"After the contest started, I often got more attention than the other girls. It made me feel strange," Lou [Jing] said.
The reality show hosts fondly called her "chocolate girl" and "black pearl." The Chinese media fixated on her skin color. Netizens flooded Web sites with comments saying she "never should have been born" and telling her to "get out of China."...
"We lived in a small circle before," said her mother....
"She used to wonder why she had black skin," said one classmate. "We thought about this question together and decided to tell her it's because she likes dark chocolate. So her skin turned darker gradually."
Another classmate weighed in, "We said it's because she used to drink too much soy sauce."
December 21, 2009
"Go! Oriental Angel."
A Chinese reality show shines a light on Chinese racism.
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That individuals have different conceptions of identity I find mundane. That one would attempt to dissuade another of her conception of identity I find abhorrent.
As a father, I found this more saddening:
"Lou Jing did not ask about her father until she was sixteen years old," her mother told the audience. "She said, 'Where is my dad?' I didn't answer, I just cried and Lou Jing never asked me this question again."
Michael Jackson found a cure for this skin tone.
I think it's rather sweet that her classmates were trying to make her feel better, even if the things they said sound weird.
What's so great about a civilization that never came up with an egg cream?
It's amazing how the American white devil's racism even infects China.
The sto is written to fix the racism fixation i the MSM andC world
Yes the Chinese nd the Japanese are very racist, but it is not just a black racism, it is basicly racism against everybody who is not Chinese. We are Barbarians
The Drill Sgt should consider drinking less during the day.
Yes the Chinese nd the Japanese are very racist, but it is not just a black racism, it is basicly racism against everybody who is not Chinese. We are Barbarians
Koreans chime in too: Link.
It's long past time to retire the meme that pink men are the big racists.
Translation: the Chinese are still sane.
Is it racist, or the perceived lack of commonality?
Someone should do a study on the term "Black Pearl".
I've come across two or three people who were nicknamed that, internationally, because they all shared one thing in common: well, two things -- they were very talented in their fields, and they were all half-black.
Take the legendary Brazilian footballer of the early 1900s, Arthur Friedenreich. Son of a blond German father, and a black Brazilian mother, he looked white (unlike Lou Jing, who looks more black) and self-identified as white but was called the "Black Pearl" by media and fandom because he didn't meet their racial standards.
Friedenreich wanted to play but never did for the equivalent of the Boston Red Sox in soccer: Fluminense, the last team to allow a completely black player to play for them (in the 1950s).
Instead, the "Black Pearl" became the precursor of Pelé, scoring more goals than he (allegedly) and gaining renown all over South America, especially in Uruguay and Argentina. Unfortunately, when he toured those countries, he was often lobbed with banana peels as much as touted for his artistry with a ball.
We really haven't come so far, in 80-90 years.
Cheers,
Victoria
wv: rommel!!
Diversity is our greatest strength, without it, we would be another China or Japan, unable to compete in the Yugoslavian/USA way.
Ummm..never mind!
How China must envy our Dearborn Michigan and Multi-Culti Atlanta. And their lack of ability, with Jews, blacks, Wiccans and the whole rest of the lot excluded..maybe spells doom for China to ever reach the cultural and economic growth of the USA?
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The Drill SGT said...
The sto is written to fix the racism fixation i the MSM andC world
Yes the Chinese nd the Japanese are very racist, but it is not just a black racism, it is basicly racism against everybody who is not Chinese. We are Barbarians.
To be fair, Japs and no doubtedly Han regard the white Americans, Brits, some Muslims and Asians as " almost not barbarians". So there is no "we". However, blacks are regarded by them as jungle chimps, violent animal thievers and racists, and degraded humans.
The young lady involved is strikingly good looking. Whatever prejudice that exists against her skin color will be more than counter balanced by the e-z pass that the world grants good looking women.
Wait...I thought only White people were racist.
According to her mother, who asked not to be identified in this report, she met Lou's father while she was still in college. He left China before their daughter was born.
She could be president of China someday!
Possible campaign slogan: It's not Zen to be xenophobic.
What do you people expect? Racism is a western civilization construct. The rest of the world could care less about being racist, bigoted or anything else for that matter. Shit, even in this country light skin blacks look down on darker skinned blacks. So she's a blink, big deal, but the chinese don't care because we would call them racist and yet this is normal behavior for them.
Don't be ridiclous. We all KNOW that only white, heterosexual, Christian men can be racists.
Al Sharpton and Je$$e Jackass said so, so it must be true.
Compared to Europeans, Asians and Africans, it's fair to say that Americans are rank amateurs when it comes to racism.
She gets the last laugh, especially if she wins. Africans have longer, thinner vocal cords with much more facility at changing notes distinctly compared to Caucasians with short, fat vocal cords. What makes her darker skinned also contributes to her vocal ability.
There's probably a lot of Afrasian 30/40 somethings running around Southeast Asia (not nec. China). Think about it.
Is this racism true of all of Asia?
She and Tiger are both discovering that they're Black.
Funny how "society" imposes a racial identity.
WV crypons
the feminine product you need for seriously emotional PMDD--they're very tiny and fit inside your tear ducts
Now that we've seen her here, what do you want to bet some promoter will try to get her to appear in the States? CNN might turn out to be a big break for her.
Remember: only white males can be racist!
Bill
As an Air Force brat who spent a chunk of my teens living on a base in Japan, I find it curious that so big a deal is being made of this. I had classmates there - male and female - who had Japanese mothers and American fathers - black, white, and latino - and it just wasn't any kind of an issue. In fact, the most popular and beautiful girls in school were Amerasian. My very first dates were with one of them.
Frankly, it's not that surprising in as homogeneous of a society as mainland China. My experience with Asia in general is that it is still a bit behind when it comes to racial understanding. When I was stationed in Japan in the '80's many of the children thought I and other black Marines sprouted tails at night and slept in trees. Often they would run up to us and pat us on the behind looking for the tail. You really couldn't get mad at them because of their wide-eyed and innocent curiosity. It was simply what they were told and they wanted to know if it were true.
Filipino's on the other hand were despised and it was said they were the result of in-breeding between Chinese and monkeys (Funny thing, the Chinese said it was inbreeding with Japanese and monkeys).
The 'issues of race' we have in the U.S. are really nothing when compared to the rest of the world (Europe included).
Oh, and before anyone tries to flame me on this I just want you to know I don't make the news, I only report it.
Occupation forces went to a great deal of trouble to de-Nazify Germany. It mostly worked in the Western sectors. They took no such efforts in Japan, Korea, or China (before it fell to Mao). The fact is that those places had absorbed a great deal of Nazi racial theories and had adapted them to their own racial circumstances. I have lived in the Philippines, Thailand, and Korea. All of them are more racist than America. They consider whites to be big-nosed aids-carrying, blue-eyed devils; blacks even lower. There was even a Nazi themed coffee shop in Seoul. I remember going into a Philippine bar and being confronted with a large confederate flag hanging behind the bar. There was nothing else about the bar that had any connection with the American south. I asked the bartender about the flag and he said that it keeps the n***ers out. They see the flag, turn around and leave.
It is said that the Jade Emperor created the first humans from clay. His first attempt he didn't bake them long enough, and they came out pale. His second attempt he baked them for too long, and they came out dark. His third attempt he got it 'right', and this is the way people are supposed to look.
DaGunny has it right, in Okinawa it was common practice to walk into an establishment and be refused service. The flip side was to go to an old time Okinawan bar and not get poured out till closing time because you had to drink all gift drinks or be considered rude.
The response, to the lack of service, was not to complain but to remember.
"As an Air Force brat who spent a chunk of my teens living on a base in Japan, I find it curious that so big a deal is being made of this. I had classmates there - male and female - who had Japanese mothers and American fathers - black, white, and latino - and it just wasn't any kind of an issue."
It wasn't an issue ON BASE.
Be certain that it WAS an issue for the Japanese and that the marriage immigration went only one way, from Japan and to the US.
Interestingly I was involved in a conversation about how well the military does with race at a Christmas Party that was prompted by talk of Europe. A woman who'd lived in Eastern Europe for some time told how shocked she was at the open racism expressed by people there. She eventually decided that she appreciated the honesty and felt that there was much racism in the US but people were less honest about it.
I think she's wrong. We obsess about acceptance and equality and beat ourselves over our failings in regard to racism to the extent of making it up if we need to, but the racism she encountered was not just honest, it was socially acceptable.
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