 at 1:17 am
@AC
Most of these countries have a colonial history and all of them practiced some form of institutionalized racism in the past.
Some form, yes, but what form? It is not that simple. Europeans were usually quite harsh in the colonies, but much more liberal in the home country. Britain discriminated against Indians in British India, but allowed Indians like Muhammad Ali Jinnah to practice law in London and Dadabhai Naoroji to be elected to parliament (both in the 1890). It was usually these elites that later led decolonization.
China has done none of these.
…and you know that for a fact? Not even the Communist Party would whitewash Chinese history like that. I would ask you to read up on Chinese history, you could start with how different ethnic minorities were pushed out and how their land was confiscated by Han Chinese settlers. You do not have to be an expert on Chinese history to realize that people have been classified after physical characteristics in China and treated differently. Many non-Chinese were regarded as sub-human and the Chinese characters denoting these people usually contained a “beast” radical.
If there is anything that makes China peculiar it is the fact that it was both a colonizing empire and a victim of imperialism at the same time.
They forced you to stay in the best hotels and apartments the country can offer. You call that racial discrimination?
Yes, the force me to stay in expensive hotels that I couldn’t afford, all the while more wealthy people of Chinese origin could get good hotels at decent rates. If Chinese tourists in Europe were targeted for such scam based on their skin-color, I’m sure the mainland Chinese press would cry “racism”.
@FOARP
Yes, I remember that book. Quite a shock. Racist? I agree that we should be careful before we invoke that label, but somewhere we need to draw the line. If I put up a sign in Chinese in a Japanese dorm instructing people of the proper use of seat toilets, I can guarantee you that the “R” word would be invoked before you know it.
Likewise I don’t know if all the hassling that foreigners get in China are racist, just reflective of deeply held attitudes. Attitudes which you simply cannot change however hard you might try.
Not all the hassling is racist, but a lot. I can guarantee you that most Chinese would regard similar kind of behavior as racist in Europe, regardless of the subjective intentions of local people. And that’s precisely my point. I lot of very inn
Can you change it? It is Utopian to think that racism can be completely eradicated. But education plays a great role in teaching people how to behave and I think one big problem here is the way the Chinese government is playing up nationalism (and is expected to). And you can change that. I am always surprised how quickly people take their cues from the government. When I returned to Beijing after a two years’ absence I was surprised to find that cab drivers had stopped using certain words and that they would always offer a refund if they took you the wrong way. Then, after a couple of weeks in Beijing I saw a sign with a couple of dos and don’ts in preparation for the Olympics…
June 15th, 2008 at 2:03 am
@yo: “liberal guilt” - I like that term!
June 15th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Anon,
”institute a an apartheid”
wow! that’s a bold statement.
I think I know what you are trying to do here, and I understand. It looks like you had some crappy experiences in China but it also appears you put a lot of race assumptions to the things that you experienced. I don’t want to take anything away from your experiences, you have every right to be pissed, but I wouldn’t jump the gun and say, hey, look at all these racists.
A good friend of mine, who is white, travels to China annually, and he said that there are a few douchebags(my word, not his) that he encounters who don’t like him because he is white. And he told me something really cool which is:
“if you don’t like me for who I am, that’s your problem, not mine”.
And I really took that to heart for my own experiences.
For a clarification, I agree that “racism” exists in China, but of course, given the makeup and history of China, I feel it’s not the same as the “racism” that I’m use to in the U.S., nor is it defined the same way, racism is a very vague word.
In addition, in the American context, people throw the “race card” around so frequently that the word is losing it’s meaning to me so I’m careful about labeling people or policies “racist”.
June 15th, 2008 at 3:56 am
AC:
The term ‘polical correctness’ was invented by American conservatives as a perjurative label for the kind of thinking that says it’s not okay for, say, me to call you a “chink”.
In my experience, the urge to avoid using certain terms (i.e. ‘political correctness’ is just as strong in China as it is in the Europe and America. Just the other day I read in a Chinese history book that made the following comment about a poem:
“More than a little heroic, even if the use of ‘barbarian’ (蛮) to refer to the Tibetans, which reflects the Han Chauvinism of the time [1910s], is really not appropriate. (实不足取).”
Buxi; a good article about an interesting topic.
People’s perceptions of others is a complex phenomenon. I think China does pretty well on the whole, although it’s utterly senseless to compare the whole of China with the whole of the West- within the West there is an incredible amount of variation with regards to racist attitudes (and I think there is in China too. (Remember, AC, that not all Western nations used to be colonial powers. Ireland didn’t, in fact, some English used to see the Irish as “black” )
To the people who still think there’s no racism in China, I can only recommend travelling with a black person in China.
June 15th, 2008 at 6:13 am
There seems to be a distinction being made here between “the West” and CHina wrt the presence or absence of institutionalized racism, presumably referring to government- sanctioned behaviour. However, it would seem to me that racism borne of the people without government solicitation does not make it a more virtuous trait.
To AC:
“…people talk behind you back if he “really” understand what is written in the book. You are involved in a minor accident and people speak eloquently in English why you as a foreigner are a despicable person.
So these people are rude, but I still can’t understand why this is related to racism.”
- if you’re being prejudged based on appearance or the colour of your skin, that to me is racism. If you were in Oklahoma somewhere and someone said that about you, I suspect you’d find it to me more than just them being rude.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:06 am
@AC - Switzerland has never had an empire and has never had racial laws - does this make it a country in which racism is not a problem?
June 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am
People are arguing back and forth about a concept that isn’t even clearly defined. What do we mean by racism?
I said in the previous thread that I believe “racism” in the West and China are qualitatively different… meaning that an observable difference exists, but this difference is difficult to define.
I’ll echo the quote from the AP reporter Arnold:
I’ve given this a little more thought, trying to at least put words to what this difference is. This is what I’ve come up with so far.
People in China are prejudiced. We’ve already talked about this. Prejudiced on the basis of skin-color, on the basis of education, on the basis of geographic origin. And unlike in the West, all of these prejudices are equally compelling. I believe an African in Guangzhou faces prejudice (as mentioned in the article above), but a dark-skinned Anhui farmer in Shanghai also faces rough prejudice.
These prejudices are basically assumptions (often unfair and inaccurate) made about groups of people. But these prejudices are discarded on an individual basis. An African who graduates from Beijing University and speaks fluent Chinese will not be judged on the basis of skin color.
In contrast, Western racism in my opinion goes beyond this. There *are* racists in the West who will judge people on the basis of their skin, above and beyond any individual characteristics and impressions. Let’s take the case of Barack Obama in the US presidential campaign. There remains a legitimate question whether some American voters will accept this graduate of Columbia and Harvard Law, purely because they might not be accepting of his skin color.
And my sense is that this sentiment simply doesn’t exist in China. If we could flash back to the discussion of 6/4 again, keep in mind that the race of student leader Wu’er Kaixi (the Beijing-raised Turkic Uygur) was never an issue in any context, even as he confronted Li Peng in the Great Hall of the People.
So, as Chinese, I don’t think our intention should be defend ing the prejudicial actions that exist in China. Again, not just on the basis of race… there is plenty of narrow-minded behavior by many Chinese. However, in this debate, we’ve been forced to do precisely that.
Let’s step back, and stop insisting that this is a black/white (no pun-intended) situation. It’s an issue of relative grayness.
June 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Thanks to Buxi for consistently selecting and translating interesting articles from the Chinese press and internet and thereby making them accessible to a wider audience.
On the subject at hand I’d like to recommend a book:
Dikötter, Frank: The Discourse of Race in Modern China.- London: Hurst, 1992
You will find that it provides a clear and detailed background to a very touchy and convoluted story.
Just stating categorically that either racism doesn’t exist in China (and never has) or, on the contrary, that Chinese society is racist to the core (and seeing racism in every stare and every attempt to fleece the unwary laowai) isn’t really helpful. Dikötter’s work elucidates the (Chinese and European) history of some of the key terms and notions involved and puts them in their proper historical context. This will go a long way towards de-emotionalizing a subject sometimes dicussed all too emotionally.
Thanks again for this excellent site. Keep up the good work!
Greetings,
Sulishan Zuiweng.
June 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I understand Anon and FOARP’s those unpleasant experience in China and you might see them “racism”.
I would echo Buxi ,they were prejudice based on lack of understanding/knowledges of foreigners and lack of manner , lack of education in many Chinese.
My mum often get staring by Chinese people in Chinese shops because she neither speaks Mandarin nor Cantonese which are the two major dialects local Chinese community speak.She speaks our home town dialect hardly heard by local Chinese people here.
I once lived in a southern city for few months and I got charged more in the local fruit market few times just simply
because I only spoke mandarin not the local dialect.
I see these are no different with what Anon got people were staring at him wandering if he was able to read the book or not.
I am pretty sure the migrant workers in the big cities face much more prejudice than what Anon and FOARP had received. you know foreigners sometimes are treated as celebrities all over China just simply because they are foreigners or foreigners who can speak Chinese.
these are all caused by lack of contacts,lack of understanding,lack of engagement,lack of education etc. They are hardly race based. They are based on differences. these differences could be just different accent, different dressing codes,different provincial origin, different social status etc.
by the time of improvement of education, the economic growth,the more contacts with outsiders(people from other villages,other counties,other provinces,other countries), I believe these prejudice among Chinese people should be seeing less and less. These are one of the many unhealthy characters in our society we are trying to get ride of.
June 15th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
@everybody
This discussion became interesting and civil than I had expected. Before I respond to some of the points, I just want to say that I agree that racism in the “West” and in “China” are not identical (who could they?), but that doesn’t mean that there is no racism in China or that it isn’t a problem.
@Buxi
People in China are prejudiced. We’ve already talked about this. Prejudiced on the basis of skin-color, on the basis of education, on the basis of geographic origin. And unlike in the West, all of these prejudices are equally compelling.
Hmm. I think this to too broad. First of all, there is a huge difference between racism in the Americas and Europe. US style segregation has no neat European counterpart. In many European countries, people were routinely discriminated against on the basis of class, language, religion or geographic origin, but there was less systematic discrimination against non-Europeans because the population of non-Europeans was smaller. Well educated members from the colonies could go very far in the mother country, in Britain it even happened that Indians were elected to parliament. And once in parliament, the first Indian MP argued forcefully for both Indian and Irish home rule.
I believe an African in Guangzhou faces prejudice (as mentioned in the article above), but a dark-skinned Anhui farmer in Shanghai also faces rough prejudice.
Again, this is something that is also familiar to almost any country. There is an added twist to this: Irish had a mountain of prejudice to overcome in Britain, but in the colonies they suddenly became “white” and fit to rule.
An African who graduates from Beijing University and speaks fluent Chinese will not be judged on the basis of skin color.
I can assure you that is not that simple. I have meet well-educated Africans who are fluent in Chinese and they still complain that they are treated like dirt. You should have a chat with some of the African students who studied at Hehai University in the 80s and 90s or even now.
And when it comes to hiring English teachers in China, well educated native speakers of English who happen to be black are routinely ignored.
Have to run. More later.
June 15th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
@BMY
by the time of improvement of education, the economic growth,the more contacts with outsiders(people from other villages,other counties,other provinces,other countries), I believe these prejudice among Chinese people should be seeing less and less.
I am not that optimistic. Education or wealth are not a safeguard against prejudice. Some of the worst race riots in China have taken place at universities. As I have said before, it is sometimes easier to talk to people in remote villages of China than to big city people who think they “know” what foreigners are like.
One of the most shocking conversations I have had was a couple of years ago after I had witnessed a single foreigner being beaten up by some locals in Sanlitun. I talked to some onlookers next to me, who were wealthy, educated and may even have been abroad, and I found out that they enjoyed seeing a foreigner being beaten up and they were not the slightest ashamed telling me this. Given what has happened the last six months, I am afraid that there are more people like that.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
@Buxi - A Kenyan friend of mine who is studying medecine at South-East University in Nanjing and speaks fluent Chinese (he studies alongside Chinese students) is basically treated like a pariah by his classmates - many of them simply refuse to talk to him. Does this prove that Chinese people are racist? No, but it does show that even a well-educated African can find it difficult to fit in in China.
As for education solving the problem, I long ago decided that when it comes to Chinese attitudes towards foreigners, Chinese state education IS THE PROBLEM. Teaching of history consists of one-sided pro-CCP propaganda where pretty much everything bad that ever happened to China is the fault of foreign imperialists. The main purpose seems to be to engender an ‘us and them’ mentality. Hell, the state pretty much admits that this is the purpose of ‘patriotic’ education when it says that things like the Unit 731 museum are there to ‘promote patriotism’ - a bizarre concept: a war crimes museum promoting patriotism. It seems that in the eyes of many people being patriotic in China means hating foreigners .
June 15th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
That said, expats - with the exception of those of third-world origin - are one of the most pampered groups in China. I’m certainly not bitter, but I think it is very hard for anyone to put down roots there.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Agree with Anon. My husband is white, and we have been back to China for holiday a few times. Each time he was treated nicely by my family, friends and local people in general. However I am not confident enough to think that he would be treated exactly the same way if he was a black person.
Racism in China might be different from racism in US, but it poisons every parts of the society nonetheless. Whatever it is based on, Govt should take it more seriously, start educating people and toughening up the law. As the Beijing taxi driver case Anon has observed, it would be much more effective and efficient when such movement runs top-to-bottom.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
My biggest concern is the avoidance of looking at prejudice, regardless of its foundation, straight in the face. Like any wound, ignoring it only gives it opportunity to fester.
This is not an East vs West or color A vs color B thing, who is more virtuous sort of thing. It is a human thing. Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.
To pretend that racism doesn’t happen, or if it does it is the product of ignorance, or it is somehow different than someone else’s version of it, doesn’t make it vanish. And you know what? I’ve heard the same sort of arguments from good old white folk talking about aboriginal or Asian people. As well as from the Chinese community here about attitudes towards white people. So, at its core, while you can dress it up, it is still the same ugly canker. It can’t heal if you pretend it isn’t there.
At the same time, keeping with the metaphor, if we keep poking at it, with the attitude that we won’t be happy until it is an infected ulcer, that’s exactly what we’ll get. It is too easy to get overly zealous about racism and turn a mild pimple into something worse. Sometimes, a little dab of antibiotic discretely applied is the best approach.
I’m hoping that the people who have participated in this discussion, who wish to believe that racism in China either doesn’t exist or is somehow special, might be a bit more aware the next time it happens right in front of them.
June 15th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Sorry to see that in this lengthy and fairly well-thought article the author couldn’t find more non-merchant black Africans, or blacks in general. It would have made for a broader perspective. As a black who spent two years in Shanghai, the majority of the (many) Africans I met in China were students, like myself. Of course I always heard tales about the many blacks that were in Guangzhou, and I even met a few who would come up to Shanghai on business. I suppose these were the more monied ones; they could afford to travel around China for biz and (some of them) had that air of the sophisticate that you find in any international merchant.
Those guys in Guangzhou ought to get out of Guangzhou! There are more opportunities outside of a place like that, especially for someone with a respectable command of Chinese. One of my classmates from Cameroon (Donghua university in Shanghai) got a great job with a tech company in Shanghai, bought a place in Jing’An…
It’s true that the average black African won’t experience the sort of discrimination that is easy to identify. A lot of that is due to most of them having no idea what is being said about them, scaring the hell out of the Chinese, and being from homogenous environments their idea of racism is probably limited to direct assaults or whatnot.
China’s ready for a lot more black people! Now that countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, are introducing Chinese into the curriculum, it’s only a matter of time before more of the tribe show up in China. While in Senegal, Nigeria, and Namimbia, there are more and more Chinese!
I am just waiting to taste that first Chinese/African dish that fuses the our love for the yam with the Chinese love for the noodle.
June 15th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
@MutantJedi
What has been frustrating me is precisely the avoidance issue. I have tried to bring up Racism problem in Chinese forums, more often than not people just do not seem to take it seriously or lightly blame it on ‘a handful of bad guys’.
@FOARP
Just wandering if your Kenyan friend ever complained to a tutor? If he did, was any kind of support offered? It’s not uncommon for people to be prejudiced, but looks like some of his classmates don’t even want to take the opportunity get to know him, that is really sad and worrying.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Everyone,
I think you guys are all over the place now. Are we talking about black race relations in China or are we including white people to?
June 16th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Interesting Manu
And I think you’re right - there’s going to be more African interest in life within China.
mmmmm African/Chinese culinary fusion - could be interesting.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:54 am
I agree, no matter we call those phenomenons “racism” or not. They are discriminations or prejudice against people(Chinese or foreigners) who are different. People and the government should take steps to work out the issues.
@Anon,
I would say Chinese people in general are friendly and kind to foreigners.regarding the street fighting you witnessed, people won’t just pick up a foreigner to beat up simply because of skin color. You might see the same enjoyment from the onlookers next time in Sanlitun when a group of locals beat up a migrate work from HeNan province. There are lots of street fightings in ShenZhen involved different group of people divided by province origin and some onlookers enjoy seeing. again this is not healthy characters among some people.
@FOARP,
“Chinese state education IS THE PROBLEM. Teaching of history consists of one-sided pro-CCP propaganda where pretty much everything bad that ever happened to China is the fault of foreign imperialists” and “It seems that in the eyes of many people being patriotic in China means hating foreigners “.
I disagree based upone my personal experience and most Chinese people I know. we might hate people who invaded China 170 years ago to open up a drug trade but not mean we hate general now days English people or a white person walks in the street of Beijing. we are kind and have great hospitality which you might have also found along with the unpleasant experience you had. we might also have very unfriendly feeling towards people who are still trying to break our nation,trying stirring up ethnic hatred,trying to grab Olimpic torch from a wheel chaired carrier. These are different things with what you assumed of “”It seems that in the eyes of many people being patriotic in China means hating foreigners ”
I was educated by CCP. I never feel the patriotic education of bring up the victimism past is about to “hate foreigners”
It’s about to remember the dark human past, it’s about encouraging students/people to study/work hard to build a wealthy/strong/modern nation which would not be invaded again. I would have to say you misunderstood this.
@Anon/FOARP,
next time when you are in China and if it happens you are lecturing in front of uni students, you should tell them it’s not a good manner to staring in the back of you and it’s a bad thing to call a girl a whore just because she is dating a foreigner. I beleive most people are understanding people. And some times people don’t realize it’s a bad manner or discrimination.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:17 am
@BMY
we might also have very unfriendly feeling towards people who are still trying to break our nation,trying stirring up ethnic hatred,trying to grab Olimpic torch from a wheel chaired carrier.
I don’t know if you realize this yourself, but you are actually confirming FOARP’s point here by parroting the official Xinhua line on “splittism”.
While I usually do not feel worried about my personal safety in China, it is truly frightening to see how ordinary Chinese take their cues from official media and adjust their behavior towards foreigners accordingly. Certain years hostility towards foreigners is tacitly condoned by the authorities, at other times they put on the brakes.
next time when you are in China and if it happens you are lecturing in front of uni students, you should tell them it’s not a good manner to staring in the back of you and it’s a bad thing to call a girl a whore just because she is dating a foreigner.
If you do that you are likely to get into trouble. Believe me, I have some sense of self-preservation. Chinese people need to realize that this is a problem and keep their own countrymen in line. A foreigner trying to lecture Chinese how to behave leads nowhere, but we can vote with our feet and avoid going to China.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Manu,
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Chinese are not only in Senegal, Nigeria, and Namimbia as you mentioned. Not sure if you have heard of this, China has made a deal with DR Congo. It will invest 9 bln dollars in Congo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/7343060.stm
June 16th, 2008 at 2:53 am
XinHua’s “splittism” might be diffrent with my terms of “splittism”.
I don’t need to parrot XinHuha on people who are trying to break down my country. I doubt if how many people feel anything if someone is trying to destroy their country.
people have every right to avoid going to places they don’t want to go. There are many foreigners are lecturing in China and teaching Chinese kids about manners without getting into trouble.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:54 am
sorry, I mean “I doubt if how many people feel nothing if someone is trying to destroy their country.”
June 16th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Anon,
“Believe me, I have some sense of self-preservation. Chinese people need to realize that this is a problem and keep their own countrymen in line.”
Well that is the issue isn’t it? There is a “problem”, well that doesn’t say much about anything. Outside of your anecdotal stories, what is there? With all do respect, that’s not really a rigorous process of finding and investigating a problem. Saying racism exists in China is one thing(much like saying prostitution exists in China), but finding the extent of the problem and how it happens is another thing.
As far as I’m concerned, if you want to be methodical about it, I would say we are in the hypothesis stage of this issue, because, and correct me if I’m wrong, this area of study and research is new in relation to modern China. More and more, people are immigrating and traveling to China, and my guess is that racial tensions probably start to heat up, much like Mexican immigration into the U.S. IMO, outside of our assumptions and some personally stories, we really don’t know much about the issue as a whole.
Like I said before, I know where you are coming from and my guess and attitudes about race is probably similar to yours(being a liberal myself :-)), but all I’m saying is more needs to be learned about the issue before we come to our conclusions and debate about possible solutions.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:06 am
@BMY
The point I’m trying to make (and I think FOARP as well) is that this crude division of foreigners into “good” and “bad” foreigners is at the heart of Xinhua propaganda, and contributes to the hostile climate many foreigners face in China. If you really think that it is wrong to single out groups of foreigners as “enemies of the people” based on their origin, I don’t really understand why you are saying we might also have very unfriendly feeling towards people who are still trying to break our nation,trying stirring up ethnic hatred,trying to grab Olimpic torch from a wheel chaired carrier.
You have absolutely no idea how tiring it is to be in China, when the country is gripped in patriotic fervor, and people you never met before feel that they have a right to question you on your views on Tibet, Taiwan or whatever, just because you look different physically. I’m not saying that this happens only in China, but what I do say is that the Chinese government has a great responsibility for things being the way they are.
@yo
Racism in China is pretty well-documented and there is a growing literature on this. You can start reading Frank Dikotter, who was mentioned above.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:14 am
@anon
Not according to the amazon review. Did you read it?
June 16th, 2008 at 5:46 am
I don’t like driving traffic away, but here is another blog that talks about racism in China. Its anecdotal, but a start.
http://www.thechinaexpat.com/racism-in-china/
Comments are interesting too.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:00 am
@Anon
I don’t know whether “this crude division of foreigners into “good” and “bad” foreigners is at the heart of Xinhua propaganda” or not .
I do think that it is wrong to single out groups of foreigners as “enemies of the people” based on their origin. It is very wrong.
my saying of “we might also have very unfriendly feeling towards people who are still trying to break our nation,trying stirring up ethnic hatred,trying to grab Olimpic torch from a wheel chaired carrier” is very clear the singling out is not based on origin. it’s based on the behalves and actions from people foreigners or Chinese who are trying to destroy a country and people . origin and acts are very different things.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am
@BMY -
I don’t think this would be such a great idea, not least because it would understandably insult each and every person in the audience. You make the distinction between political opinions that you disapprove of and the people from those countries where the opinions that you disapprove of are held - but many do not make this distinction. When writers like Wang Xiaodong and Song Qiang label Chinese liberals ‘洋奴’, what are we ‘洋人’ to think of it?
Funnily enough, I have only been to Beijing once, when my parents came to visit. We had a nice holiday, and were treated well by the majority of people we came across. However, even though we were only there for four days we were twice insulted in the street (and I am not talking about the continuous ironic ‘Hello 老外!’). It must also be said that the way some foreigners behave in China is almost designed to make the locals hate us. On the same holiday I saw a bunch of young Australians acting incredibly boorishly towards the staff in the restaurant we were eating in.
Almost every week at 古堡酒巴 in Nanjing where the foreign South-East university students hang-out there would be some kind of brawl between foreigners (usually, it must be said, the African students) and locals. I myself took my fair share of punches for being white in the wrong place at the wrong time. I never really had much idea how these fights got started or who started them, but once they got started they would always turn into foreigners v. locals.
A lot of the problem is caused by the fact that the majority of foreigners living and working in China are young men making salaries which are above average for China. People see them and realise that they are making all this money simply ‘because they are foreigners’ - resentment is almost inevitable, especially in a country where for every ten men who find a wife three will be without one. Add to this the weight of history and the virtues that many people ascribe to foreigners (wherever they come from) - i.e., that they are loose, immoral, arrogant, violent, lazy, lack culture, are incapable of learning the local language, do not look after their parents etc. and you have the situation you have today.
@Yo - Foreigners are not allowed to carry out the kind of research necessary (i.e., wide-spread interviewing and questionnaires) to examine the extent of this problem. In fact, even relatively innocuous surveys of wildlife are illegal and are usually carried out by people pretending to be tourists or locals. However, I would welcome this kind of research, as it would highlight attitudes which almost never make the news but are a definite fact.
@Anon - I always thought that what is at the heart of government propaganda is the maintenance of government power and the control of popular opinion.
What should be done to improve this situation?
1) It seems that many Chinese people did not learn the ‘Out of Africa’ theory of human evolution in school and, as far as I am aware, still learn that Chinese people evolved separately from the rest of humankind. This must be changed.
2) Chinese textbooks up to university level contain outlandish statements describing homosexuality and bestiality as being ‘very common’ in western countries. I remember reading one in particular which described old people in Britain and America as being so poorly treated that many of them have to survive on pet food. These text books must be revised.
3) A loosening of citizenship rules - at the moment it is virtually impossible for a foreigner to become a Chinese citizen, or gain residence without marrying a local. At the very least ten years of residence with no more than eighteen months spent outside the country should be enough to gain permanent residence.
4)The ending of China’s cult of victimhood is probably too much to ask for, but can we not have a bit more civility? The tone of language used at, for example, the Nanjing massacre museum, is not one which discourages hatred of other nationalities. Likewise the history of events like the Boxer rebellion are taught in a way which gives the imprssion that eight countries went mad in 1899 and invaded China with the intent of colonising it. There is no mention of the massacre of missionaries and their converts, or of the siege of Peking. I remember watching one ‘historical’ drama on CCTV 1 that showed a ‘German’ officer (speaking poor, Russian-accented English) expounding on how they had decided not to colonise China as scientific measurements had shown the Chinese to be equally capable at soldiering as foreigners. Needless to say this never actually happened.
At any rate, as I said before, most foreigners do enjoy significant priveleges in China, and we should not concentrate too much on negative experiences. Furthermore, this blog is about China, it is not an expat blog.
@Dandan - I doubt that anything would happen if he did complain, certainly nothing happened when I complained about being rudely accosted by some ‘学友’. Anyway, nobody wants people who do not want to speak to you to be forced to do so.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
FOARP,
I’m not sure if what you said is necessarily true in regards to research in this context and I will use the Pew poll as an example. Irregardless, the research doesn’t need to be conducted by “foreigners”(that term always bugged me).
“However, I would welcome this kind of research, as it would highlight attitudes which almost never make the news but are a definite fact”
I also refer back to my comments to Anon about extent. Highlighting “facts” is not as valuable without knowing the extent and probably causes.
In fact, your ideas for a solution really highlight my point about understanding a problem more. It would be premature to offer solutions to a problem we don’t fully understand. You and I probably have our guesses and interpretations based in our anecdotal stories. Your interpretations show in your solutions, given that they are related to the government somehow. My interpretation so far would not focus on that. For one thing, you leave out an interesting role “Western” Media plays, in particular, Hollywood. If the only encounters of a black guy you see is a token one in the movies, that will skew your perception. I know this is an issue in America, and I assume it is as well in the Chinese context.
I believe more will be done in the form of research, and should be done, assuming the influx of “foreigners” continue.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
@FOARP,
And do you know what you’d call me if I told you that I “long ago decided” something, with zero interest in revisiting that conclusion? You’d probably call it brain-washing, and the term would be pretty appropriate.
I don’t know how familiar you were with China when you made that decision, but your conclusion is not only insulting, it’s ludicrous. If Chinese state education was the problem here, why would there be racism towards Africans, and such a fawning attitude towards white-Europeans? Shouldn’t it be reversed?
Anyone who grew up in China could tell you that our *education* has always taught us to respect our colored brothers in the third world. I remember a great anecdote from Richard Nixon’s first visit to China back in the early ’70s, and was welcomed with a state dinner. The man given the honor of being served first at dinner? It wasn’t Nixon, it wasn’t Kissinger… it was one of their black security agents.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
@Anon,
Resisting splittism is no more the official Xinhua line than advocating for democracy and freedom is the official George Bush line.
You have absolutely no idea how tiring it is to be in the West, when the country is gripped in “Free Tibet”, anti-Chinese, anti-Olympics fervor. When every newspaper you open is filled with editorials calling your country a genocidal invader that needs to be carved up (or as a SFGate columnist said: “China: please implode”), when every online message board is filled with the message “boycott China”, when the elected officials in a nearby city vote to receive the torch (which you’ve waited with anticipation for for 7 years) with “alarm and protest”.
Why don’t you start by apologizing for the “Free Tibet” fervor expressed by some of your countrymen, and then I’ll think about reinterpreting the patriotic fervor of mine. If you could have kept the anti-China sentiment of some of your countrymen in line, then you certainly wouldn’t have seen the outraged reactions from many Chinese.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
FOARP,
I appreciate your balanced thoughts on the underlying reason behind these “weekly brawls” from Nanjing pubs. We can look for similar fights in just about any country on this planet, and I don’t think deep underlying racial prejudice is behind it.
Well, really, are countries where only the “Out of Africa” theory is taught any less likely to have racial tension? I don’t see the link here at all.
The latter example about “pet food” that you actually read seems plausible. If you go back 30-50 years during the heat of the Communist era, you’ll find even more outrageous example.
But you are absolutely exaggerating the former example. Beastility described as “very common”? I look forward to seeing specific reference to a Chinese textbook making such an outrageous statement.
And… what impression of the Baguo Alliance would be given if the Chinese history books simply reprinted these words from Kaiser Wilhelm II, to German soldiers on the way to Peking?
But you can see from this what a culture not based on Christianity comes to. Every heathen culture, no matter how beautiful or august, will come to nought at the first catastrophe!
… When you come upon the enemy, smite him. Pardon will not be given. Prisoners will not be taken. Whoever falls into your hands is forfeit. Once, a thousand years ago, the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one still potent in legend and tradition.[3] May you in this way make the name German remembered in China for a thousand years so that no Chinaman will ever again dare to even squint at a German!
… Open the way for civilization once and for all!
… And may God’s blessing attach itself to your banner and bring a blessing upon this war so that Christianity may survive in that land and such sad events never reoccur.
Seems rather mad, and rather suggestive of imperialism if you ask me.
In recent decades, Chinese discussion of the imperialist era has been very “civil”, in my opinion. I don’t know if you watched the movie “The Opium War” from the late ’90s, which was a huge hit in China. I recall it was a very balanced look, reflecting the depth of debate within the British parliament itself.
I also recall the excellent, excellent TV series “March to the Republic” (走向共和) about the end of the Qing dynasty and the beginning of the Republican era. The beginning of the end would the first Sino-Japanese war, which culminated in the treaty that signed away Taiwan and Korea. Japan is presented in a very “civilized” way, not at all demonized.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
@Manu,
Very interesting post, thanks for your thoughts. I agree with you completely that China’s ready for a lot more black people. There’s no better way to better understand each other, and I’m very glad to hear African nations are adding Chinese into the curriculum.
I hope China continues to make a commitment to providing educational opportunities to the best minds in Africa.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
@Buxi
Why don’t you start by apologizing for the “Free Tibet” fervor expressed by some of your countrymen, and then I’ll think about reinterpreting the patriotic fervor of mine.
I’m a bit surprised by your outburst. Let me start with this. Once upon a time, I took part in all kinds of manifestations against racism and xenophobia, because I believed (and still believe) that it is the right thing to do. Sometimes, when I read something in my local newspaper or saw something on TV about China that I felt was biased, I called them and told them what I thought (politely). If a friend or relative said something stupid about immigrants, I spoke up.
After living in China for a couple of years, my perspective has changed. Not that I think that the plight of foreigners in China should be the top concern in China right now. Neither to I question my previous commitment to what I felt was justice. But I find it shocking that almost no one in China is prepared to stand up and defend a wronged foreigner (of any nationality) in public. The few times I have seen it happen, the accusation Yangnu! effectively silences any discussion.
As I see it, this is not a fringe phenomenon, but a problem that poisons the relationship between foreigners and Chinese. Different people find different ways of dealing with it, and many foreigners prefer not to talk about it at all. But I can tell you from personal experience that I know of many people that regard themselves as true friends of China, who have been alienated by this “either you are with us or against us” mentality. If you want this blog to promote understanding between “China” and the “West” this is something you need to take seriously.
You feel that Western coverage - especially US coverage - of China is biased and to a certain extent I agree with you. But the Western press is biased in dealing with almost any country and these trends come and go. If you have paid attention, you would know that there is a strong anti-US bias in the European press and a strong anti-European (particularly anti-French) bias in the US press. This causes a lot of discomfort for Americans in Europe and Europeans in the US. Just as some Chinese feel that negative coverage is racist, some Israelis and Americans think that the European press is anti-semitic. But they don’t organize demonstrations abroad with the assistance of their embassies or mob foreigners on the street at home. They write letters to the editor, argue with their neighbors, if they have the right connection, they might even lobby local politicians.
When it comes to China, this is not a symmetric situation and you’d better not pretend that it is. Unlike you, who can show off your patriotism both at home and abroad, comfortably protected by free speech legislation in the host country, the choice of a foreigner in China is either to stay and put up with what’s going on or leave. In China, there are no legitimate channels of dissent whatsoever and that is disproportionately to the detriment of foreigners.
Again, if you want to promote greater understanding between China and the West, this should concern you.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
@Anon,
Perhaps we’re both a little guilty of talking at each other rather than with each other, then. You had a priority high on your mind (the status of foreigners in China), and I had a priority high on my mind (biased perceptions of China in the West). I don’t mean to suggest my priority is more important than yours; both deserve attention and discussion.
I don’t have enough personal experience in terms of seeing Westerners in China to speak to whatever you directly experience; I simply don’t know. The limited experiences I’ve had led me to believe, like many Chinese believe, that Westerners (especially caucasians) are fawned over and given numerous advantages in various aspects of daily life in China.
But if I’m wrong on this, well, certainly, feel free to use this as a platform to speak your piece and help bridge that gap. If there’s anything specific you want me to translate or highlight, that’s an option as well.
Now, above, you talked specifically about “patriotic fervor”. I don’t believe in any way that patriotism in China is dangerous to individual Westerners who show “proper” respect. I believe there’s room for discussion here on this issue (as we’ve demonstrated on various Tibet threads here), but the starting point, especially if you’re in China, has to be a basic level of respect and understanding for what many Chinese believe.
Dismissing strongly held opinions on “splittism” as products of government propaganda suggests a lack of have that basic respect and understanding. A Westerner who doesn’t understand that 3/14 is as meaningful and sensitive to many Chinese as 9/11 is to New Yorkers will certainly find himself confronted, both on Chinese streets and on this blog.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
@Anon,
Someone jumped the queue when I was waiting patiently with my husband to buy train tickets in Shanghai, I criticized him for his behavior, and guess what? He said ‘oh you think yourself are really something for marrying a foreigner’.
This incident alone proved your point, some Chinese people do have xenophobia, to the extent that they could use that ‘Yang Nu’/'Us and Them’ technique to defend or justify their own wrongdoings and insulting others at the same time.
Such mentality truly damages the society, and I for one will speak up in any given opportunity.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
James Fallows just wrote a post on being a foreigner in China.
A simple point about being a foreigner in China.
“The reason (that I like Chinese people in general) is that, most of the time, people in China treat me as … a person.”
June 16th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
The guy who smacked me in the face with a bottle did not look particularly fawning, nor did the random guy who shouted “fuck your mother” at me as I showed her around the streets of Beijing. Racism in China is pretty much omni-directional - it’s just more intense against Africans.
As for why I made that decision, when someone told me that they hated Americans, Japanese, British, or just foreigners in general, it would almost always go back to either the old line about us all being there to steal jobs and women, or historical grievances. Nothing in Chinese education acts as a counter to racism, much acts as an excuse to hate non-Chinese.
I’m sure you’re aware that the whole ‘African brothers’ thing was pretty much about China positioning itself as leader of the non-aligned movement - there was very little real sympathy involved. The descriptions I’ve met show the Chinese on the one side being fairly wary of the Africans, and on the other the Africans taking the Chinese money but giving little in return. Jung Chang, whom I’m sure a lot of Chinese would nowadays describe as a traitor, wrote an amusing description of speaking to visiting African sailors in Guangzhou.
As for the non-acceptance of the ‘out of Africa’ theory, I can only say it is because some people do not wish to accept that they are descended directly from Africans. This despite genetic studies showing that the two separate and distinct ethnic groups who make up the race nowadays known as the Han both have the same origin as everyone else on this planet. It is the government that resists changing the text books, a piece of unscientific ludditism little better than the insistance of some American scholars on teaching so-called ‘intelligent design’.
As for the textbook, from memory it is a book called ‘British and American culture’. Peter Hessler also wrote about this book in ‘River Town’ - look it up, you’ll see he describes it just as I have written. The belief that so-called ’sexual deviancy’ is a foreign invention is an example of a commonly held racist belief found in China that state education does nothing to dispell, and in fact encourages.
The quote from Kaiser Wilhelm (who actually contributed little to the effort) certainly belongs in any history of the Boxer rebellion, but so does the massacre of foreigners and the siege of the legations - otherwise the history of the event is unbalanced. However, the goal of state education in this area is not to impart a balanced view of the history of that era, but to reinforce the message that China can only be saved from foreign invasion by a ’strong socialist motherland’. The fact that the wacky beliefs of the 义和团 (foreigners drink blood and eat babies, bullets will turn into water), their belief in Qigong, and their anti-government stand make them very similar to the ‘counter-revolutionary’ Falungong is quite ironic.
As for the comparison between the murder of innocent people by rioters and a terrorist attack by suicide bombers, this is not much of a good fit. The whole idea of the riots being sparked by a ‘conspiracy by splittist forces’ is one with no substantial proof whatsoever behind it. The idea that you can conjure up some kind of special ’sensitivity’ that disallows anyone casting doubt on the idea of the riots being the result of a conspiracy is not one conducive to debate. Anyway, I might ask, was the ’sensitivity’ surrounding the 9/11 attacks reasonable? Did it result in good decision making?
@CLC - James Fallows is a brilliant writer, but he cannot speak Chinese and has no idea what people are saying around him. However, I second him in saying that my experience of China was, all thing considered, a pleasant one.
@Anon - Isn’t it about time you chose a name rather than going as ‘Anon’?
June 17th, 2008 at 12:45 am
With all due respect for the genuine expressions of outsiderness felt by some foreign immigrants in China, I cannot see how racial tension is the main thing underlying some other expats’ unpleasant experiences in China, which amounts to no more than xenophobia-as-permission-to-complain. So you feel you are denied equal access to a fancy hotel because of your Anglo looks, but is it really *racial profiling*, or just maybe there are pent-up political tensions, on all sides, giving rise to quotidian hostility between locals and their *frenemies*?
Racism is grounded in history and there is no counterpart throughout Chinese history comparable to the great deal of injustice, like blacks (or other minorities) faced or continue to face in western societies. There is also little racial/ethnic pattern in China in terms of illiteracy, crimes, lack access to health care, etc., while these problems seem to particularly beset minorities in the west. We may not have the counterpart of affirmative action in China, although minorities do enjoy tax/tuition exemptions, but this just attests to the lack of systematic discriminations or prejudices along the racial/ethnic line in China. What some foreigners may perceive as racial prejudice is more likely attributable to irrational nativism which is not unique to China. Try living in Japan for a while and the China experience may not seem so bad.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:08 am
@FOARP and Anon,
I am sorry to hear your many unpleasant experience in China and draw your conclusion of “racist” Chinese people. And it’s good to know the other side of feelings rather than only knowing just the privileges have been given to foreigners (外宾)
Maybe I’ve left China few years is too long and it has been lot of changes. But I still can’t images a foreigner would fear of being beaten up(or self-preservation) if he(she) tells Chinese kids in the class about “staring or shouting at people are not good manners”. I never witnessed foreigners just by walking in the street been insulted by strangers in my 30 years of time lived in China. it is wrong of those individules who are doing this as I don’t know the percentages out of the whole population.
Regaring the ridiculous stories on the textbooks FOARP mentioned and I can’t image and I don’t think they are in textbooks in present day schools.
I do remember I read similar stories about the “bad west” in 70s and early 80s from articles but not in school textbooks. I do remember in mid-late 80s I read many articles everywhere about how amazed the west culture/systems/people were. there was a then highly rated book and also TV serial called 河殇 which praised the west and totally bashed Chinese culture. Those were part of the causes of 89 movement.
doesn’t matter people call the phenomenons we are discussing are “racism” or not. they are discriminations(mainly from behalves not from institution) against people who are from other places(province or country).
Regarding the brawls FOARP experienced in pub, let me tell you a similar story I witnessed in the street which happened in the early 90s. I heard people yelling in the street”老广打老陕咧” because there was a street fight between a local with someone not local(might just looked like a Cantonese person) .and soon the “老广“ was beaten up by a group of ganging up locals. whatever the motive (race or origin based) were behind are not right.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:41 am
It really depends on how you define “racism”. As a foreigner living in China, no matter how well you know the language and culture, you will never integrate like a Chinese person could plausibly do in the United States. This is a fact of life: no matter how hard you try, China as a country is defined (like 99% of the world) along largely racial lines, and you will never become Chinese. 没办法…
I am a guest in this country, and on the whole Chinese people treat me very well. While I have come across some ignorant and disrespectful Chinese people, this is the same as anywhere else in the world. My Grandfather, veteran of the Korean War, is blatently racist toward Asians. He’s completely bewildered why I would want to live among so many Chinese people, and has some very backwards attitudes. However, I know that he’s a good person in his heart, and that he’s just biased and ignorant. A palpable minority of Chinese people are just as biased and ignorant, and I think it’s important for Chinese people to understand that. You may not see it, just as many white people in the United States don’t see any racism towards blacks and wonder what all the fuss is about.
Anyway, I’m rambling. The key is whether you think racism is “the systemic oppression of an ethnic group” or simply “any show of disrespect on the basis of race”. When it comes to foreigners, the former obviously doesn’t apply, but the latter often does. C’est la vie.
June 17th,