Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

Racial rethinking as Obama visits
Increasing diversity, born out of boom, forces Chinese to confront old prejudices

By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 15, 2009



SHANGHAI -- As a mixed-race girl growing up in this most cosmopolitan of mainland Chinese cities, 20-year-old Lou Jing said she never experienced much discrimination -- curiosity and questions, but never hostility.

So nothing prepared Lou, whose father is a black American, for the furor that erupted in late August when she beat out thousands of other young women on "Go! Oriental Angel," a televised talent show. Angry Internet posters called her a "black chimpanzee" and worse. One called for all blacks in China to be deported.

As the country gets ready to welcome the first African American U.S. president, whose first official visit here starts Sunday, the Chinese are confronting their attitudes toward race, including some deeply held prejudices about black people. Many appeared stunned that Americans had elected a black man, and President Obama's visit has underscored Chinese ambivalence about the growing numbers of blacks living here.

"It's sad," Lou said, her eyes welling up as she recalled her experience. "If I had a face that was half-Chinese and half-white, I wouldn't have gotten that criticism. . . . Before the contest, I didn't realize these kinds of attitudes existed."

As China has expanded its economic ties with Africa -- trade between them reached $107 billion last year -- the number of Africans living here has exploded. Tens of thousands have flocked to the south, where they are putting down roots, establishing communities, marrying Chinese women and having children.

In the process, they are making tiny pockets of urban China more racially diverse -- and forcing the Chinese to deal with issues of racial discrimination. In the southern city of Guangzhou, where residents refer to one downtown neighborhood as Chocolate City, local newspapers have been filled in recent months with stories detailing discrimination and alleging police harassment against the African community.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/14/AR2009111401147_pf.html

[Junior]

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

[Adventurer]

[Kuros]

The majority of China is still backwards. Of course they have problems with racism.

[eridani]

Sadly, racism is a reality in all countries that have a minority population.

For example, minorities such as Asians and blacks in many "backwards" parts of Western countries such as the US, UK and Australia still face significant racism on a daily basis.

And in most cases, whites have it a lot easier than blacks in many Asian countries. Sometimes, whites get benefits that not even native Asians get.

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

[djsmnc]

I think we should all hold tight until more results come out of the scientific community and genome project. We may find racists to be justified!

[Ya-ta Boy]

One more area where China is joining the modern world and they are showing some of the same hang-ups that the rest of the world has shown in comparable situations. Big surprise.

[Old Gil]

[Kuros]