Job Discussion Forums

[khmerhit]

God help us if they ever introduce mass education to China! Think of all the civilized people there would be!

[About The Author]

"RACIST" is a sensitive subject. The answer is �no�, many schools have hired black teachers and instructors for summer camps, you must provide proof of your ability to speak well. Many Chinese people doubt your ability to speak proper, unaccented English if your origin is some place other than USA, Canada, England or Australia. Also, lack of a diploma may lead to doubts about your ability. Perhaps more so for minority applicants than Caucasian applicants, you must provide proof of your qualifications. But if you are determined and prove yourself to be experienced and have command of a standard accent, you should be accepted.

[jg]

I live in Shanghai, and I lived in Jinan before. In both places, I have been black.

The people are going to stare at you much, much more than they would a person with lighter skin. They will laugh and point, even in a "cosmopolitan" city like Shanghai. There is very little getting around that, if any. Other foreigners, who are used to being stared at, comment to me about the degree to which I receive it. The young/youngish men are absolutely the worst, and if they see you with a Chinese woman, they will stare at you and her. I should add, though, that my Chinese doesn't include a lot of derogatory terms and I once saw my ex-sweetie go after a guy for something he said about me. I purposely didn't learn the word for "monkey" either, based on some of my experiences in other countries.

Other than that, China is not the worst place in Asia for racism - you will not have to fight in the street for being black. You will get lots of questions about your athleticism, dance moves, and if you are from North America, every once in awhile, someone will tell you that everyone in the US and Canada is white. That is more ignorance than anything else, because the world is pretty much a mystery to a lot of Chinese.

There are plenty of people who want to know what it is like to be different, and some who are curious about black people specifically, and they have cool and intersting questions to ask. Black Africans are more welcome here than in other Asian countries, so I am told. As everywhere, the younger people are more open. The job search aside, I haven't regretted being here, in fact I am mostly glad I came.

[Taishan]

I don't think there should really be any big problem coming to China, just small annoyances.
The massive popularity of basketball has had a positive impact, particularly on middle school students, many of whose favorite NBA stars are black. Therefore I doubt most students would be too ignorant, in fact quite open.

Some employers and older generations could be less open minded though.

[chegs]

To quote one of my well-educated, middle class students who holds a fairly high-ranking post in local government here in Fuzhou;

"You know I'm not racist, but blacks are like monkeys."

Forget that Chinese students do admire black American sports stars. The truth is that the 1988 thing hasn't been forgotten. Lighter skin is viewed as desirable, hence the vast numbers of parasols and young girls leaping from shadow to shadow on sunny days. Even amongst their own, the Chinese look down on people of a darker hue, the implication being that you must be a peasant and have to work in the fields unprotected from the evils of tanning.

As another poster mentioned, the increasing number of scamming Nigerians here don't help either.

At the end of the day, it's your choice. If you are thick-skinned and prepared to accept that their prejudice springs from ignorance, OK. If you are sensitive about the whole thing, you need to give serious thought as to whether you'd be able to hack it. My black friends here (US and Canadian) have good days and some pretty lousy ones too. As students get to know you, I'm sure you'll win the doubters over, but don't expect enlightened attitudes from passers-by in the street.

[anthyp]

Such an inflammatory quote isn't very helpful. You almost seem to take pride in the ignorance of your students. I don't want to say "You can't know what it's like to be black in China unless you're black," but ...

You have to deal with issues of race everywhere you go. Enough minorities have already commented on what it's like here to give the man a pretty general idea of what he'll face. I've noticed most of us say the same thing: "The Chinese are no worse than any others. You'll get lots of stares, and questions." We know the difference between curiosity and derision. There are much worse places to be in this world as a minority. You learn to have a thick skin early in life, wherever you've grown up.

[Jolly]

My first stint in PRC was at a boarding school for children. There was a Chinese-American teacher there (born in NYC) with her black Husband. I don't think he had any problems in the school, but away from the school, people did tend to stare more than usual and wanted to touch him.

Sad but true.

Still, I would not let that stop me if I were you and wanted to experience China.

[chegs]

anthyp. Are you trying to rile me here or something?

I take no pride whatsoever in the crass, ignorant comments of my students. I was merely trying to point out to the original poster what kind of attitudes he is likely to encounter here.

AND what's this about you being black? By your own admission you are Latino/Latina (I'm not sure which, sorry). I myself have Italian and Jewish blood, so I guess that qualifies me as non Anglo Saxon too.

Get off your PC bandwagon and try to realise that I'm only trying to help the guy and no offense was intended.

[anthyp]

Well I thought it was an inappropriate quote. I never said I was black. I said as a minority, I could relate. There is a difference between "minority" and "non - anglo - saxon" which perhaps we could get into another time. I think the posts from the other minorities on this thread are all pretty consistent, and if anybody would know what it's like for blacks, latinos, etc., living in China, it would be them (us? how to keep the grammar consistent there?!). I didn't and do not say the input of others isn't meaningful or less helpful. But again I've noticed that most of our (mine and the others') experiences have been O.K. That should tell the original poster something. Now relax! We have a holiday coming up.

[Clancy]

There is a great deal of racism in China. Just ask any Chinese from the countryside who comes to Shanghai.

There is also prejudice against blacks, particularly those from the African continent.

Some schools require pictures immediately in the application process and if you do not look white, you are not considered.

On the flip side, many blacks teach in China. Many blacks are foreign students in China. In Wuhan there is a rather large Ghana community and they have their own Christian Church.

China is a big country and it has many diverse attitudes.

[Just a guy]

I first came to quite a small town, where our group was the first non-Chinese people ever there.

Many stares for all us FT�s�..

One of us was a young pc black lady, who actually got upset at the Chinese saying she was black, not 4th generation Aferican American, she was quite dark skinned too.

She got very tired very fast of having her picture taken & left after 2 months,
she would rudely tell people to leave her alone, they couldn�t understand her words but her body language got her message across.

She caused a lot of trouble to the schools scheduling by leaving with no notice & she also complained a lot to the admin about her class load, `the same as the other 5 FT�s.

Needles to say, that little town now has a bad taste for people of color, the school will prolly never hire another.


You'll get a lot of country folk asking if they can have a picture with you
or they'll just take your picture.

but then, I have a collection of pictures of things I've found interesting in the past.....

[Lee_Odden]

Perhaps there are differences in the degrees of racism between provinces. I spent a year working in Shenyang, the capital of the Northeastern province of Laioning, from August 2002 at a private English school.

The school's employment policy was to hire Caucasians only. Their rationalization was that the parents complained when they had a Black teacher; not because she wasn't a good teacher, but simply because she was Black. Enrollment in her class dropped off and, after she left, the school informally adopted their new hiring policy.

Also, when I was searching "That's Shanghai Magazine" for jobs, I often browsed many ads which explicity stated "White Applicants Only," much to my amazement. I strongly suspect, as mentioned above, the ubiquitous request for a recent photo, along with the resume, is often racially-based.

Blue-eyed, blond haired teachers in Shenyang were clearly considered the best-looking among us (although, from a Caucasian perspective, many of the olive-skinned, Mediterrean-looking teachers were clearly the most attractive). The Chinese definitely favor light over dark skin people irrespective of facial features and body type. For proof of this, just walk into any mall and take a look at the billboards and advertising displays.

[khmerhit]

...and the skin-whitening creams.

[jg]

Per schools that don't hire anyone other than caucasians:

My school has at least two black teachers, and two Asian-Americans. I was told that about 1.5 years ago, they airbrushed one of the black teacher's photo out of the brochure for the school. The other teachers protested, and the school took note. There you have it: progress.

I am well-liked and respected by my students and colleagues, but it shouldn't matter.

The poster who mentioned the African-American woman who left a bad taste in the mouths of those who knew her, I think that inadvertent link between skin color and job performance is bs. I have met enough Chinese people (both provincial and worldly in attitude) that I know that if a school uses "we had a bad one, so we don't want any more of them", they are just satisfying their own racist ideas, the black person is just a convenient excuse. Good schools stand up for their teachers, point blank.

Parents dont care all that much, either, as long as little Johnny is learning. My former director in Jinan stood up for me to the few parents who questioned my capability, and in the end I did my job quite well. It is unfair to ANYONE to be treated as the standard-bearer for a whole group, and I think, in fairness to the Chinese, they do this a lot less than is presented here in this forum.

[Roger]

Lee-Odden,
and I find your categorisiation of "Caucasians" racist too. To me, your school has been hiring white peolple, from anywhere in the world, with probably not one soul hailing from the Caucasus.
This obnoxious racist slur has been out of fashion in the more advanced parts of the West for a couple of hundred years by now!