There has been a storm of posts in the China blogosphere about racism in China. A China Law Blog post does a good job of analyzing whether Westerns are racist towards China. I would have to agree with him that the majority of Westerns living in China are not racist but they do exude a sense of arrogance.
After playing around on YouTube today I found a great video of Russell Peters, and the use of the word “那个 .“
I cracked up for a few minutes, and then I also thought back to earlier this year around April when some Canadian woman found the color of her couch to be, “n*gger brown.” (http://buzzfeed.com/buzz/Racist_Translations_ ) Apparently it was a mistake made by a Chinese factory but it got me wondering about racist views of Chinese towards foreigners.
I thought back to a few weeks ago when I was hanging out in 1912 and met up with some friends. I pretty much knew everyone in the group except for 1 particular guy named John. Unlike most Chinese I meet, John was not friendly at all upon introduction. At the club we were all hanging out talking to pretty girls walking past our table, but I kept getting the death glare from this dude.
I asked my boy Kenny what his problem was and he said, “John doesn’t like foreigners.” I pressed him further on the issue and he said, “John thinks foreigners just come to China to have a comfortable lifestyle and take all the Chinese girls.” This immediately took me by surprise because all my friends know I am not the guy whose intentions are to steal Chinese women. Granted, within the next 20 years there are estimates of the population with an excess of 20 million men without a partner, but are Chinese guys this protective over their women now?
Kenny told me a story about how John guy got wasted one night and started a confrontation with another white guy who was talking to a Chinese girl. He broke a bottle at the guy’s table and threatened to kill him if he didn’t leave immediately. I’m sure the white dude almost shit his pants, but tonight I was not fearful of any drama because his boys were my boys.
This leads me back to my question about Chinese racism. Is there growing dissent amongst Chinese men towards foreigners? All of my experience would suggest otherwise, but this was my first taste of anti-western sentiment during my stay in China.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Chinese Dating from A random white guy.
I found a great Youtube video called Shower Scene: Asian dating rituals which chronicles a date of a random white, English teacher and a date with his Chinese girlfriend. I'm guessing it was taken in 北京 since they're eating Peking Duck and the girl's accent is northern.
真讨厌! Chinese relationships are awesome.
During the dinner, the white guy pans the camera to see the food and says she ordered it, I get to pay for it.
Of course you should pay for it, douchebag. The dinner probably cost less than 100 RMB. Don't pretend to be a "innocent" victim of your Angel. Do what any Chinese guy would do and pay for the dinner. Stop being so cheap with your money.
And who breaks up with a girl through text messages? Be a man.
That goes for the rest of you white guys in China too.
真讨厌! Chinese relationships are awesome.
During the dinner, the white guy pans the camera to see the food and says she ordered it, I get to pay for it.
Of course you should pay for it, douchebag. The dinner probably cost less than 100 RMB. Don't pretend to be a "innocent" victim of your Angel. Do what any Chinese guy would do and pay for the dinner. Stop being so cheap with your money.
And who breaks up with a girl through text messages? Be a man.
That goes for the rest of you white guys in China too.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Transvestite playing with snakes and a 17 year old
A couple of nights ago, I was invited to go out with some of my Chinese friends. I know these guys through a few relatives. They are in their early 30s are all own their own companies.
So anyways, I arrive at the hotel and meet up with my friends. They had already been drinking for a couple of hours and were excited that I could meet up with them. We ride in an elevator and through a maze before finally sitting down near the performance area of the 夜总会. Since it was a weeknight, there was a sparse crowd. Out of the 30 people sitting in the area, just about all of them were men. All of the girls, with a couple of exceptions, were employees of the club "accompanying" the guys.
We have our own private room, but lets hang out here first. There's a very cool performance coming up soon. Without having to ask what kind of performance it was, I was quickly told that, a transvestite is going to come out and play with a snake.
They were not lying. After sitting down and having a beer, a he-she really did come out. The current girl, former guy was wearing a gold outfit that you would expect from a bad Bollywood movie. She had lipstick, make up and was rocking out everything.
After her initial hellos, she called up an audience member to participate. Some random guy was thrown up by his "friends" and was tormented for the next 20 minutes. This participation involved dancing together seductively, holding hands, smelling each other's necks, kissing on the cheek and spooning while standing. This was half disturbing and half amazing. I didnt know they had transvestites in China!!
So after this little skit, the he-she starts singing. She could hit both the low notes and the high notes...very versatile. On the second song, out came the snake. From my perspective, it seemed like a 8-9 feet long boa or garden snake. It was just hanging out while the he-she danced with it on her neck and arms to this indian-hip hop number. Quite a site. At one point doing the song, she walked around the crowd so that other people could touch it. From the expressions on their faces, people were definitely freaked the fuck out. Chinese people really dont like snakes.
So anyways, after the he-she gets off stage, our group of 4 heads to the private room. It was a dingly little place with bad 80s decoration, couches and lights. Yes, very romantic. Instead of singing a lot, we just looped some Chinese disco music while we chilled and played Chinese drinking games like liar's dice, 15/20 and others.
After a little bit, we were joined by some women who were in uniform. After initially not knowing what's going on, I was finally told that one of my friends was fucking a manager at the place. While he was hanging out with her, the manager brought a bunch of girls from her staff to entertain the rest of us.
So everyone was hanging out with their girl, chatting it up, drinking and hanging out, I was introduced to this really young-looking girl with a bratty attitude. She was being a little prick so I beat her 8 times straight at liar's dice and she had to drink a beer for compensation. She ended chugging it quickly, then going to the bathroom and throwing it up!! haha, bitch. After talking to this girl for a while longer, I finally found out that she was only 17.
What the hell are you doing here? Go back home to your mommy. She didnt comply with my demand and kept on hanging out and even flirted with me. Stop touching my leg. Seriously, go home.
After making fun of her age for a bit and probing her with different questions about sex, drinking and drugs, she finally left, probably to go to a new room and hit on some Chinese guy in his 50s.
All in all, everyone was happy at the end of the night. My bros were getting play with decently cute Chinese girls (although they all have girlfriends already... which is a different other story) while I got hit on by a 17 year old and watched a show with a transvestite and snake.
So anyways, I arrive at the hotel and meet up with my friends. They had already been drinking for a couple of hours and were excited that I could meet up with them. We ride in an elevator and through a maze before finally sitting down near the performance area of the 夜总会. Since it was a weeknight, there was a sparse crowd. Out of the 30 people sitting in the area, just about all of them were men. All of the girls, with a couple of exceptions, were employees of the club "accompanying" the guys.
We have our own private room, but lets hang out here first. There's a very cool performance coming up soon. Without having to ask what kind of performance it was, I was quickly told that, a transvestite is going to come out and play with a snake.
They were not lying. After sitting down and having a beer, a he-she really did come out. The current girl, former guy was wearing a gold outfit that you would expect from a bad Bollywood movie. She had lipstick, make up and was rocking out everything.
After her initial hellos, she called up an audience member to participate. Some random guy was thrown up by his "friends" and was tormented for the next 20 minutes. This participation involved dancing together seductively, holding hands, smelling each other's necks, kissing on the cheek and spooning while standing. This was half disturbing and half amazing. I didnt know they had transvestites in China!!
So after this little skit, the he-she starts singing. She could hit both the low notes and the high notes...very versatile. On the second song, out came the snake. From my perspective, it seemed like a 8-9 feet long boa or garden snake. It was just hanging out while the he-she danced with it on her neck and arms to this indian-hip hop number. Quite a site. At one point doing the song, she walked around the crowd so that other people could touch it. From the expressions on their faces, people were definitely freaked the fuck out. Chinese people really dont like snakes.
So anyways, after the he-she gets off stage, our group of 4 heads to the private room. It was a dingly little place with bad 80s decoration, couches and lights. Yes, very romantic. Instead of singing a lot, we just looped some Chinese disco music while we chilled and played Chinese drinking games like liar's dice, 15/20 and others.
After a little bit, we were joined by some women who were in uniform. After initially not knowing what's going on, I was finally told that one of my friends was fucking a manager at the place. While he was hanging out with her, the manager brought a bunch of girls from her staff to entertain the rest of us.
So everyone was hanging out with their girl, chatting it up, drinking and hanging out, I was introduced to this really young-looking girl with a bratty attitude. She was being a little prick so I beat her 8 times straight at liar's dice and she had to drink a beer for compensation. She ended chugging it quickly, then going to the bathroom and throwing it up!! haha, bitch. After talking to this girl for a while longer, I finally found out that she was only 17.
What the hell are you doing here? Go back home to your mommy. She didnt comply with my demand and kept on hanging out and even flirted with me. Stop touching my leg. Seriously, go home.
After making fun of her age for a bit and probing her with different questions about sex, drinking and drugs, she finally left, probably to go to a new room and hit on some Chinese guy in his 50s.
All in all, everyone was happy at the end of the night. My bros were getting play with decently cute Chinese girls (although they all have girlfriends already... which is a different other story) while I got hit on by a 17 year old and watched a show with a transvestite and snake.
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