Job Discussion Forums

[kev7161]

Thank you A'Moo and Ouyang. I was thinking the same thngs you were after reading the post but was MOD EDIT. I am in the same frame of mind as the two of you. Obvously, what happened to our OP frined and his girlfriend was WAAAAYYYY not right and I can send out my sympathies. But according to his post, these kinds of racist "things" have been going on around him from almost the time he stepped off the plane (short of the chair throwing) and he seems to be lambasting Dave's for the fact that nobody is warning other black people about the problems here! ???? Being a member since 2003, this is where you (should have) come in my OP friend. Not that any member need to post only negative things about China but if you felt that strongly against what has been happening to you, this would have been a good place to do so. Someone mentioned Travel Zen and he talked about some of these same issues in many of his posts but he has sadly moved on to somewhere more tolerant we hope.

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

This thread has been moved to the China Job-Related Forum:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=57003&sid=7ab2e41c5c90c5550fbd74263cad3f66

[kungfucowboy83]

i had a class and somehow the topic of racism/discrimination came up. they said "there isn't any in china". so i let it go for a moment and later in the class i made a comment about how rude southern chinese are and about dongbei girls all being violent psychos. As they are all grinning and noding i brought to their attention that these were both discriminatory remarks that they had just been agreeing with and how they were all a bunch of racists most of them kinda stuttered "but, but..." tring to conect their ingrained ideas with reality, however a few of them got my point and it seemed like they were taking a closer look at themselves.

[AussieGuyInChina]

[Michael Nelson]

Instead of sticking to the problem at hand, now we have responds attacking me for not writing about my experiences sooner. This is exactly why I didn't write sooner. About two years ago, I did post a message on this website about a specific school I worked for and the discrimination I experienced. Many responses to my post at that time were more concerned with one or two of my spelling mistakes than the topic. After that, I thought it was a waste of time to write about any serious issues on this website. Actually I have not even visited this website for the past two years. But after what happened to my girlfriend (she's from Sichuan), I had to do something. She is going to be OK, BTW. The police have captured the man who injured her and he will have to pay her a lot of money.

As I said originally, I am a writer and I have been keeping a journal since I arrived in China. I plan to put it all together into a book I hope to get published so that people all over America can learn some truths about China. I have recently had a screenplay optioned, so I will have some publishing clout. I have also contacted Ebony magazine about a potential article on black people's experiences in China. Besides this website, I have posted similiar messages on African-American websites.

As for ouyang's comments, are you trying to suggest that racism only exists in Shenzhen? As you should well know, Shenzhen is one of China's special economic zones, making it a hot magnet for people wanting to make money. It's like the Hollywood of China. About 80 per cent of all Chinese people I've met don't come from Shenzhen or Guangdong.

[ouyang]

[Sinobear]

Michael:

Perhaps you should consider a city such as Shanghai to reside in. My good friend from Montreal (also very black) has done extremely well with his design business there (more than 5 years now).

We were in Huizhou (small world, huh?) together in 2000. Each time we went to the walking market, he would be surrounded and followed by curious onlookers while I could browse unnoticed.

I commend your attitude - like my friend, he does the best he can and maintains his composure in any situation...although I cannot attest for his personal feelings as he has never expressed any reaction to all of the crap he must face.

Lastly, please understand the apprehension concerning people of colour in Guangdong - especially GZ. There is a major crackdown going on to remove illegals here. I, for one, have never encountered any black people here from North America in 4 years. The blacks that predominantly reside here are from Africa and are not exactly engaged in legitimate businesses, nor are they discreet in their manner of trying to obtain a partner. Not an excuse nor rationale, just what one can observe by living here.

Best of luck to you and your gf.

Cheers!

[therock]

Micheal,

If your story is true I can't understand why you have put up with this for so long. If I was in the same situation I would have left a long time ago. However if you want to stick it out you need to have patience with the Chinese and the Chinese way of doing things. China is not America and never will be. Like any country there are going to be people who are racist and there will be people who are friendly.

[OGFT]

Michael Nelson

[lostinasia]

Just because something, such as racism or sexism, exists in ones home country doesn't mean that your new host country should be forced or expected to live by your definition of an 'ism' ... at least in my opinion. Us white folk would have a similar issue would we go to some country in Africa. Expect to live by the culture of your host country.

[Brian Caulfield]

My american friend I miss having Africans around me here in the outbacks of china . Some of the problems that american blacks have here has to do with Hollywood . Like the Italians who were always portrayed as being Mafia types , Hollywood has painted blacks as being angry and aggressive . Chinese kids watch the movies and listen to the anger of the music coming out of america today . There has to be some changes made in america if Black Aricans want to be regarded as peaceful people abroad .

[patsy]

I think you can try the women's college in Changsha, Hunan, they told us the only good foreign teacher they ever had was a friendly black man who was liked by all.

[tatterdemalion]

Ouch.

That's deeply awful. I don't really have anything to say, except to chalk up another for the tally of damage caused by the crass cultural viruses spread by rich honkies and their movies and their magazines...

[Matt_22]

[AussieGuyInChina]