There are 56 Chinese ethnic groups living within the Chinese borders, and the majority of the people are considered of the Han ethnicity, making the other 55 groups minorities. Other than that, there are basically no foreign ethnic groups in China. The government and the people of China also agree that there is no racism extant in China whatsoever. These two facts alone show that the fundamental qualities of the Chinese societal makeup are completely different than almost every other country on earth. These facts also mean that racism in China is different than anywhere else in the world.
While the Chinese do not admit to any racism in their country, they will admit to some form of regionalism. According to the people I've spoken to about this, the least welcome people in China are generally those from the Henan province. This is because there are lots of people from Henan, and they tend to have fairly obvious accents. However, according to my roommate who is from Henan, as long as your accent isn't too thick, nobody really cares where you are from. I can definitely agree with that, because one of the most discriminated groups in the country (in my mind) is migrant workers, who are usually identifiable by their non-standard accents. These migrant workers have very low pay and next to no benefits, no thanks to the Chinese residency laws. They are looked down upon by most city dwellers, and they are sometimes even forced to leave the city for various "safety reasons." There are lots of problems surrounding migrant workers, and discrimination is definitely one of them.
Other than regionalism, we should also address the relationship between the Han ethnicity and the minorities. This relationship is comparable to the current one between Americans of European descent and the American Indians. The Chinese government gives these minority groups lots of benefits to make sure that they don't fall behind the Hans. While this looks good on the surface, a lot of the measures taken by the government are insufficient, and nobody really knows what is going on underneath.
Lastly, many Chinese people may be led to believe that there is no racism in China because they are Chinese. As a foreigner in China, I see a lot of things that the average Chinese person does not see. As one of the relatively few white people in the country, I get lots of stares, lots of giggles, lots of English thrown at me, and lots of unapproved pictures taken of me. While I don't mind very much, these happenings are just the kind of things that many Americans now call micro-aggressions or even provocations. I'm sure there are many unsuspecting foreigners every day that are very perturbed by how Chinese people act around them.
In the end, whether it's called racism, regionalism, or any other kind or level of discrimination, there really is no place in the world that is completely free of it. However, 2 Nephi 26:33 states: "and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile." We may never see a perfectly equal situation here on earth, but God and Christ love us all equally; we can be confident about that.
-小强
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| Here I am as the token white guy on the front page of China Daily's English Business column. I feel pretty cool. |
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