Nov 5, 2009
Racism, Samaritans, and a bit of Perspective
Some interesting stories from the China blogosphere this week.
Sorry, We only save dead bodies | chinaSMACK
A tragic story from Hubei about how workers on a fishing boat refused to save drowning students. Initially I thought this was just another case of people not willing to risk getting involved for fear of legal action or some kind of danger to themselves (often the case when someone is knocked down in the street, for example). But here, if the story is accurate, it looks like it just came down to money.
More on Lou Jing | The Guardian
The Guardian had an interesting piece about Lou Jing, the talent show contestant who has been causing a stir in China because she of her skin color. Her mother is Chinese, but her father is African American.
The most interesting quote from the Guardian article is actually via China Daily:
“There are two factors at work here,” wrote Raymond Zhou. “Lou Jing is not a pure-blood Chinese and anyone who marries a foreigner is deemed a ‘traitor’ to his or her race. More relevant, Lou’s father is black.”
Zhou concluded: “It is high time we introduced some sensitivity training on races and ethnicities if we are going to latch on to the orbit of globalisation. People should realise that if you have a right to discriminate against another race you have automatically given others the right to discriminate against you.”
Some perspective from Kaiser Kuo | UNL.edu
Kaiser’s recent talk, Shouting Across the Chasm: Chinese and American Netizens Clash in Cyberspace, is a must watch for anyone even remotely interested in China. It’s especially interesting for us bloggers, who would do well to look at ourselves and how we write about this country.
