Black 'Oriental Angel' Sparks China Race Row

[Blue_Tires]

A bubbly 20-year-old woman who has become the most famous television talent show contestant in China is at the centre of a national race row.

Lou Jing, the daughter of a Chinese mother and an African American father who left China before she was born, is one of five finalists on Dragon TV's Go Oriental Angel.

But her selection to represent Shanghai in the series has unleashed a torrent of outrage and abuse in posts on chat rooms across the country.

"Ugh. Yellow people and black people mixed together is very gross," was one post.

Another blogger wrote: "Numb! This b**** still has the audacity to appear on television! I don't know what to say! One cannot be shameless to this kind of level!"

Lou told Neteast News that the adverse public reaction had come as a surprise.

"The whole thing was a big bomb to my family and me and it caused great harm," she said.

"I wish netizens (internet users) could tolerate my particular parentage and let it go as soon as possible."

But in the mainstream media, Lou was not short of supporters.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Lou-Jing-Oriental-Angel-Sparks-China-Talent-Show-Race-Row-Over-African-American-Father/Article/200911115429098?lpos=World_News_Top_Stories_Header_4&lid=ARTICLE_15429098_Lou_Jing%3A_Oriental_Angel_Sparks_China_Talent_Show_Race_Row_Over_African_American_Father

[Number23]

1. The long-term effects of British colonialism in Asia at work.

If she were half-Vietnamese, half-Cambodian, or even half-white, I don't think she would be having nearly this many problems.

But half-anything dark (including probably many SE Asian cultures) would be an issue. Ah well. Just another day in our "post-racial" world.

[firedupdem]

2. What a sad story, I feel for the young lady dealing with that mess..

One of the comments under the article spoke directly to what you brought up:

" i am chinese and i am engaged to a british guy (half welsh half english to be exact). noone that i care called me a traitor. yes, racism is everywhere- in every country. as vinceg says there are not many black chinese people. as i am brought up in hong kong, i can tell you that socially, there is some inferior complex in the far east. (i have friends that are from hong kong, japan, korea, phillipines etc. which apparently have the same problem.) in their eyes, being in a relationship, or marrying a white person is more socially acceptable than marrying a black one. very racist, but i am just stating the truth that lurks underneath the surface. however, it is not this girl's fault! she can not choose her parents can she? she respected her roots and have a chinese name... but then traditional chinese peoples' attitude is quite hard to change."

[Kind of Blue]

3. I'm shaking to the core reading this. I cannot imagine

the depths of isolation this lovely girl is experiencing. I'm so upset right now I'm on the verge of tears.

I wish that she could come here. I'm going to check, but I hope she has a site or a way to communicate with her, just to say keep up the good work.

Thanks for posting, Blue_Tires. :thumbsup:

[HamdenRice]

4. On the positive side, China is changing really, really profoundly when it comes to race

In other words, the positive part of this story is that she would never have had a chance at being an "idol" of the Chinese -- and hence a kind of role model or examplar of China -- even a few years ago. While she had a difficult childhood and suffered a lot of online abuse when she became a celebrity, many other people support her.

Another thing that is a bit confusing and needs some cross cultural context is that much of the fury directed at this girl and her mother has more to do with sex than with race.

China is one of the most un-sex-positive cultures, even though women are quite emancipated. I remember reading an anthropological encyclopedia of sexual attitudes, and it said that a significant number of women interviewed for the article on China responded that they felt nauseous just thinking about sex.

So what galls people is that the mother cheated on her husband with a foreigner and had the audacity to keep the child who was clear evidence to the world of her infidelity. (She has no "face.) Note how many of the comments are actually about how brazen the mother is, rather than that the girl is bad for being black. There is also a lot of weird self-hatred about the stereotype of Chinese men being sexually inadequate and the brazen mother seeking a big **** from a Black. That's the kind of weird sexual politics I pick up from reading the negative comments.

I recently started getting a new Chinese network on cable, Blue Ocean Network. Unlike the Chinese-American cable stations, BON is direct from China (apparently related to govt propaganda) and it's all about how Beijing is easy for foreigners to live in, and it's getting diverse and so on.

One of the celebrities of BON and Chinese TV in general is an African, Francis Tchegue. He's apparently some kind of prodigy in the Chinese language, even though he's only been in Beijing a few years, and is the host of BON's "learn Chinese" program! It's kind of surreal watching this guy with a thick French-Cameroon accent teaching perfect Chinese.

There's a certain amount of backwards, politically incorrect fascination in China with these black celebrities, but it's a Great Leap Forward from the days of people staring and pointing at non Chinese because they've never seen such a thing on the street or on TV.

[FrenchieCat]

5. My Black Daughter's ex boyfriend is Chinese......

and I mean, really Chinese.

Guess it will take the babies of today,
to teach the stories of tomorrow.....as always.

[FrenchieCat]

6. This is Lou Jing

[Jkid]

7. Looks beautiful

[kwassa]

8. Some of the contradictions are interesting

About 15 years ago I was working for a non-profits that handled Vietnamese refugees coming to the US, in Los Angeles. Our program supported "re-eds", former South Vietnamese military officers who ended up in North Vietnamese re-education camps.

I encountered refugees from another program that were the adult biracial children of American soldiers and Vietnamese women. They were now young adults who had been ostracized in their own country, and the US finally felt some responsibility and brought them over here. They were both biracial asian-white and asian-black.

The daughter of a completely Vietnamese couple that I worked with there had become very Americanized. By day she worked in a realtor's office, by night she worked as a dancer at a club that was owned by Prince. Some of the black girls at the club braided her hair into fine little braids. As this daughter had, like many Vietnamese, fairly broad lips and nose, and sort of a middling brown skin tone, she was universally assumed to be a light-skinned black girl at the club itself, though she was 100% Vietnamese.

Los Angeles is such a blend of immigrant cultures that it gets very hard to tell where people are from sometimes.

[Brewman_Jax]

9. Here's the article from NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120311417&ps=cprs

[HamdenRice]

10. A few more pics including one with her Mom!