Are foreigners discriminated against in China?
- Source: Global Times
- [23:19 December 13 2009]
- Comments
Readers are invited to contribute to Everybody’s Column, which showcases a variety of opinions from our readers on different topics.
Our topics for discussion for the following weeks include: “Can you have a proper Christmas in China?” and “What term most defi ned China in 2009?”
Pieces should be no longer than 300 words and may be submitted via email to forum@globaltimes.com.cn
Send mail to the Op-ed Department, the Global Times, 7/F Topnew Tower, 15 Guanghua Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100026. Send faxes to (86-10)52937584.
Illustration: Liu Rui
Elliott Bernstein, an American resident director of Special Programs for CET Academic Programs in Beijing The American idea of "racial discrimination" is not perfectly applicable in China.
Chinese people might have certain ideas about different races, and they will talk about those stereotypes.
However, since there aren't large groups of those people here, it's less frequent for real racial discrimination to occur in the same ways as it does in more ethnically diverse societies like the US.
Still, Americans often feel like there's a lot of racism in China.
That's in part because it's easy for Americans to confuse stereotyping with discrimination.
Each issue has its own problems, and they're often closely connected, but they are basically distinct from one another.
The main di. erence, as I see it, is whether or not action is taken.
If a person believes certain things about people of di. erent races but acts the same toward everyone, it's only stereotyping.
However, when they treat people differently because of those beliefs, that's discrimination.
According to my observation, there's a lot of both socalled positive stereotyping and negative stereotyping in China.
Chinese people will say a few things that they believe are good and a few things that they believe are bad about people of different races.
For example, they might say "Jews are very smart," and then they might say also "Why do Jews hate the Palestinians?"
Also, I believe that generalizations are often easier for Chinese people to accept than Americans regarding many things.
This is because of di. erent styles of education. Chinese people usually memorize facts and aren't taught to think with much creativity.
The correct answer in a Chinese classroom is to repeat the exact words of a teacher.
American education often stresses problem-solving and creative thinking, and that means we aren't normally satisfi ed with standard answers.
This is part of what causes Chinese people to be more likely to accept racial generalizations, as well as part of why Americans often have averse reactions to those statements, chalking them up to "racial discrimination."
