Racism in China
February 18th, 2008 by cons7668 Prejudice, discrimination and racism against
foreigners especially Black Africans, Indians and Filipino teachers is rampant in China and elsewhere around
the globe, but we can’t impose change since everyone is entitled to
his own opinion.In today’s current situation, more and more outside citizens go to China for business, travel, teaching and study. This
on the other hand intensifies communication, so for clearer understanding, it’s necessary to
respect different nations and try to understand their culture better. Unfortunately, it seems that the majority of Chinese people are only interested
in communication with whites or Caucasians, and basically blindly adore Western culture.
This is definitely true. But we can not deny the fact that English
Natives hold the standard qualification when it comes in teaching oral English
no matter how unexperienced they are in the field of teaching education.
Chinese, being adamant to learn British/American English accent take the
initiative no wonder why they prioritize deploying whites than those qualified
Asian or African teachers."When I was studying English in university, most of
the professors and my classmates reluctantly accepted an African teacher from
Cameroon (in central Africa) and constantly complained about his strong accent
and way of teaching, while two other British girls were tremendously popular,
even though their teaching style was not better than that of the Cameroon
teacher. Occasionally, I still hear some students laugh about his black skin
color."
There is a research about racism in China, and about 85% of more than
3,400 respondents from 10 big cities said that job discrimination was a way of
life in jobs. 58% of the respondents thought the discrimination was severe. The
top reasons for discrimination are appearance, height, gender and marital
status. Even Chinese among Chinese discriminate each other although there is a
Chinese law on discrimination, which "states that laborers shall not be
discriminated against, regardless of their ethnicity, race, sex, or religious
beliefs. But it does not elaborate on any of these points." With regards to the
Filipino teachers, it is true that some are qualified to teach English but then
accent poses sometimes a problem (while it’s true also that some natives of English
have strong accent like Scottish and Irish). Most can speak the language and
even street vendors can, but because of the regional accent it makes it solely
different from the other natives of English. Majorities of Filipinos though are
excellent educators so not all share similar problem. I know one who have
been teaching for 12 years. She has a very good command of both oral and written
English and very hardworking. She is now a foreign trainer for the foreign teachers in one of the
prestigious international school in China.
