{"id":1810,"date":"2009-11-03T12:35:55","date_gmt":"2009-11-03T16:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=1810"},"modified":"2010-04-26T17:31:38","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T21:31:38","slug":"are-the-chinese-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=1810","title":{"rendered":"Are the Chinese racist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tim Collard
\nNovember 2nd, 2009 – telegraph.co.uk<\/i>
\nTrinidad and Tobago News Blog
\nwww.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Lou<\/a>
Lou Jing<\/figcaption><\/figure>Yesterday The Observer reported an alarming row over a TV talent contest in Shanghai. One of the leading contestants, a 20-year-old girl named Lou Jing (pronounced Low not Loo), has attracted enormous opprobrium from all over the country. Some of the comments in the Chinese blogosphere are almost unbelievable. Sounds familiar, you might think. But the only allegation levelled at her is that she has dared to appear on television while being of mixed race, her father being a black African who was not married to her mother.
\n
\nFor a start, Lou Jing is extremely lucky to be alive. I thought I\u2019d seen it all in China, but I\u2019ve never seen an African\/Chinese mixed race person there. You don\u2019t actually meet all that many people born out of wedlock at all. This is not, as the prissy blogosphere would have it, because of the superior virtue of Chinese maidens. It is because illegitimacy is so socially unacceptable that (at a guess) 99 per cent of such pregnancies are terminated. If the mother suspected that the pregnancy had resulted from an affair with a black man, I would have said until today that that figure was 100 per cent. And this 20 years ago! Lou Jing\u2019s mother is one extremely brave woman.
\nFull Article : telegraph.co.uk<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n
\"RIGHT:
RIGHT: Lou Jing with her mother<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

China’s black pop idol exposes her nation’s racism<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n

By Stephen Vines
\n November 2nd, 2009<\/i><\/p>\n

She is attractive, effervescent and has an appealing voice. But these qualities alone would not have made Lou Jing the most famous television talent show contestant in China and the subject of national debate in the world’s most populous country. The reason they are talking about Lou is because she is black.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old daughter of a Chinese mother and an African-American father who left the country before she was born, Lou was a highly unusual entrant to Shanghai-based Dragon TV’s Go Oriental Angel. Her appearances \u2013 she became one of five finalists \u2013 have provoked a storm of abuse on the internet, a rare debate on racism in the media, and a bout of self-examination in a country where skin colour is a notoriously sensitive subject.<\/p>\n

Dragon TV initially had doubts about allowing Lou to perform, but then realised that her presence would do much to attract publicity for the show. But few executives can have expected the fury contained in many of the blogs and online posts that accompanied her performances. The internet is the only place in China where the public can express views with near-freedom \u2013 although they are rapidly cut off by an army of state censors if they stray into territory that attracts official disapproval. The huge online interest in Lou clearly does not fall into this category.
\nFull Article : guardian.co.uk<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

A short video clip of Lou Jing<\/a>
\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

A New Kind of Idol: Lou Jing<\/b><\/big> <\/p>\n

Lou Ching is an all-around normal and attractive 20-year-old girl from Shanghai who likes clothes, (presumably) boys, the mall and has big dreams of becoming a singing superstar. So big that in August she became a contestant on China\u2019s Let\u2019s Go! Oriental Angel, a televised talent contest much like our beloved American Idol. So what\u2019s the big deal? Lou is Black.<\/p>\n

To clarify, Lou Jing is biracial. The product of an extra-marital affair between her Chinese mother and an African-American man, naturally the circumstances surrounding her birth make for great TV, which the show\u2019s producers have played up, and playing Lou in the process. A baby born out of an affair is hardly news in any country, but the simple fact that her mom slept with a Black man and Lou was born has made the girl the focus of a rapidly growing debate about what it means to really be Chinese. Lou\u2019s birth and upbringing in China, and pretty much her life until now, has been disregarded by many simply due to the fact that she has Black blood in her veins, something that I suspect would be different if her father was White. Naturally, she and her mother have their fair share of haters, some just displaying outright racism and disrespect towards both of them, hidden by the cloak of the internet.
\nFull Article : parlourmagazine.com<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Seeing red over black angel<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n

A half-Chinese, half-black young woman is making a lot of Chinese netizens mad. She didn’t do anything. She just looks different.<\/p>\n

One of the most popular comments is titled: “Wrong parents; wrong skin color; wrong to be in a television show”.
\nFull Article : news.asiaone.com<\/a><\/i> <\/p>\n

The uproar really kicked off when a Shanghai newspaper published a libellous article suggesting her mother had cheated on her Chinese husband with Lou Jing’s father.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe newspaper has retracted the article and we are involved in legal action against them,\u201d said Lou Jing. \u201cI tried to make sure my mother didn’t see the article, but even though we got it removed from the paper’s website and the major internet forums, it kept popping up elsewhere on the internet,\u201d she added. \u201cI cried a lot.\u201d
\nFull Article : telegraph.co.uk<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Heads-up to foreigners: \u201cracism in China\u201d is a cross-cultural conversation landmine<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n

I guess this is one of those things that most foreigners in China discover sooner or later, though I didn\u2019t realize until recently that this is a sensitive nerve for a lot of Han Chinese (Han are the majority ethnic group in China at 92%). Apparently the idea that there could be racism in China is outright rejected by a lot of Chinese: \u201c\u2018Racism\u2019 is never in Chinese minds,\u201d says one commenter from Hong Kong. \u201cWe don\u2019t have racism issues.\u201d Yet multiple glaring, text-book examples of racism instantly and effortlessly spring to the minds of foreigners who\u2019ve spent significant time in China. They\u2019ve experienced or witnessed it for themselves, and they can\u2019t believe that anyone would seriously deny that it exists. The Mainlanders, however, are offended that a foreigner would even suggest it.
\nFull Article : chinahopelive.net<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Appalling Racism<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n

In case there\u2019s anyone here who doesn\u2019t already read ChinaSMACK<\/a>, check out this post<\/a> (although be warned, this is a good mood ruiner). The short version of the story is that a half-Chinese, half-African-American girl who was the product of an extramarital affair went on TV, and Chinese netizens went crazy. Some comments, of course, are supportive, but many of them are deeply, disturbingly racist.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve discussed the question of racism before<\/a> here, most memorably last spring, when we accidentally touched off a bit of controversy and earned the ire of famous Chinese blogger He Caitou<\/a>. He told me repeatedly that there is \u201cno racism in China.\u201d If you\u2019ve lived in China, it\u2019s probably a phrase you\u2019ve heard before.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no point in even discussing the question further; to my mind, anyone with a functioning brain can see that there is racism in China (just as there is everywhere else). What concerns me is the steadfast denial that such thoughts and feelings exist, even when presented with pretty damning evidence<\/a>.
\nFull Article : sun-zoo.com<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

More Articles:<\/i><\/p>\n

Shanghai \u2018Black Girl\u2019 Lou Jing Abused By Racist Netizens<\/a><\/p>\n

Interview with Shanghai Black Girl Lou Jing<\/a><\/p>\n

Chinese-Black Couple On Shanghai Metro<\/a><\/p>\n

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog’s URL for this article:
\nwww.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=1810<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Collard November 2nd, 2009 – telegraph.co.uk Trinidad and Tobago News Blog www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog Yesterday The Observer reported an alarming row over a TV talent contest in Shanghai. One of the leading contestants, a 20-year-old girl named Lou Jing (pronounced Low not Loo), has attracted enormous opprobrium from all over the country. Some of the … Continue reading Are the Chinese racist?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,19,154],"tags":[85,104,1044,138],"class_list":["post-1810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-internet-issues","category-race-and-identity","tag-abuse","tag-african","tag-chinese","tag-racism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1810"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2991,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions\/2991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}