[gundorana]

A follow up to n interesting story

TV talent show exposes China's race issue - CNN.com


Lou Jing was born 20 years ago in Shanghai to a Chinese mother and an African-American father. According to her mother, who asked not to be identified in this report, she met Lou's father while she was still in college. He left China before their daughter was born.

Growing up with a single mom in central Shanghai, Lou Jing said she had good friends and lived a normal life. "When I was young, I didn't feel any different," she said.

But as soon as she stepped into the national spotlight on a Chinese reality television show called "Go! Oriental Angel," Lou Jing became a national sensation -- not necessarily because of her talent, but how she looked.
"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."

Lou Jing's background became fodder for national gossip, sparking a vitriolic debate about race across a country that, in many respects, can be quite homogenous. There are 56 different recognized ethnic groups in China, but more than 90 percent of the population is Han Chinese. So people who look different stand out.

"We lived in a small circle before," said her mother. "But after Lou was seen nationwide, some Chinese people couldn't accept her."
It has been a shocking ordeal for someone who says she always considered herself just like every other Chinese girl.

"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.

[gundorana]

here is the original story:

Racial rethinking as Obama visits - washingtonpost.com


As a mixed-race girl growing up in this most cosmopolitan of mainland Chinese cities, 20-year-old Lou Jing said she never experienced much discrimination -- curiosity and questions, but never hostility.

So nothing prepared Lou, whose father is a black American, for the furor that erupted in late August when she beat out thousands of other young women on "Go! Oriental Angel," a televised talent show. Angry Internet posters called her a "black chimpanzee" and worse. One called for all blacks in China to be deported.

As the country gets ready to welcome the first African American U.S. president, whose first official visit here starts Sunday, the Chinese are confronting their attitudes toward race, including some deeply held prejudices about black people. Many appeared stunned that Americans had elected a black man, and President Obama's visit has underscored Chinese ambivalence about the growing numbers of blacks living here.

"It's sad," Lou said, her eyes welling up as she recalled her experience. "If I had a face that was half-Chinese and half-white, I wouldn't have gotten that criticism. . . . Before the contest, I didn't realize these kinds of attitudes existed."

[amehoubFomo]

I was just about to post this story. Almost seems like something that should be mandatory reading for students at South Philly High to generate some dialogue and understanding...

[GAGNAPPEAPH]

I was just about to post this story. Almost seems like something that should be mandatory reading for students at South Philly High to generate some dialogue and understanding...

LOL you think they can read.

[amehoubFomo]

Ok, not gonna lie. That was floating around the back of my head as something to post. But like anywhere, there are kids with good intentions that would be receptive to this kind of stuff....

[qp0yfHOf]

He left China before their daughter was born. Zing!

[LillyPlay]

He may have helped create her, but he was no father.

[gundorana]

Yah, that is the sad story across Asia.

The Korean war left a whole orphanage of black babies there...The white ones "pass"(But they still face some discrimination)...



Of course one of those half korean, half African American, turn out to be MVP 2x Super Bowl Champion Hines Ward

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hines_Ward





So it doesn't always turn out bad...

[Caunnysup]

similar realities exist in India too, though with a lot more complexity. Several East African tribes came to western India as serfs or hired army of Muslim Arabs. Those people were treated kindly by locals and in fact with some awe for their physical might/their physique; some of them even became local rulers! But more recent immigrants to India's universities are sometimes badly treated. India too has a high profile "skin whitening" cream industry and personals ads often openly mention the "wheatish/fair complexion" and how the writer is looking for a fair-skinned person as a match.

Of course, the sad thing is that when Indian students go abroad for higher education, they are often discriminated against and some are even beaten up or killed-- especially in Russia, Australia, and Eastern Europe.


Due to media globalization, what passes of "beautiful" human body has really become the American/European ideal-- lighter colored hair, lighter colored eyes, fairer skin, skinny physique. In ancient Indian treatises on love and romance, a perfect woman's body was sometimes related to how elephants have nice curves... of course, not the same proportions by any means, but curvy bodies were considered generally to be more beautiful. Not so much anymore...

[amehoubFomo]

Due to media globalization, what passes of "beautiful" human body has really become the American/European ideal-- lighter colored hair, lighter colored eyes, fairer skin, skinny physique. ..

This ad from Indiankinda sums it up. Very blatant in its message

YouTube - Fair and Lovely Skin Cream Ad (in English)

[Caunnysup]

oh yeah..."Fair and Lovely"... that's the #1 skin cream in india. coming from india, it's embarrasing to see that...

and guess what? that's not how most indian people look. they don't have brown hair, they don't have lighter color eyes. and most aren't even fair complexioned.


what an irony, then, that the very next clip after the one you linked to is this song from the movie Swadesh, which is a movie about an Indian-American NASA scientist who doesn't care to go back to India but when he does go back after many years, he is taken aback by everything, and ends up deciding to serve the needs of his motherland.

the song music is by A.R. Rehman, I believe, and he is also the singer. The same guy who won the Oscar for music in Slumdog Millionaire.

Check out that clip if you like Indian/Bollywood music....it is awesome, and the pictures in the clips are about the beauty of India, the essence of India.

The first time I listened to this song, in the movie, it brought tears to my eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AP30br94ro

[gundorana]

White is right, white is right...

[LillyPlay]

White is right, white is right...

Not according to the mainstream media, institutes of higher learning and Hollywood.

[Caunnysup]

man, that whole playlist from where lankenau got the clip... it's Indian gems one after another! lol

"white people, please beat your kids!" so says Indian standup comedian Russell Peters in one of the clips here:

YouTube - Russell Peters - Beating Your Kids

[gundorana]

Not according to the mainstream media, institutes of higher learning and Hollywood.

Err...I think you got that backwards...

[LillyPlay]

Err...I think you got that backwards...

We obviously see things differently. Merry Christmas!