DIG IT!
Are the Chinese Racist?
This should prove interesting. As y'all know there has been a lot of debate regarding China's growing influence in Africa. Does this relationship benefit Africans or is it just another opportunity for corrupt African elites to fatten their boubous? Is China exploiting Africa much in the same way Western nations have done for centuries? Is China a racist nation?
I am no authority on the matter, but I hope to get a few leads at the China in Africa lecture at Boston University (see below).
A few random thoughts: i have never been to China. i spent six months in Iwakuni Japan, but I don't have extensive experience in Asia. There is a fascinating thread on FB about Rwandans and other Africans in Japan who frequently puzzle their hosts with numerous instances of what they believe to be language convergence.
I also have a few African American and African associates in China who are doing well--no complaints of overwhelming racism. My office mate of 3 years was from a rural area in northern China. We have swapped stories about poverty on several occasions, I can't recall discussing racism. I don't deny that racism exists in China. But I question the lack of balance in recent articles on the topic. And I am uncertain whether the recent intensification of ethnic violence in China explains racial attitudes towards black people.
In the Washington Post article below, journalist Keith Richburg seems keen on depicting China and specifically the Han majority, as overwhelmingly racist. He includes not a single quote offering a counter-opinion. Apparently only the GREAT OBAMA [*sarcastic grin*] can rescue them from their racists selves. Richburg also implies that Chinese writers exaggerate the status of race relations in the US when in fact, by some indicators, african americans are moving backwards. Yet Richburg is mute on this point...
America and Western Europe are currently engaged in fierce competition with China for trade deals w/resource rich African nations. China = racism/racists is, in my opinion, one of many strategies the west is using in an attempt to undermine China's rising profile in Africa. I don't know that Richburg is on a lobbyist payroll (i wouldn't doubt it), but his imperial American bias works well with the interests of white American elites.
NB: China's relations with Africa are far older than the 1960s. I think they go back to c. 14 century.
Hung, 48, said her generation was "taught world history in a way that black people were oppressed, they were slaves, and we haven't seen any sign of success since. The African countries are still poor, and blacks [in America] still live in inner cities." Hung noted that Chinese racial prejudices extend to the country's own minority groups, including Tibetans and Uighurs -- or anyone who is not ethnically Han Chinese.
The view of African Americans as poor and oppressed fits into the official narrative of the United States as a place of glaring inequalities. China's most recent annual report on the United States' human rights record in 2008, released in February, made no mention of Obama's historic election. But it said, "In the United States, racial discrimination prevails in every aspect of social life."
"Black people and other minorities live at the bottom of the American society," the report said. "There is serious racial hostility in the United States."
Sherwood Hu, a Shanghai-based filmmaker, was one of the judges on "Go! Oriental Angel" who gave Lou high marks. "Before the Cultural Revolution, China considered black people our brothers and white people our enemies," Hu said. "But deep down, they're a little bit afraid of black people."
The racial animosity here reflects a prejudice dating to China's mainly agrarian past: Darker skin meant you worked the fields; lighter skin put you among the elite. The country is rapidly industrializing and urbanizing, but that historical prejudice remains. High-end skin-whitening products are a $100 million-a-year business in China, according to industry statistics.
Incidentally, Mr. Richburg is the same journalist who in his book Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa, "thanks God for slavery," because it rescued his ancestors from African "savagery." I would not consider his discussions of race useful or accurate. But decide for yourself. Read the entire essay here.
Robeson in China
Paul Robeson certainly seemed to have a good relationship with China--It was in America that he caught hell and was ultimately driven to a nervous breakdown.
In the clip below this beautiful, brilliant, courageous black man sings the Chinese national anthem Chee Lai ("March of the Volunteers"). The song originally caught on as a way to encourage national solidarity against and resistance to Japanese aggression during WWII:
Quoting from Youtube: "Robeson sang the songs of the world's people in their own languages. He came to be conversant in 20 languages, and fluent in 12. Paul Robeson was the first foreign singer who sang the Chinese song "Chee Lai" in Chinese in the United States and the world over. This song was written in 1935 by the famous Chinese progressive playwright Tian Han...In 1935, the Japanese army occupied the northeast of China and was marching towards North China in an attempt to occupy the whole country. Chinese people were indignant and wanted to unite together to fight against Japanese invasion. It was at that time, "Chee Lai" or "March of the Volunteers" came into being to call on the whole nation to rise up."
This is a shorter clip of Robeson where you can actually watch him singing Chee Lai live. WOW!!!
China in Africa MONDAY! @ Boston University
Photo Credit: Gavin Coates
tags: africa, barack obama, china, geopolitical, keith richburg, paul robeson, racism
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