I've found Americans' and Western Europeans' (especially in the UK) to be the most sensitive towards racist comments. Chinese often seem completely oblivious to what we would consider racist, or that they should care. A funny moment was once when I showed my wife (she's from Beijing) a picture of the Spanish basketball team pulling their eyelids apart so they would "look Chinese." While I thought this was insensitive at best, she said "We don't think that's racist; we think it's funny!"
Here's one where the advertising dolls are dressed up like rappers and have a version of the n-word tattooed on it (above the machine gun)
Of course these feelings are deeply personal, and will vary depending each's specific experiences. I definitely see a lot of things in China that we would consider completely out-of-bounds however. For instance Chinese toothpaste brands often talk about black people's teeth being whiter:
This is means "Little black sister."
This is another dental product about black peoples teeth.
Here's one where the advertising dolls are dressed up like rappers and have a version of the n-word tattooed on it (above the machine gun)
Of course China has a completely different history than the west; they didn't enslave black people for hundreds of years, nor keep them as second-class citizens for the subsequent generations. So of course the west and east will have different attitudes towards what is acceptable and not. Actually considering the west's colonial past, I figured there might be some bad blood, but other than a joke by my mother-in-law that I should pray for forgiveness at the temple in the summer palace in Beijing, I haven't heard anything. It was funny because earlier my wife and I were watching an episode of the TV show Louie, where he goes to China on New Years Eve, and ends up eating a meal with some random Chinese people. They are asking him in Chinese where he is from, and of course he doesn't speak Chinese so doesn't understand. One of the older guys suggests that he is from one of the "Eight nations," which was an alliance of western powers and Japan that united to demand concessions from China.
For all of my experience here, I have never had any really bad encounters. People are often curious--they'll ask to take photos, especially with their grandfathers, but never have they been impolite even. My first time coming to China I was actually disappointed that I wasn't more of a freak show, with my blonde hair and blue eyes. There was one instance where a cab driver was quite surprised by my blue eyes and thought maybe I couldn't see the same as Chinese people. All-in-all, I feel like I was treated better because I was white, rather than worse. Black people might have a more difficult time however, but I don't know.
For all of my experience here, I have never had any really bad encounters. People are often curious--they'll ask to take photos, especially with their grandfathers, but never have they been impolite even. My first time coming to China I was actually disappointed that I wasn't more of a freak show, with my blonde hair and blue eyes. There was one instance where a cab driver was quite surprised by my blue eyes and thought maybe I couldn't see the same as Chinese people. All-in-all, I feel like I was treated better because I was white, rather than worse. Black people might have a more difficult time however, but I don't know.
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