The China Thread

[Michael]

This advertisement might provide context to additional loss of face for the culprits in the previous line cutting video.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UykyiKczbw

Holy Cannoli!

It's a pretty good example of how a lot of mainland Chinese see blacks, although the company did pull the ad and apologize after local and international backlash.

[Michael]

I actually prefer gwailo to laowai... hate the latter as 1) it pays lip service to politeness but the way people say it... doesn't seem polite to me... there's always a submerged adjective hovering just out of reach whether it's 死 or 笨 or 蠢 or what have you... but call people out on it its like nonono the 'lao' is for respect, um thanks but no thanks I didnt fall off the tomato truck yesterday 2)moreover the phenomenon of hearing it in places other than China...it's like nonono we're in [country other than China] now. It's like if I went to France and called all the French people foreigners... where is the sense...

Yup. Calling me gweilo is beyond hilarious to me and laowai they will defend that it's not at all negative.

The American teacher who wrote the middlekingdomlife.com web site had a couple of good articles with examples of how Chinese school principals, administrators do not have or show respect for foreign teachers, which is absolutely true in my experience, but of course that's job related and jobs can suck. The attitude toward foreigners, foreign blacks, etc., it runs pretty deep. Ethnic Chinese born or raised outside complain of even worse treatment, with implications of them being inherent failures and/or traitors for not being real Chinese. The other side of of this is that in my experience, Chinese are very welcoming to guests and I receive more patience with language probs from shop keepers and other businesses than non-native English speakers sometimes do in the USA.

[Michael]

Pokemon is a No-Go in China because of the strict control the govt. has over maps and GPS signals. Google Maps will show you anywhere from 50 to 700 meters out of place and making maps in China can be a restricted activity. As is common here, the govt. restricts popular programs from outside, while a local company creates is allowed to create a competing product that can build domestic market share. Along those lines, the world famous Pokemon Go is replaced in China with something called City Elves Go. Here are some waste of time videos of disappointed foreigners in China discovering their Pokemon Go is verbotten.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_XxGFFnLqs

AND

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTeW1VQ1YSQ

[grzegorz]

Yeah, you definitely see some different computer games in China. I embarrassed to say that I played the one where you fight Japanese invaders during the War.

Now they have one where you kill invading Americans too.



http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ciCxN6w5XV0

[Michael]

Yeah, you definitely see some different computer games in China. I embarrassed to say that I played the one where you fight Japanese invaders during the War.

Now they have one where you kill invading Americans too.

That's fantastic, but not quite as amazing as the Nanjing massacre museum where they've created a porn-not-censored-by-government category of historical fiction where Japanese soldiers torture and rape Chinese women. They sell the DVD's right in the museum from a couple of reports I've read.

[grzegorz]

I regret I never made it there. When you live somewhere you always think you will have time later. I did read the book though but doing both would have been best.

Pornography for nationalism, could be an interesting business proposition.

[Michael]

Pornography for nationalism, could be an interesting business proposition.

Is there some fundamental reason why countries with more restrictions on porn also keep the status of women more inferior to men than in countries where porn is legal? You'd sorta think it'd be the other way around, but no.

[Serena]

Pornography for nationalism, could be an interesting business proposition.

Is there some fundamental reason why countries with more restrictions on porn also keep the status of women more inferior to men than in countries where porn is legal? You'd sorta think it'd be the other way around, but no.

This should actually be a really big clue

[grzegorz]

Only in China video for an only in China thread.



https://youtu.be/wwU9yqCc7Do

[RobP3]

This advertisement might provide context to additional loss of face for the culprits in the previous line cutting video.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UykyiKczbw

The irony is the girl seems made up to look quite European

[Michael]

The irony is the girl seems made up to look quite European

There are definitely some competing vectors of cognitive dissonance about who is superior or inferior, who is us vs. them, and which standard of beauty crosses over with discriminatory stereotypes. As expected, younger people who get exposed to more information from multiple sources seem to be a lot more chill on these topics.

[grzegorz]

On a more serious note.




https://youtu.be/wQ6D4h31xIk

[grzegorz]

This advertisement might provide context to additional loss of face for the culprits in the previous line cutting video.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UykyiKczbw

The irony is the girl seems made up to look quite European

All things being equal it is worth mentioning that most young Chinese men idolize black athletes from the NBA. I also think that a lot of the racism comes from a desire for milky white skin which the Chinese see as a mark of beauty probably from imperial times when it was a sign of royalty. Also I think a lot of their stereotypes come from Hollywood where even today in movies and music villians are often darker.

[Steve James]

Countries (and even counties and neighborhoods) with the fewest Black residents get all their information about Black peoples from the media. Outside the US, this often translates into curiosity. It can be rude, but it has been that way with all foreigners. A Swiss friend of mine went to China in the 80s and was really uncomfortable with people stopping and staring. She was delighted when one of them fell off his bicycle while looking.

Afa the lightness issue, the funny thing is that many Chinese and Japanese are "whiter" physically than European "White" people. Take Sicilians for an example . Of course, the "Western look" that includes taking away the eyelid folds, etc., is a cultural phenomenon. Otoh, there are far more businesses in Europe and the US dedicated to selling skin darkening (or, more colloquially, "tanning", lotions. And the people are rebelling against the use of sun screen.

[grzegorz]

You do see dark skin in China but they are usually Chinese minorities, farmers and generally labourers who work outside which is why I think lighter skin is still associated with wealth.