Being Black in China
“Wow, you look like Kobe!” or “Wow, you look like Obama!” It happens way too often. People gawking on the street, in the taxicab, on the subway. I see Chinese people just stare at me with jaws dropped. If they could only see me play basketball or give an impromptu speech, they’d know instantly that I’m neither of them!
One time when this happened in a cab, my friend turned to me, chuckling. “Does it ever make you mad?” A complex question indeed.
When a black American man hears “you look like Kobe”, the old stereotypes pop up like a film reel. In the U.S., the stereotype is that all famous black people must be athletes; it’s an implicit underestimation of that person’s ability because you assume he can’t do any profession other than being an athlete. But I am looking at the issue through a distinctly American lens. Even so, Africans studying in China also experience the same frustrating behavior by local Chinese. Why this behavior? Simple. Chinese people closely follow the NBA. Specifically, Kobe looms large as a household NBA star in China, perhaps due to successful marketing. The same logic goes for Barack Obama, who no matter where you’re from, you now know who the first African American president of the U.S. is. Moreover, people from Shenyang and other smaller cities are not that exposed to black people anyway, so naturally, they will compare us to the only other black people they’ve heard of; mainly, Kobe and Obama.
Is this racist behavior? My Chinese colleagues say no for two reasons, the second being related to the first. First, Chinese people still have very little interaction with foreigners in general and much less so black foreigners, so they are naturally ignorant and curious. Since they have little interaction with black people, they can’t possibly be racist because they don’t have any framework from which to treat black people. “And besides”, they add, “Slavery never happened in China, so the racial hierarchy never existed here. You Westerners are simply imposing the Western definition and history of racism onto China. The concept of racism just doesn’t exist here. So they should just get over it.”
Let’s call these assertions by their true name: excuses. I would buy the first excuse if only older Chinese people who have never ventured out of Shenyang or have never used a computer acted this way. But it’s younger people as well. People my age or even younger. The generation that has had the opportunity to study abroad, to surf the internet, to know the world. What excuse do they have to steal glances at a black person on the train, surreptitiously search for a photo of Kobe or Obama on their phones to compare, and snicker amongst themselves? Yes it happens less often in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou…but it still DOES happen from time to time.
To think that there is no concept of racism in China is just wrong. It is the denial of the Han people who make up almost 92% of the population but don’t get to see how some of China’s minorities live. Racism in its purest definition may not exist in China, but discrimination certainly does. Ask a Tibetan if racism doesn’t exist in China. Ask a Uighur from Xinjiang who fears being put into a work camp just because he/she is Muslim.
And don’t tell me that racism is some Western concept imposed on China. Must I remind you of the detergent commercial a few years back, when a beautiful Chinese woman throws a black man into a washing machine, puts the detergent in, and out comes a sparkling white Chinese man? Must I remind you of the Chinese New Year skit two years ago with Chinese actors in blackface, portraying dancing Africans? Must I remind you of the subtle, yet ubiquitous signs of racism in social life: the face creams to make women’s skin whiter; the “Darlie” toothpaste, formally “Darkie”, with a smiling black man as the mascot; the old saying that an ideal woman is “white, rich, and beautiful”; the disappointing comments to friends who have returned from beach vacations, “oh, but your skin is darker!” I’ve heard Chinese people call white people 帅all the time; to date, I’ve never heard them say the same thing about a black person.
You can argue that this all stems from China’s agricultural past, that those with darker skin were the poor farmers toiling in the sun, while the ones with whiter skin were the nobility. It has nothing to do with a specific attitude to black people. But the answer is not to simply brush off the insecurities and frustrations of foreigners visiting your country. Nor is it right to shrug off complaints, saying it’s the West being too sensitive with small words. Surely a country with a 5,000-year-old language replete with phrases that have deep meaning can understand the sensitivity of words.
As China continues to grow as a global player, more and more foreigners will travel here to work, study, and live here. What needs to happen in China is social and cultural awareness, for people to think for a moment about how their actions may be interpreted by foreigners. Perhaps it is part of the larger issue of developing collective 素质 in China. But it also requires foreigners to view each interaction with a Chinese person as an opportunity to break pre-existing stereotypes. But, I must admit, even that gets frustrating over time.
Do the staring and questions about Kobe and Obama make me mad? Much less so than before. But I hope that Chinese people will develop this social and cultural awareness sooner rather than later. China champions its ancient concept of 和而不同; it’s time to put it into practice on this issue.