“Being Black in China”

Clara Sung Min LeeGOVT 4827

Cornell University

Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and perma-nently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war and until there are no longer first-class

and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man’s skin is of no more signifi-cance than the color of his eyes

-Haile Selassie I

Introduction

In a population that is about 97% Han majority, having a different skin color in China is a

novel experience because one tends to stand out from the crowd. The treatment of the Chi-

nese people especially toward that of Africans was that of fascination and curiosity;

Africans were thought to be descendants from a mystical faraway land. Chinese people

were ingrained with the idea that all Blacks originated from 非洲 (fei1zhou1), a Chinese

term for Africa. Blacks were discriminated due to the color of their skin because most of

them were slaves. As a result, this racist stereotype against Blacks led to a stereotype of

Africans, thus associating Africa and Africans as being an overall inferior country and race.

Starting from the dynastic period, darker skin had always been associated with the

most subordinate ranking of being a slave. As a result, Blacks were thought to be of a lesser

intellect and even animalized. However, from the Reform Era, a sudden influx of Black stu-

dents and workers from abroad coming into China prompted the Chinese people to formu-

late a new perspective in judging Africans. In fact, there are around 500,000 Africans living

in China, including at least 300,000 traders, 30,000 students, 4,000 professionals, 10,000

tourists and 10,000 temporary business travelers. Despite this influx of diversified immi-

grants, the anti-Africa Nanjing protests demonstrate Chinese peoples’ underlying assump-

tions toward people with darker skin color. In fact, even in the more contemporary era,

African people are met with an insatiable inquisition from the Chinese people. The underly-

ing reason for this curiosity is mainly due to ignorance of the Chinese people toward

Africans and their culture.

Even when considering the political dynamics between Africa and China, China still

conveys a somewhat supercilious attitude toward their African counterparts. In this paper,

I will underline the racial discriminations against Blacks in dynastic China throughout the

historical periods, running through the increasing flow of African students into China, the

anti-Africa protests in year 1988-1989, personal anecdotes of being African in China, and

how this phenomenon illustrates where China as a nation should be headed now.

Literature Review

Kevin Carrico, in his article, “Recentering China: The Cantonese in and beyond the

Han”, asserts the concept of the self and the other. The self is majorly centered around the

Han majority, whereas the other being those who fit into the category of being the minor-

ity. Kevin Carrico further argues that due to this melting pot of identity that is burgeoning

in China, China has to implement a novel political system that will handle the diversity in

the community, thus merging the sense of self and the other. However, I do not believe that

the mere solution lies in reforming the political system but rather can be achieved through

communication in the more personal level. As can be seen from the diverse opinions of

those currently living in China as African scholars who are currently studying Sino-Africa

relationships, the most important and fundamental effort to breach this gap between the

misunderstanding of both races is to be made from the interpersonal level. Both the Chi-

nese and the Africans must take off their color-blinded lens that they had on for such a long

time and should see each other in the eyes of cultural ambassadors.

Who are the Han?

When considering the distribution of population in Mainland China, the Han majority com-

prises a predominant proportion. In fact, the Han population composes most of China’s

population ethnicity. Statistically, “comprising roughly 94 percent of the total populace”

(Carrico, 24).1 This Han majority is not only overwhelming in its numbers but has also been

a factor in reaffirming the identity of China being the country of the Han people. Histori-

cally speaking, the sense of unity between Hanren has originated from the belief that the

Han are descendants of the great and benevolent Han dynasty as opposed to the barbarians

on the peripheries of the empire. By differentiating themselves from the so-called non-Han

barbarians, the Han majority has always been proud of their unique identity. In short, this

notion of Hanness represents more than ethnic identification; it rather portrays a “histori-

cal product of power relations between a self and an other” (Carrico, 24).2 In some way, the

enforcement of the Han identity seems more like a desire of the Han people to differentiate

themselves in a superior way (‘self’) from those who are non-Han (‘other’). The fundamen-

tal basis of the Han identity reflects back to the Han people believing that they are the na-

tion’s monogamously powerful ethnicity, where they deem themselves as hovering above

non-Han people.

What was being Black in ancient China like?

1 Carrico, Kevin. 2012. “Recentering China: The Cantonese in and beyond the Han.” In Criti-cal Han Studies: The History, Representation, and Identity of China’s Majority, edited by Thomas Mullaney, James Leibold, Stephane Gros and Eric Vanden Bussche. Berkeley: Uni-versity of California Press.

2 Carrico, Ibid.

No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.

-Maya Angelou

In the past, darker skin in China had been associated with being of an inferior race and

even having a lesser intellect. Back in the days of Dynastic China, Chinese people would call

Africans, “devil slaves”, believing such people were incapable of understanding human

speech [i.e. Chinese] (Dikkoter, 9).3 This condescending attitude was due to the fact that

people with darker faces were usually slaves who were brought to China to work in the

fields. Thus, Blackness had always represented the lowest class of the social hierarchy:

slavery. Some believed that Blacks were specifically recruited as slaves because they are

“idiots who are easier to handle” (Dikkoter, 39).4 Referring back to Kevin Carrico’s term of

the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, the Blacks were categorized as the ‘other’. The term Black was not

just an appellation for a different race; it was a derogatory categorization conveying a

sense of inferiority and barbarianism. Blacks were described as inhumane and some even

characterized Blacks as “savages with bodies as black as lacquer and with curly hair” who

were driven by instinctive desires for food and sex (Dikkoter, 12).5 Their physical charac-

teristics were animalized as well: “Blacks had a protruding jaw, very thick lips, a narrow

forehead and emitted an offensive stench” (Dikkoter, 142).6 The use of the words ‘jaw’,

‘lips’ and ‘forehead’ illustrates the tendency of Chinese people to characterize Blacks with

their distinctive, beastly attributes. In a macroscopic scale, this judgmental attitude ex-

tended further beyond the people; also leading to stereotypes about the region Blacks came

3 Dikotter, Frank. 1992. The Discourse of Race in Modern China. Stanford: Stanford Univer-sity Press. Print.

4 Dikkoter, Ibid.5 Dikkoter, Ibid. 6 Dikkoter, Ibid.

from. Africa was portrayed as a desperately chaotic continent that is “scorching, miasmic

and pestilential. Its [Africa’s] climate and its people are the worst of the four continents”

(Dikkoter, 49).7 The Chinese had adopted an aloof and exclusive attitude toward Africans,

based on the color of their skin and the historical background in which they had first been

introduced into the country.

Africans Streaming Into China

The Reform Era in China, notably from 1978, opened up the country to much influx of racial

diversity. The number of Black students studying abroad in China and the number of Black

expats in China has increased from the past. There are a growing number of African popu-

lations in most of the major provincial capitals in Mainland China and as student numbers

increase in places like Wuhan and Chongqing, there is a growing population of African

presence in Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. This increase of racial diversity in the pre-

dominantly Han Chinese population raises a diverse array of opinions on how to deal with

China’s new racial makeup, and how that may affect Chinese identity. These voices range

from “liberal and conservative voices, support for a return to “indigenous” traditions or an

embrace of global norms, as well as calls for an enhanced sense of national belonging and a

melting pot view of identity” (Carrico, 18).8 With the influx of a foreign population stream-

ing into China, the call for a new definition on how to deal with these people is also an is-

sue.

Furthermore, this new adjustment to a novel country like China has acted as a wake-

up call for the Africans themselves to form a new sense of cultural identity. For Africans liv-

7 Dikkoter, Ibid.8 Carrico, Kevin. “Swarm of the Locusts: The Ethnicization of Hong Kong-China Relations.”

1-26.

ing in China, their self-identity is dynamic and constantly changing, in fact, “some Africans

don’t even want to be called Africans, as was the case with some Africans in the Maghreb

and even some French-speaking black Africans from so-called francophone African coun-

tries who wanted to self-identify as French” (Musakwa).9 The cultural and social identities

of the Africans who live in China also mainly depend on whom they interact with and en-

counter. In fact, despite past stereotypes of Africans being unintelligible, Africans in China

now speak better Chinese than Chinese people speak English. Professor Bodomo, a director

of the African studies program at the University of Hong Kong, says that “African students

are more proficient in Chinese than other groups of Africans…Chinese, as the Africans find

out to their frustration, are not very proficient in English, and even much less in French”

(Musakwa).10 Contrary to the past, where there was certainly an apparent racial aspect of

culturalism and it was ironic to see equality among racial groups among a society that em-

braced their self-declared distinction between civilization and barbarism, nowadays people

question the seemingly invincible norm of the past.

The ultimate problem is, as Carrico puts it, “not out of date terms or labels that need

to be revised to accurately reflect the underlying unity of the Chinese nation”, but rather a

call to reform the out-of-date political system that is unable to handle the complexities of

China’s increasingly diverse community (Carrico, 21).11 The notion of the imaginary unified

Chinese nation is one that is behind the times; today, China is already becoming more and

more heterogeneous.

9 Musakwa, Tendai. “Adams Bodomo Discusses His Research on Africans In China.” The chi-naafrica Project. May 14. http://www.chinaafricaproject.com/adams-bodomo-discusses-his-research-on-africans-in-china/10 Musakwa, Ibid.11 Carrico, Ibid.

Burgeoning Sense of Anti-Africa Movements in China

However, despite this increasing number of African scholars and students coming into

China, there has been a rise of anti-Africanism among the Chinese intelligentsia. The Nan-

jing protest in December 1988 was triggered by a series of confrontations between African

and Chinese students at Hehai University. More specifically, a quarrel between one of the

African students and a Chinese security guard escalated into a brawl between African and

Chinese students that ultimately resulted in the injury of eleven Chinese and two Africans.

This brawl, spreading from ear to mouth, instigated 300 Chinese students to protest out-

side the African students’ dormitory. The students were shouting racist slogans such as

“Kill the Black Devils!” as they had misheard the information that “a Chinese man had been

killed by an African student the previous evening” (Chung).12

This sense of rising racism can be also associated with a positive affirmation of the

Han nationalism. For instance, the example of Nanjing Anti-African Protests of 1988-89

shows that anti-Africa racist attitudes can be used as a mechanism to consolidate the Chi-

nese nationality. The anti-Africa sentiments are an exemplar of a resurrection of ideas from

the historical periods, when Blacks had been categorized as inferior slaves. The intertwined

connection between Chinese nationalism and racism is apparent in the television documen-

tary River Elegy. This documentary portrays “how the heritage of China’s past constrains

China’s historical destiny to be a great world power and exemplifies how nationalistic ap-

peals can reinforce negative perceptions of Africans within China” (Sullivan, 443).13 By de-

12 Chung. Erin. “Nanjing Anti-African Protests of 1988-89: Anti-Black racism in China.” The Institute for Diasporic Studies. April 2. http://diaspora.northwestern.edu/mbin/WebOb-jects/DiasporaX.woa/wa/displayArticle?atomid=711

13 Sullivan, Michael J. 1994. “The 1988-89 Nanjing Anti-African Protests: Racial National-ism or National Racism?” The China Quarterly. No. 138, pp. 438-457. Print.

basing the Africans within China, the Chinese people are boosting their own self-esteem

and identity. This, in effect, differentiates the Han majority from the other races, thus rais-

ing their status above the others, incorporating a Sinocentric and egotistical point of view.

The stereotypes even led to an intellectual debasement and incompetence of the Black race

as can be seen from the Chinese accounts of Africans and African Americans: “By the late

nineteenth century, Africans and African Americans were commonly depicted in Chinese

accounts as unintelligent and licentious, fit for little more than physical labor” (Gallichio,

108).14 The power hierarchy of the two races of the Oriental and the Black was that Blacks

were too powerless to change their situation and too submissive to even try. Thus, the

Black race represented not only an inferior race but also a vulnerable and incompetent one

with no hope.

Not only have the Chinese people protested against anti-Africa, but Africans have

also protested in their unequal treatments from their Chinese counterparts. In fact, in 2009,

African protests in China after a Nigerian man dies in immigration raid became a hot topic.

This issue became such news because in Guangzhou itself, there are about 20,000 African

residents. This incident burgeoned into a racist commentary about how the representatives

of the African community feel as if they are “harassed by frequent passport checks in their

neighborhoods” (Branigan).15

Africans living in China now confront much racist attitudes from the Chinese people.

Even in contemporary society, African people are experiencing a form of discrimination

14 Gallicchio, Marc. 2000. The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black In-ternationalism in Asia, 1895-1945. The University of North Carolina Press. Print.

15 Branigan, Tania. “Africans protest in China after Nigerian dies in immigration raid”. The Guardian. May 14. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/16/china-african-pro-testers-immigration-raid

and segregation that undercuts their race from the majority of the Han people. For exam-

ple, African students who are studying abroad in China are finding it hard to bear the atti-

tudes of ordinary people, who treat the African students differently and point to them re-

marking the color of their skin. One African student said that when he was “walking down a

Beijing street [he] heard a couple of citizens muttering that he was as black as a lump of

coal” (Sullivan, 443).16 Such a comparison between the African students to a “lump of coal”

demonstrates the superficial judgmental attitude that Chinese people adopt toward

Africans. Despite the increasing number of African students and immigrants into China,

remnants of stereotypes remain in the contemporary Chinese society.

A student from Ghana arrived in Beijing hoping to serve as a cultural ambassador

but instead became a spectacle. Zahra Baitie tells her story in The Atlantic, illustrating her

experience as an African student in China. When she first came to China, she encountered a

woman on the street where the woman offered to bleach her skin. Baitie believed that this

offer was because “In China we believe the whiter your complexion is the more beautiful

you are and there are many ways to achieve this” (Baitie).17 She rubbed Baitie’s skin to see

if it was dirt or pigment and kept on trying to persuade Baitie to bleach her skin insistently.

Such an incident was not a unique one: when she got on a taxi in Beijing, the taxi driver

asked her “why Africans eat one another and why the continent is so chaotic” (Baitie).18

Furthermore, in another personal anecdote, an African man shares his experience of how a

group of Chinese elderly women would rub his baldhead and pinch his black skin (Davis).19

16 Sullivan, Ibid.17 Baitie, Zahra. 2013. “On Being African in China.” The Atlantic. March 25. http://www.the-

atlantic.com/china/archive/2013/08/on-being-african-in-china/279136/18 Baitie, Ibid.19 Davis, Greenwood Heather. 2013. “Being Black in China.” National Geographic Traveler.

April 3. http://intelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/18/being-black-in-

Another incident is when Professor Bodomo, a professor of Africana studies in Hong Kong

entered a lift in Luohu in Shenzhen a “Chinese woman immediately held her nose through-

out the lift ride: in her mind we [Professor Bodomo and wife] had to be smelling being from

outer space!” (Musakwa).20 The curiosity and ignorance of the Chinese people toward

Africans and especially those with darker skin are quite prevalent to see throughout the

community.

Numerous accounts of a West African student studying at the University of Interna-

tional Business and Economics in Beijing illustrate the ubiquity of discrimination and

racism in China. For him, such racial discrimination has become such a mundane and ev-

eryday phenomenon that he has grown accustomed to it: “We’re used to it [social discrimi-

nation] by now but it’s still annoying to be a black person in China on a daily basis. We have

to endure the rudeness of taxi drivers, people in public transportation, etc” (Ferdjani, 28).21

The fact that Africans have grown to become immune to this discriminatory phenomenon

shows the commonality and banality of the everyday attitudes of Chinese toward Africans.

This growing influx of African students migrating to China raises questions about

how the China-Africa relationship is headed in the long run and poses important economic

and diplomatic implications. Nonetheless, despite the voluminous trade between the

African continent and Beijing’s intimate political relations between several African coun-

tries and the Chinese administration, there still exists a “person-to-person basis, ignorance,

misunderstanding, and intolerance” that goes beyond high-level economic and political ex-

china/20 Musakwa, Ibid.21 Ferdjani, Hannane. 2012. “African students in China: An exploration of increasing num-

bers and their motivations in Beijing.” Center for Chinese Studies.

changes (Baitie).22 The isolation of China in the decades before its economic development

also limited the exposure most Chinese had to people of other ethnic origins, creating a vac-

uum of knowledge, drawing in stereotypes and prejudice. The personal interaction of Chi-

nese people toward Black Africans are based off of fundamental roots of ignorance and lack

of exposure that the Sino-Africa relations cannot resolve by implementing policies.

The discrimination that Africans face is quite different from those that White Ameri-

cans face. Blacks are often “assumed to hail from Africa, a place thought to be more back-

wards and poorer than China, and one more than likely receiving Chinese government eco-

nomic aid in the form of loans and infrastructure projects” (Presswood).23 Not only is there

a degradation of the African culture and its people, but also in political terms, Africa is

thought of as being the beneficiary of China’s aid, China being the benevolent benefactor of

the Africans. In truth, the Chinese media mainly focuses on the generosity of the Chinese

government toward Africa and not enough “on the valuable natural resources gained or ac-

cess to lucrative growth markets for cheap Chinese goods” (Presswood).24 Even in the polit-

ical sphere, African countries are thought of as to be of a lower rank than their Chinese

counterparts.

In the context of Sino-Africa Relations

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circum-stances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

-Salman Khurshid

As Sino-Africa relations flourish, much business trade between China and Africa is made

possible. China established relations with Africa in the mid-1950s. In 1956, China and

22 Baitie, Ibid.23 Presswood, Ibid.24 Presswood, Ibid.

Egypt established business relations, marking the beginning of diplomatic relations be-

tween China and African countries. Going into the 1960s and 70s, China ardently but-

tressed African liberation and independence movements, and also gave support for eco-

nomic construction in Africa. In the 1980s and 90s, China-Africa relations expanded toward

encompassing trade, investment, project contracting and other endeavors. In fact, when

visiting the African continent in 1996, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin put forward a

proposal that include “sincere friendship, treating each other equally, unity and coopera-

tion, common development and looking into the future” (Anonymous).25 This article, which

is a governmental source that emphasizes in propagandizing the Chinese government’s

benevolent efforts in shaping the new Sino-African partnership, emphasizes the Chinese

government’s goal of long-term stability, equality and mutual benefit. The volume of trade

between China and Africa is now nearly $200 billion and China’s accumulated investment

in Africa is almost $17 billion. The business partnership that China has with Africa is quite a

unique one where China has somewhat of an advantage in competing for business in Africa

because it does not try to impose its values on the locals or the governments. Africa advo-

cates Chinese investments because they “don’t come with any strings attached in terms of

human rights or governance” as opposed to European investments (Majumdar).26 However,

although Chinese investments seem to be profitable to Africa in consideration that China

solely maintains a business partnership with Africa, Africa is in fact, opening itself up to a

25 Anonymous. “China’s Africa Policy.” China.org.cn. May 14. http://www.china.org.cn/eng-lish/features/China-Africa/82055.htm. China.org.cn is a Chinese government-sponsored website so there is much bias toward the Chinese government and it’s efforts toward improving Sino-Africa relationships.26 Majumdar, Dave. 2015. “China is Setting Up Its First Military Base in Africa.” The Na-

tional Interest. April 2. http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/china-setting-its-first-military-base-africa-14435

“new form of imperialism” (Majumdar).27 By opening their trade route to a new country as

powerful as China, who has had negative racial attitudes about Blacks, Africa is making it-

self vulnerable to an entirely new level of imperialism and colonialism.

As a matter of fact, even President Xi Jin Ping’s goals toward maintaining and devel-

oping a Sino-Africa relationship focus more on the role of China being a benefactor rather

than an equal partner. Such a hierarchical distinction made between China and African

countries is salient in the Chinese government’s description of President Xi’s visit to African

nations. The ultimate goal of the mission of the Chinese in Africa is due to China’s commit-

ment to “helping other countries, developing countries and neighboring countries in partic-

ular, with their development while achieving development of its own” (Yang).28 The consis-

tent emphasis on the term “developing countries” and the role of China in helping these de-

veloping countries become more of a developed country like China subtly conveys the no-

tion of Beijing’s superiority.

As can be seen from the current economic power hierarchy within Sino-Africa rela-

tions, African states act more “as pliant third-world clients of either West or (now) East,

rather than proactive global actors” (Gadzala).29 Instead of acting as equal partners in

trade, some African and Chinese scholars believe that African states are being exploited by

China, a country whose political and economic power supersedes their own. Thus, African

states are relegated to passive actors in the Sino-Africa relationship, when in reality; they

are not, and never have been, passive. In fact, the Sino-Africa relationship is between two

independent and sovereign nations that share the same social and economic hierarchy. In

27 Majumdar, Ibid.28 Yang, Ibid.29 Gadzala, Aleksandra W. 2013. “The Silliness of “China in Africa.” The National Interest.

April 3. http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-silliness-china-africa-9422

reality, “China today is considerably more dependent on Angola than Angola is on China”

(Gadzala).30 China needs the resources of Africa more than Africa needs the economic sup-

port and help of China. However, by addressing Africa as a “third-world client” who acts as

“passive actors in the Sino-Africa relationship”, China undermines the natural resources

and potential of Africa, mostly a parallel to the racial degradations that Chinese have to-

ward Africans.

Conclusion

Being a racial minority in China puts African people at a huge disadvantage despite the bur-

geoning and rapid increase of globalization and racial diversification. The Chinese popula-

tion has been a homogeneous population composed mostly with descendants of the Han.

As a result, most Chinese people have never had the experience of being exposed to a race

of different color skin, resulting in a stereotypically engraved notion of a typical group of

race. The Chinese view of the Africans has been from the past and remains today one of in-

feriority and degradation that results mainly from curiosity and ignorance. It has only been

in contemporary society that there has been an increase in African students and intellectu-

als who are flowing into China. By coming to China, these people bear the responsibility of

serving as cultural ambassadors but nonetheless are met with ridicule and racist attitudes

from the Chinese people. Although Sino-Africa relations are improving, as China and Africa

become more equal business trading partners in the world of international dynamics, there

is still much to do to educate the Chinese people in order to topple their previous notions

about Africans. The Chinese peoples’ racial attitudes toward Africans and their appeals to

nationalistic sentiments suggest the combination of national and cultural identities.

30 Gadzala, Ibid.

These days, the cultural interaction between Africans and Chinese are quite preva-

lent in that each are opening its eyes towards embracing the others’ different and unique

cultures. Through the intermarriage of Africans and Chinese, there are more and more chil-

dren who are exposed to both cultures and unless “we throw all these beautiful kids into

the South China Sea, there will always be an African presence in China” (Musakwa).31 The

underlying reason for the racial degradation is due to the lack of exposure in China toward

Africa and its people, and the best way to resolve this matter is to not try to elevate China’s

own nationality by degrading a certain race but to acknowledge and accept the other race

(e.g. Africans) to gain a better understanding of their own cultural and social identity. In the

future, through a deeper exchange and understanding, the Chinese people might be able to

pull themselves away from the typical story of Africa.

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