I’m a xinjiang chinese-kyrgyz that’s very active in both the en and cn speaking cnovel fandom and yall need to understand that as much as that was phrased as a meme, you are truly not immune to it. racism, colourism, and xenophobia against ethnic groups in/from central and northern asia are entrenched in every single aspect of the han media that has been popularised in western fandom. the books and adaptations of them use racism that can be as subtle as the eye colours of villains to making the xiongnu an alien species of violent beasts. cnovels, regardless of their morality or status as problematic/unproblematic, such as mdzs, fgep, cql, tgcf, 2ha, woh/shl and spl, all of them engage in and encourage the racism, xenophobia, colourism, classism, and sexism that form anti-central/northern asian stereotypes
this isn’t me saying don’t read cnovels or to completely disengage with fandom. rather, I’m asking you to think critically about the media you consume and what prejudices it might encourage. think about how this impacts your views of these ethnic groups; even if we don’t actively realise it, we are conditioned by media to view these groups as barbaric, savage, and uncivilized. think about how your ingrained prejudices might impact those around you. if you see a character coded as mongolian, then maybe consider how they’ve been coded. why do you interpret them as mongolian? how does this represent your view of real, living mongolian people?
many people honestly don’t know about us either! the struggles we face are unrepresented and heavily suppressed by eastern media, making western understanding of northern nomads and similar groups very stunted. the number of people I’ve met who have never even heard of my people is innumerable. however, being uninformed does not negate the harm you do by engaging in racist habits, no matter how good your intentions
frankly, I do not want to be responsible for educating an online space that has firmly entrenched racism, it makes me upset to have these conversations in the first place. I would much rather you educate yourself and think critically, but I also know that topics like these can be difficult for western audiences to understand and I know a lot of people truly mean the best and want to support minorities. so, just as a general guide, here are some things that are the most prevalent in anti central/northern asian racism:
eye/hair colour: lighter hair and eye colours, especially when paired with darker skin, are common in our genetic clines, while han culture views those combinations as unsightly, creepy, dangerous, sinister, etc. often you will see villains given bright blue or green eyes, such as xue yang in many mdzs adaptations, to signify that they are murderous and untrustworthy. this directly stems from interactions between central asians(casians) and central plains people. our features are labelled as demonic, freakish, and evil
broad features and large stature: often you see the quote “back of a tiger, waist of a bear”. the ban yue desert people in tgcf are a good example of this, described as being many feet taller than the average person, broader, and in general much more physically strong
powerful voice and coarse language: describing our languages as guttural, barbaric, harsh, rough, simplistic, or lacking nuance is an attempt to paint us as uncivilized, uncultured, and intellectually inferior to other peoples. similarly, giving us voices that are booming, loud, coarse, and rough attempts to do the same
sparse clothing and animal furs: think of “caveman attire”. having characters wear strips of fur, have bare chests, clothing considered barbaric or caveman-like, etc. this is a pretty self-explanatory one
exotic customs/dance/looks: while central/northern asian people often do have different appearances and customs than han people, the portrayal of evidently fabricated, uneducated, exaggerated versions of our culture is offensive, othering, and often fetishistic. our hair styles are also incredibly important, and many times are religiously significant. using them as “exotic braids” or similar intricate styles is offensive and rips away all their cultural significance. these cultures and customs are an important part of life to millions of people, they are not a costume or flashy dance that is there to make a character seem exotic and enticing
geographical racism and fantasization: to many casian groups, our lands are extremely important to us, such as the northern steppes. if this is portrayed respectfully, then great! but most media shows our lands as the mystical, faraway, dangerous grass plains filled with roaming wolves and venomous snakes. for the love of everything holy, you can have a fantasy world WITHOUT fantasizing a certain region in an offensive manner. this is an ecological region, similar to every region in the world. if you want to write mystic lands filled with dangers, then have all the regions included in that. do not single out the northern steppes to be some fantastical mountainscape. while this might seem odd to western viewers, this kind of prejudice is linked to thousands of years of casian lands being portrayed as demonic and dangerous in han culture
religious racism: again, othering and fantasizing a strong cultural component. having characters practice blood sacrifices, use corpses for “evil religious rituals”, cast curses with bones, etc. this is really any uneducated and exaggerated portrayal of casian religion (especially tengriism or any paganistic variant), making it look exotic or dangerous
medical racism: this is closely tied with religious racism, but normally manifests through offensive portrayals of shamans or priests. having shamans be anything outside of their traditional roles of religious leaders and healers in most communities is offensive! having shamans or priests be demonic practitioners that make blood curses, raise poisonous beasts, and breed venomous beetles is offensive!
innate connection with beasts/animals: making this a trait associated with specific groups of people, especially tribal societies, is just racist and dehumanizing. this one is self-explanatory
Brutal Strong Girlboss Female General: large, strong, domineering, women are considered unattractive and disgraceful in han culture. the strong female warrior stereotype is 99% of the time not some feminist girlboss statement, its a racist stereotype to make our people look brutish and unattractive, especially considering that another strong stereotype against us is that casian men are all brutal, womanizing, harem-masters
sinicizing/civilizing us: the western equivalent of this is christianizing various ethnic minorities. having casian characters be “civilized” through introduction to han culture is just blatantly racist. similarly, describing mixed han-casian people as “more delicate” than their casian family, being finer-featured, etc is also just plain racism
a lot of these overlap with anti-indigenous and anti-black racism too! while the struggles our groups face are not the same, we have many mutual experiences that mean this conversation also extends to these groups. with that being said, if you are not central/northern asian, indigenous, or black, if you clown on or derail this post I’m going to start swinging
