When I travel overseas, I sometimes get asked the question: "Is Australia racist?" My answer is always: honestly, apart from an instant noodle incident in Grade 3 (which was really a case of kids teasing one another because they're kids, rather than racism), I personally have not experienced racism in Australia (or if I have, I've been oblivious to it). But in China, my supposed "motherland", I personally experience and witness racism much more frequently. An incident happened in the past week that showed how racist, prejudiced, ignorant, and just plain stupid people can be.
I went on a sightseeing/hiking trip out to Gansu province this week, which is in the Western region of China, next to Xinjiang, and quite remote. For dinner, we went to a hawker centre of sorts, with small restaurants all facing onto a common area with seating. Since the common seating was full, our group of 15 went into a small restaurant. After we got settled in, we noticed that a group of about 25-30 middle aged Chinese men had, in the meantime, gathered at a few tables in the common area outside our restaurant and they were all looking into our restaurant, glaring at us menacingly whilst talking amongst themselves. The people inside the restaurant were also looking at us in a less-than-friendly manner. Sensing that something was amiss, our guide got up from our table, went to the front of the restaurant and closed their glass doors whilst staring down the growing mob outside. He then sat down at an empty table at the front of the restaurant, facing in. A "representative" from inside the restaurant then went to speak to our guide.
Later, our guide rejoined our table. Apparently, our group had caused quite the scene when we entered the restaurant. And no, not because we were a bunch of foreigners travelling through relatively remote China. It was because they all thought that another girl and I (the only Asians in our group, apart from the 2 guides) were Japanese.
Now, both the other girl and I are 100% Chinese (and she is Chinese born and raised) and we pretty much look it. But because we were speaking English and hanging out with Westerners, they just assumed we were Japanese. They were pissed off that we had the audacity to show our faces in China* and were ready to yell at us, force us out of the restaurant, and maybe even hurt us. All because they *thought* we were Japanese.
Sigh indeed. Oh, the ignorance and stupidity.
*Just in case you weren't aware, Chinese/Japanese relations are definitely not great currently, with their row over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, evidenced by the recent protests and acts of vandalism in Beijing (amongst others) against Japanese people, brands, and products.
