fair go, china

you'd think that with me being half asian and all, the chinese would make me feel somewhat welcome on their turf. you know, i thought they'd grant me some sort of affinity with them and would treat me as one of their "homies". but instead i think they look at me and think: "there's that bottom of the barrel asian mongrel". yes, racism seems rife in china. but not the type i was expecting. there are some chinese (i say some, because i shouldn't use any generalisations) who are racist against asians. living my whole life so far in australia, a predominantly white anglo country, i've never once felt excluded on account of my ethnicity. the first time i feel racially discrimated against is when i come to china. where nearly everyone is asian. how fucked up is that?

so here's the proof.

favouritism.
bill, our foreign studies headmaster and boss, love love LOVES foreigners. but i don't believe i'm included in his idea of "foreigner". he prefers foreigners that actually LOOK foreign to him. so this is mainly the teachers with blonde, light brown or red hair, and un-asian features. i obviously do not fulfil this archetype. i don't represent the "ideal" foreign teacher image they seek - definitely not the type of face they want on a foreign studies school brochure. bill unequivocally favours these two female canadian teachers with blonde hair, and also of course, andy. andy gets the privilege of less teaching hours most weeks, so i sometimes have to give some of my classes to him, to balance out our working hours. i think if bill had to lay off staff, i, a black-haired foreigner, would be expendable. i would be at the top of his extermination list - and blondies would be last.

underestimation.
the other day, sam, the chinese man who is second-in-charge at our school, asked me for some help in deciphering some words from a CNN audio stream. one of the words was espionage. i told him it was either spying or betraying your country (i couldn't remember which. i later asked andy - treason is the latter). so once he double checked with the chinese translation, he thanked me and said, "ahh, you truly are a foreigner". i was quite offended by this. i interpreted it as: "i didn't think you were a true foreigner because you don't look like one, but now you've proven yourself worthy of foreign-status by telling me the meaning of a hard english word. you've passed the test and have my blessing". seriously, what the hell.

stereotyping.
next situation. andy is training some teachers in english at our high school. he is explaining his and my background.a female teacher pipes up with something along the lines of, "sorry, but i do not think she's australian". ok. so andy just explained i was australian and she doubts his claim. for god sakes, i'm technically more australian than him. i was BORN in australia and have one fair dinkum aussie parent. andy was born in ENGLAND, and has TWO ENGLISH parents. do not for one second doubt my australian-ness, missy. i can be ocker. bloody strewth sheila, you flamin' galah. you wouldn't know aussie if it bit you on yer trackie dacks. you've got buckley's chance of gettin' back into my good esky. look at me trying to prove my australian heritage through pathetic aussie lingo. i should not need to justify such a thing. damn, my looks are such a curse here.

ill-treatment.
dora (from uzbekistan) and lindsay (a former teacher at our school who is hawaiian) were both apparently mistreated at the school. i heard this directly from dora and through word of mouth by the other foreign teachers. this was in large part because dora has central asian-looking features and lindsay was of course hawaiian, which in some cases can be mistaken as asian-looking (i think she maybe also had some chinese heritage, but couldn't speak chinese). dora got paid a very small amount during her first month here, because headmaster bill claimed her standard of living and salary in her home country was a lot lower than china. what bollocks. that should mean diddly-squat, dear bill. i don't know the specifics of what happened to lindsay, but i'm pretty certain she was not regarded as highly as the more western-looking foreigners. and if i wasn't attached to anglo andrew, i think i would be treated the same as these girls.

solid evidence.
the last thing to cap off my racism list is a chinese "culture booklet", that bill recently released to the foreign teachers to inform us about culture and customs here, and what to expect when teaching. one of the tips was:

"Chinese students feel that black people are ugly, and don't have much interest in Africa, Central Asia, or in least developed countries. Racism is strong in China."

well, there you have it.