The China Thread

[Michael]

She was delighted when one of them fell off his bicycle while looking.

Has happened to me. Dude ran into a light pole and when I went over to see if I could help, he hurried away with a big goose egg on his forehead.

[Michael]

The Dark History of Darlie Toothpaste
http://www.thatsmags.com/guangzhou/post/10496/the-dark-history-of-darlie-toothpaste

[.Q.]

When I lived in Taiwan, I asked my relative what was the reasoning for the idiotic brand/logo and the explanation is that black people have extremely white teeth and that's what the product is advertising. While it would be obviously offensive in the West I don't think the original intent when creating the toothpaste was malicious at all. They just don't have the cultural context, like that Australian ad about bringing fried chicken to calm down African soccer fans.
I'd like someone to explain the logic for 黑鬼油 though. 1st time I heard about it I thought it was a joke.
https://world.taobao.com/item/531700050 ... 0.0.Ao1kBL

[Taste of Death]

When I lived in Taiwan, I asked my relative what was the reasoning for the idiotic brand/logo and the explanation is that black people have extremely white teeth and that's what the product is advertising. While it would be obviously offensive in the West I don't think the original intent when creating the toothpaste was malicious at all. They just don't have the cultural context, like that Australian ad about bringing fried chicken to calm down African soccer fans.
I'd like someone to explain the logic for 黑鬼油 though. 1st time I heard about it I thought it was a joke.
https://world.taobao.com/item/531700050 ... 0.0.Ao1kBL

Free shipping authentic Hong Kong Singapore Chen Nikko pain being broken nigger oil abscesses Lanrou swelling of unknown drugs

At ¥19.90 it is a steal.

[Steve James]

Forget about racism. It's true that, just as in the US, items like soap and toothpaste have been advertised using a Stereotypical image of a Black person. Did they know it was a stereotype: i.e., that Black people have very white teeth? Sure they did. Is it a stereotype? Sure it is. Is it negative because it's a stereotype? Not necessarily. Why not? Because they obviously weren't using the image to dissuade people from buying their product. In fact, it was/is a compliment to Black teeth, and that if you use that product, you'll have teeth like them.

I tell my students that people don't put images on their products that aren't attractive. They put Black images on things that they consider good Btw, the new image looks like Duke Ellington.

But this US ad, otoh.

http://childlit.unl.edu/figures/editori ... by.013.jpg

[Michael]

I'd like someone to explain the logic for 黑鬼油 though. 1st time I heard about it I thought it was a joke.

黑 black
鬼 ghost / devil
油 oil

I don't know the etymology, but calling foreigners black ghost/devil or white ghost/devil is a thing over here. I consider it deep-seated xenophobia. It's an Archie Bunker level racial epithet, IMO. Not meant to be offensive, but.

[.Q.]

I'd like someone to explain the logic for 黑鬼油 though. 1st time I heard about it I thought it was a joke.

黑 black
鬼 ghost / devil
油 oil

I don't know the etymology, but calling foreigners black ghost/devil or white ghost/devil is a thing over here. I consider it deep-seated xenophobia. It's an Archie Bunker level racial epithet, IMO. Not meant to be offensive, but.

I understand the term but I don't understand how that's supposed to sell medicinal oil. Also, since the box shows an Indian I doubt the black ghost term matches the term used here. I'd guess that perhaps the oil's original formula came from India? Purely conjecture though.

[Michael]

Yeah, not sure why it's part of their product name.

[vadaga]

AFA the effort to avoid tanning. do an amazon search for 'facekini'

[grzegorz]

AFA the effort to avoid tanning. do an amazon search for 'facekini'

Yeah, they show the face-kini in the Tomo news video. Along with the story of the kid who sat on a bucket in the an internet cafe so he wouldn't have to stop playing to take bathroom breaks.

Now that one I just don't understand. How does a society reach that point where someone could even possibly pull that off?

Only in China video for an only in China thread.



https://youtu.be/wwU9yqCc7Do

[mixjourneyman]

As a non local in Asia, I always try to take the xenophobia, misunderstandings, and other similar things with a bit of humility.
Keep in mind that Laowai is just a pretty normal thing to call a non Asian here and it isn't meant to offend anyone.
I almost always prefer to use the term Laowai over waiguo ren when I chat with locals because it is somewhat more intimate of a term (for instance, if you called a guy named Hong "Hong Xiansheng, or "Lao Hong," I think Lao Hong is much more intimate). Lao isn't a way to show disrespect, it is just a prefix to a name.
I don't really like when people talk about me as if I can't hear them ("nage laowai" etc), but it is so much better just not to be bothered by this stuff. None of us is every going to save China from its own cultural biases, and we would have to be pretty fucking hard working to save ourselves from our own.
One thing I've learned from living in the sticks in China is that respect is something you earn rather than something you should just assume you intrinsically deserve. Think about the terrible behaviour of many foreigners, not to mention the historical bad blood between China and other countries. You aren't going to break down those well deserved stereotypes just by looking sincere and trying to educate the poor heathens on American politeness and cultural sensibilities.
The other thing for any foreigner living outside of the big areas (Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou etc) is that you don't look like the local people and many of them don't get exposed to foreigners that often. I can spend weeks where I live in Henan without seeing another non Chinese person, so I have to accept that if anyone is going to be the odd one out, it will be me.
On the other hand, I forced myself to get good enough in the local dialect (much to the detriment of my Mandarin) that when I talk, the local people can see I'm trying to learn their culture, so it is much easier to make allies and keep them, instead of being that sour faced angry foreigner who doesn't understand what people are saying and assumes it all to be bad.

I'm sure this isn't a particularly popular opinion, but I think its worth considering.

[Michael]

I'm sure this isn't a particularly popular opinion, but I think its worth considering.

It's the only one I know of that works well.

Chinese people probably their share of difficulty with Chinese people as well, so it's not only foreigners who have to find ways of coping.

[mixjourneyman]

I'm sure this isn't a particularly popular opinion, but I think its worth considering.

It's the only one I know of that works well.

Chinese people probably their share of difficulty with Chinese people as well, so it's not only foreigners who have to find ways of coping.

hehehehe, yeah.
my girlfriend is obsessed with buying wool sweaters and this one seller in Guangdong said to her on the phone "oh, you henan people mostly like bright colours right?" and she got angry for a whole day. She said that he was subtly saying that Henan people are all a bunch of farmers and so they don't like wearing subtle colours and instead prefer things that mimic the great outdoors where they live and shit in the fields and stuff. Chinese on Chinese mental warfare is a fun thing to watch. We have it relatively easy on comparison.

[Michael]

The locals down here in the wet markets are brutal to northerners trying to buy some veggies in Mandarin, but they don't do that to foreigners. Life is funny.

[Steve James]

"oh, you henan people mostly like bright colours right?" and she got angry for a whole day.

Boy, I've had the same experience. Somehow, some people think I'm supposed to like shiny things. I know their opinions are not really about me . That keeps me sane and smiling at the stupid mofos.