Viewpoint

03.25.21

Abandoning Criticism of China’s Government Isn’t the Right Way to End Anti-Asian Racism in the U.S.

Ho-fung Hung
The recent surge of anti-Asian violence across the U.S., culminating in the tragedy of the Atlanta shooting, reminds us that the mainstream (mis)representation of Asian Americans as a model minority never spares us from racist hatred and the...

Viewpoint

03.20.20

Xi Jinping May Welcome Trump’s Racism

Dan Baer
The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in a new low-point for the already strained relationship between the U.S. and China—and it could get worse in the months ahead as the toll rises and there is more urgency to assign blame. At the White House press...

‘Black Panther’ Sparks Debate over Anti-Black Racism in China

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
The seemingly sharp fall in attendance prompted Western media outlets to write a series of articles that suggested Chinese moviegoers objected to Black Panther because of its all-black leading cast. “A torture for the eyes: Chinese moviegoers think...

Ad Promises Students 'You Won't Feel Like You're in China When You're on Our Buses'

AnneClaire Stapleton
CNN
At first glance, it looks like any other email touting travel deals. In this case, it was a bus company offering its services to students of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

A Chinese Exhibit Comparing Africans to Animals Shows the Problematic Racial Attitudes in China

Zahra Baitie
Quartz
As a black woman in China, I’ve been relatively fortunate. My negative experiences have mostly consisted of being photographed and gawked at by Chinese people. While many of my fellow Africans have had much more traumatic experiences, my experience...

Chinese Museum Pulls Exhibit Comparing Animals to Black People

Russell Goldman and Adam Wu
New York Times
A section of the “This Is Africa” exhibit at the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan included side-by-side photographs of animals and people displaying similar expressions. One pair included a young boy and a howling chimpanzee, each photographed with...

Media

09.23.17

The German Edition of the Falun Gong-Affiliated ‘Epoch Times’ Aligns with the Far Right

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
On the eve of the German election Sunday, it’s no surprise that Russian state-funded media outlets are attacking German Chancellor Angela Merkel, sensationalizing migrant violence, and providing conciliatory coverage of far-right groups. Russia,...

Young People in China Have Started a Fashion Movement Built around Nationalism and Racial Purity

Kevin Carrico
Quartz
The Han Clothing Movement, a youth-based grassroots nationalist movement built around China’s majority Han ethnic group, has emerged over the past 15 years in urban China. It imagines the numerically and culturally dominant Han—nearly 92% of China’s...

The Spark: 7 Sins of India

Xinhua
7 Sins of India

Media

04.12.17

Chinese Blame America for United Airlines

James Palmer from Foreign Policy
The video of David Dao being dragged kicking and screaming off a United Airlines flight by Chicago police set the American Internet aflame Monday. That’s not a surprise: Whether you blame the greed of American airlines or late capitalism, the video...

China Has an Irrational Fear of a “Black Invasion” Bringing Drugs, Crime, and Interracial Marriage

Joanna Chiu
Quartz
A Chinese politician proudly shared with reporters his proposal on how to “solve the problem of the black population in Guangdong.” The province is widely known in China to have many African migrants.

2016 China-Africa Year in Review

Eric Olander & Cobus van Staden
After years of relatively trouble-free development, 2016 marked a turning point in the China-Africa relationship, amid turbulent changes in the global economic and political order. China increased its deployment of combat troops to the continent,...

German Automaker Chief Removed After ‘Racist Rant’ in China

BBC
German carmaker Daimler has apologized and removed a senior executive from his job after he made racist remarks in a row over parking

Caixin Media

11.18.16

Is the Trump Victory a Blow to Globalization?

The 2016 U.S. presidential election ended with the surprise victory of property mogul Donald J. Trump. An outsider without a political track record, Trump defied predictions by most polls, pundits, and political observers when he defeated Hillary...

Why Are So Many First-Generation Chinese Immigrants Supporting Donald Trump?

Kaiser Kuo
Sinica Podcast
Based on dozens of conversations with Chinese and Chinese Americans, Kuo explains the chief reasons behind the popularity of Trump

EU Commissioner Oettinger Apologizes for China Speech

BBC
In a speech to German business leaders he described Chinese officials as having "hair combed... with black shoe polish" and "slitty-eyed"

An Open Letter to the Woman Who Told My Family to Go Back to China

Michael Luo
New York Times
To the well-dressed woman on the Upper East Side, annoyed by our stroller, that yelled "Go back to China...Go back to your f---ing country"

Controversial Television Ad Prompts Outrage Across China

Charlie Campbell
Time
'Most Chinese people have never been around a foreigner,' says the creator of a viral video that criticized the ad.

Online Outrage Over Racist Chinese Ad Says a Lot About How China and the West React to Racism

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
The company behind the racist Chinese laundry detergent ad that sparked widespread online outrage around the world issued a half-hearted apology for the uproar it caused. Actually, it was one of those “we’re sorry if anyone was offended” kind of...

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Chinese in Africa But Were Too Afraid to Ask

Eric Olander & Cobus van Staden
The Chinese presence in Africa has been so sudden and so all-encompassing that it’s left a lot of people confused. Chinese farmers now compete for space and customers in Lusaka’s open-air markets, Chinese textiles are undercutting Nigerian...

Race, Culture, and the Politics of Being Black in China

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
Being black in China is not easy, but it’s not as bad as many would have you think, according to our two guests this week, who are both black immigrants currently living in Beijing. Sure, people stare a lot and there are often some inappropriate...

‘Doctor Strange’ Writer Says China-Tibet Remarks Don’t Represent Marvel

Edward Wong
New York Times
A growing uproar from critics accusing Marvel of racism in casting a white actress in a role that should have gone to an Asian actor

Sinica Podcast

02.22.16

Allegiance

Kaiser Kuo & Jeremy Goldkorn from Sinica Podcast
Kaiser and Jeremy recorded today’s show from New York, where they waylaid Holly Chang, founder of Project Pengyou and now Acting Executive Director of the Committee of 100, for a discussion on spying, stealing commercial spying, spying, and Broadway...

Chinese State Media Hits Back at Claims of Racist 'Star Wars' Poster

James Griffiths
CNN
"Finn (who happens to be black) and Chewbacca (happens to be Wookiee) get shafted in China."

China's Alibaba to Remove Listings with Confederate Flag Imagery

John Ruwitch and Jane Lanhee Lee
Reuters
Alibaba pledged to pull down links to products with Confederate flag imagery in the wake of the shooting in South Carolina.

Charleston Shooting: A U.S. Expat’s View From Afar

Alyssa Abkowitz
Wall Street Journal
There’s perspective that’s gained by watching the US from afar; it helps expats understand why locals may view America as dangerous.

Chinese Racist Views Towards Blacks and Africans

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
When riots broke out in the U.S. city of Baltimore in May 2015, the reaction across the Chinese social web was sadly predictable as Internet users posted countless anti-black racist comments. However, what was interesting about their posts is how...

Media

05.06.15

Online Reaction to Baltimore Protests Reveals Much About Chinese Tension with African Immigrants

Viola Rothschild
Several days ago, a Chinese friend and I were discussing the protests in Baltimore that erupted in response to the death of resident Freddie Gray in connection with his April 12 arrest by city police officers, who have since been charged with crimes...

A Chinese Perspective on the #RacistRestaurant Scandal in Kenya

Cobus van Staden & Huang Hongxiang
The Chinese restaurant in Nairobi that barred Africans after 5pm sparked a frenzied week of news coverage on both local and international media and, of course, on Twitter. The actions of this small, inconsequential restaurant seemingly took on much...

China Chides U.S. Over Ferguson Violence, American Racism

Stuart Leavenworth
McClatchy
State media of the world’s largest country has stepped up coverage of the Ferguson violence and protests, publishing commentaries accusing the United States of hypocrisy in seeking to be a global guardian of human rights.Read more here: http://www...

Clive Palmer ‘Mongrel’ Comments Irresponsible, Says Chinese Embassy

Helen Davidson
Guardian
Australian MP insists his TV remarks were aimed at specific company, but embassy condemns them as ‘full of ignorance and prejudice.’

Found in Translation: King’s ‘Dream’ Plays in Beijing

Howard W. French
New York Times
The CCP emphasizes American history of inequality while leaving out points of domestic overlap. 

Media

07.17.13

A Minority in the Middle Kingdom: My Experience Being Black in China

In the 1996 China edition of the Lonely Planet guidebook, a text box aside comment from a street interview provided some interesting conversation fodder: “…there is no racism in China because there are no black people,” a Chinese woman was reported...

Sinica Podcast

10.01.10

Racism in China

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
Racism isn’t a problem in China. That’s the official story you’ll read in the papers and hear on the streets, at least, and maybe there’s even a kernel of truth to it. Without a legacy of colonial activities abroad, the Chinese people are in many...