Did you hear about this? It was on All Things Considered last night as I was driving home.
20 year-old Lou Jing is bi-racial, born of a Chinese mother and an African-American father she's never met. She was a contestant on China's American Idol-type show, Go! Oriental Angel (I thought 'oriental' was politically incorrect?).
Lou Jing boosted ratings, but she also sparked all kind of controversy about what it means to be Chinese. Some in Internet chat rooms were buzzing about how she shouldn't be allowed to represent Shanghai in the national competition because she's not really Chinese. Some said her dark skin was unattractive. Others just got downright racist.
Hearing her on the radio, I thought the girl was pure-d Chinese and figured she'd look like Kimora Simmons or something (yes, I know she's Korean-Japanese). Seeing her, I realize what a shock she must have been to China. China has 56 recognized ethnicities and mixed race isn't one of them.
"When I meet somebody for the first time," Lou Jing told Time, "they'd often ask me how I can speak Chinese so well, and I tell them 'Because I am Chinese--of course I can speak my mother tongue well.'"
Gurrrrl, I know how it is; people be axin' me how I knows my anglish so good.
I wonder how much of racism is human nature--you know, you see somebody different, you have your own issues, so you make yourself feel good by making them feel bad--and how much of it is influenced by the image of African-Americans in the global media?
And what's up with brothers planting their seed in China? Lou Jing isn't the only Chin-Noire; check out South African and Chinese Olympic hopeful, Ding Hui.
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4 comments:
i watched a few clips about the growing african communities in china. there was some i saw about them not mingling well. i don't expect them to not be racists or discriminatory. i feel bad for the girl though. sometimes asians don't like the mixed asians that look asian.
Did you see in the article that she hopes to be able to go to Colombia University? I really pray she gets a chance, because while New York City isn't free from racism, it sounds like she would be much more welcome and feel at home in a city with many folks of multi-racial backgrounds, etc. I pray she gets a chance to do that.
Interesting. In the 80s, I was shopping and a group of young Vietnamese women were in the store. One was clearly half-black. She was small of build like they were, but have our distinct body shape (nice booty, no homo, lol). Listening to her conversate with them and watching her expressions of hand motions like them was so interesting.
She caught me watching and I smiled and nodded, but she looked embarrassed, maybe ashamed. I had the sense she wanted to smile back, but was torn between retaining her Vietnamese-ness with her group, possibly her family. I wondered then what her life had been like.
I read a lot about the hard times of black-mixed kids of our soldiers went through growing up in Vietnam. I recall reading that the mixed-white ones, especially if they had blue eyes, were treated better, at least the ones who weren't sexually exploited. Don't hear anything about them anymore; I guess it's become something you have to seek out if you want to know. I wonder how many mixed-Iraqi kids there are now.
Hey KellyBelle,
Now see...this little girl can have a Chinese mother and a black father and say "I'm Chinese" but black folks were so deeply upset when Tiger did that...
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