The Chinese culture is massively ignorant to say the least. It's easy to generalize a culture that shuts out others and knows little about the outside world. Lou Jing seems to get so much flack for being half Chinese - but if the people of China would crane their necks just a few degrees, they would see that the mixed culture is growing largely around the world...
(Via Bossip.com...)
Born and raised in Shanghai by her Chinese single mother, Lou Jing, a half African-American half Chinese aspiring singer, experienced very little discrimination during childhood. However after she appeared on the Chinese reality television show called “Let’s Go! Oriental Angels,” Lou Jing gained national fame and notoriety — largely for her skin color.
“After the contest started, I often got more attention than the other girls. It made me feel strange,” Lou 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. “But after Lou was seen nationwide, some Chinese people couldn’t accept her.”
Even well meaning friends and family members revealed widespread ignorance about Lou Jing’s racial difference:
“Sometimes people on the street would ask me, ‘Why do you speak Chinese so well?’ I’d just say, ‘Because I’m Chinese!’” Lou said.
“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.”
Even Lou Jing’s maternal grandmother admitted in a taped interview, “I told Lou Jing she was black because her mom was not very well and had to take Chinese medicine.”
Here are some of the actual comments posted on websites about Lou Jing and her mother:
“Shanghai people’s value plunges. A bastard, brought her out to show off because of the foreigner descent.”
“Is this the legend of the bastard? And an unwanted bastard, Her mother is a shameless woman, pregnant by a black guy, and then abandoned, was it good when he was pleasing you? Still obsessed with him after several decades? Not feel ashamed, even go on TV to look, looking for what? Looking for lost big XX? Looking for climax never had again? Shameless! Why are Shanghai women always the target of criticism? It’s because of shameless bitch like her! Dragon TV please help this bastard find her family. Let the black father with a big XX hurry back, address this old woman’s needs! Black Dad, come back soon! Someone cannot forget your big XX.”
“This woman has no sense of shame, married and you cheat, give birth to a black kid so there is no way to hide, if wasn’t for that her husband will have to raise their children. Cheap is the word, in order to run with a foreigner, even do with black people.”
Aside from being half-bred, Lou Jing is human! These people consider themselves to be good people because they are of one race, yet they treat her like an animal. How can you call yourself a human being and ridicule someone of your same species, someone who shares your culture with you?? Lou Jing is Chinese. She lives in China, speaks the language and the dialects - she is her culture. Her skintone cannot change what she knows, what she was raised in. There are full - on, tenth-generation Chinese children and teenagers who do not know their own heritage. They have been engulfed in the American/Western lifestyles and have forgotten to absorb the history that took so long to be built. You mean to tell me you would appreciate them more because of their appearance, than a young woman who rides for her country? It's not like she's a Black-American or non-Chinese who has come into the country and tried to assimilate. She was born from a Chinese mother, raised on the same Chinese foods, given the same Chinese education. What makes her deserve this kind of abuse? The people of China need to wake up and embrace the new generations that are to come. I never hear ridicule about the Chinese-Caucasian children that are born every day. It's like as soon as Black gets thrown into the pot - people back away from the dish. It's rediculous! We are the backbone of almost every culture. We have built civilizations for others and still managed to create our own -yet we often lack the recognition we deserve. And the reason why is simple;
People fear what they don't understand.
Another thing - what about her talent? Obviously the superficiality of media translates in all cultures. She can be eliminated and a less-talented contestant be chosen, simply because of her pigmentation. China's got a long way to go. Looong way.
