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>On the other hand, Westerners (whether black or white) are seen as exotic and high-status and their presence in China indicates how far the country has made it
by chibg10 8y ago
>On the other hand, Westerners (whether black or white) are seen as exotic and high-status and their presence in China indicates how far the country has made it.
This is an oversimplification. Westerners are seen as exotic and high-status as individuals, but (Han, at least) Chinese also see China as a civilization as the "the Middle Kingdom" (between Heaven and the rest of the world) and that the West is currently dominant in global affairs is an unnatural occurrence that China is destined and entitled to rectify.
The two are quite contradictory if you reflect on it at all, but most people in any country (whether China, America, Europe, or elsewhere) really all that reflectful in general so we are where we are.
- yorwba 8y agoSure, but that's nationalism, not racism. Wanting one's own country to be the best (at everything, or at least the most popular sport) is a pretty common view that doesn't necessarily require seeing the other countries' inhabitants as genetically inferior. As a historical example, the Sputnik shock and ensuing space race can be seen as an expression of the American expectation that the Soviet Union's dominance in space exploration was an unnatural occurrence that the US was destined and entitled to rectify.
- withhighprod 8y agoMiddle Kingdom.... are you joking? That might be true 1000 years ago, but now everyone knows West is good. Going abroad was the dream of the entire 70-80 generation and so their children.