Studying abroad in a foreign country is often touted as an important part of a student’s college education. This past year, I did just that and for three months, went to Beijing to study Chinese. But as is often the case at my predominantly white college, I was the only black student going.

When I was planning for my trip to China, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never been out of the country. To compound matters, I had no idea what it would be like over there, to be black.

I was aware, however, of some of the tensions between Asian-Americans and blacks. In Los Angeles and Washington DC, there have been well-publicized incidents of blacks protesting Asian-owned stores for selling substandard food items to black customers. Los Angeles even saw riots about this in the early 1990s; some Korean merchants went as far as taking up arms against blacks.

Meanwhile, it made news when the leader of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party declared that in the United States, “where credit cards are much in use, a lot of blacks, and so on, think, ‘We're bankrupt. We don't have to pay anything starting tomorrow.’” For a brief spell of time, Japanese department stores sold black sambo dolls and black mannequins with oversized lips - something I thought had disappeared with Sears and Roebuck magazines in the 1920s.

Against this backdrop I wondered whether I would experience racism in China, and to what extent racist stereotypes would influence how the Chinese would act toward me. Would I be treated fairly?

As the only black on the trip - and one of the few in Beijing - daily life could certainly be awkward. Walking down the streets, I attracted many stares – more, I’m convinced, than my white classmates. But I do not attribute this to racism. When I asked a Chinese acquaintance of mine what their reactions to seeing blacks for the first time were she admitted that “it’s a little weird, but it’s also weird seeing white foreigners.”

Many Chinese have simply never laid eyes on blacks. And since plenty don’t own televisions, they would not have been exposed to us that way either. I recall the time I was on an island looking at Buddhist shrines when a Chinese man approached me and held his arm out directly across from mine. He was in my personal space and I felt not a little uncomfortable. But his reason for this invasion of my privacy was decidedly benign: he wanted to see if his skin tone was as dark as mine.

Yet, I was not to escape stereotypes either. One day, I was returning home with a couple of white classmates, when a Chinese man solicited them, but not me, to teach English in a school. He gave them flyers and information about the job. The whole time, I was standing in plain sight. He just ignored me. Why?

My mind ticked through the possibilities. I am naturally predisposed to give the benefit of a doubt and not to jump to the most extreme conclusions. Had he not seen me? That could not be, as I was there in plain sight. Maybe he could have run out of flyers and had none to give me? This too was not it; he had a stack in his hand. Perhaps he thought he had recruited enough teachers after talking to my white classmates. As it turns out, both rejected the offer, so he should have been looking for at least two more teachers. Or maybe he assumed I was from an African country and didn’t speak English. But then there would be no guarantee that my classmates knew English either. They certainly could have been from Bulgaria or Finland. Furthermore, most Chinese I came across just assumed that foreigners knew English. What would make me different?

I was left only to deduce that he assumed upon seeing me that I was not fit to teach English. Maybe he had something against people of my exact weight and build, or maybe it was my hair. More likely though, it was simply being black that disqualified me in his mind. I take no joy in reaching this conclusion. Perhaps he thought I was a thug who didn’t know correct English. Or maybe he worried his clientele wouldn’t accept me as a teacher. Whatever the reason, the result was the same. I would like nothing more than to have judged the situation wrongly. But the evidence speaks for itself.

Although it is true that many Chinese have just never come into contact with foreigners, stereotypes have a way of seeping in. The only images of blacks on Chinese television I saw were of rappers and basketball players. From my experience - which is in no way a scientific poll - more Chinese have heard of Paul Pierce and 50 cent than have heard of Martin Luther King. If these are the only images of blacks the Chinese have, then it is not surprising that some of them would assume for me to be an unsuitable English teacher.

African students have occasionally been the targets of much more serious discrimination. In late 1988 through early 1989, some of the same students who would end up demonstrating in Tiananmen Square were protesting African students taking up too many spots at Chinese Universities. But they were arguably most upset by Africans taking Chinese women to University dances and reports of rape, that a veteran observer of Chinese politics I know said were “based on complete fabrications.” Nor were these aimed at foreigners in general. The observer noted that white students dating Chinese women was commonplace and that no such vitriol was visited upon them. He concluded that the incidents were “irreducibly racist - a very ugly form of racism.” With bake sales protesting affirmative action at many American colleges and traditional white fears of black sexuality - the idea that a black man might dare to sully white womanhood - we can surely relate.

I should note here that however bad racism against blacks is, it pales in comparison to what the Japanese face. This owes largely to Japanese imperialism in the 20th century; in particular, many Chinese are understandably bitter about how their country was torn up by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Kids in school learn about the famous “rape of Nanking.” Many Chinese I met on the trip flat-out admitted they still harbored ill-will toward the Japanese. Every once in a while, Chinese students storm the Japanese embassy, enraged that the Japanese Prime Minister has visited the Yasukuni shrine to Japanese soldiers, or that revisionist Japanese history textbooks have omitted the atrocities Japanese soldiers committed during the war.

While the focus of this piece has been on racism, I would be remiss not to also share my many good experiences in China. In comparison with the man who would not consider me to teach English, there were many Chinese who showed me nothing but kindness. From my professors, to service people in restaurants, to taxi drivers and college students, many were nice and approachable and made my time much richer. I was welcomed into pickup soccer games, and allowed to play ping pong with random Chinese players. I left the country grateful for the friends I gained and anxious to return.

Race in China is a complicated picture. There are racists who are inclined to think the worst, and plenty of others who will give anyone a fair hearing, no matter what their skin color. Things are getting better in China; yet there remains much more that needs to change. Come to think of it, China’s evolving racial landscape is not so very different from America’s. 

Marcus Alexander Gadson is a freelance journalist and commentator on political and social issues. His work on issues ranging from race, politics, and the war on terrorism has appeared in various publications. He is also a current student at Dartmouth College double majoring in History and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Click here to contact Mr. Gadson.

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