Spider, I am a Chinese university graduate who speaks English and knows many foreigners both white and black. About what you said, I want to ask if you have proof about heavy bias against blacks Throughout Asia. I am Chinese and I am not biased to black foreigers no matter how dark they are. All my Chinese friends and colleagues do not discrminate any black foreigers in China.
You also mentioned heavy bias against blacks Throughout Asia. India is in Asia. Part of Russia is in Asia. Myanmar is in Asia and they are very dark- skinned.
@zenaqu The older generation tend to be more bias since they are more set in their ways. You are a graduate student and young. Younger people are more open to new ideas and new things generally. Even in America when a black man is with a white woman, people still make comments and we have a more open society. Some people just can't get over the fact that we are all the same underneath. Let me ask you a question. If you were seeing a black woman or men, would your parents and grandparents approve? Most Chinese families still can't accept interracial relationships be them white/black/Asian or other.
Our topic here is How Are Black-Americans Treated, not How Are Foreigners Treated. What mightymouse is asking is that when he comes to Kunming to find a job as an English teacher, will he be treated fairly. Most Chinese parents who send their kids to learn English are between 30 to 50. Also, the parents who pay for their kids to learn English are rich and they want to go abroad. When they go abroad, they will see more foreigners with all kinds of colors.
If I have a french, a black, a Russian or any foreigner as my boyfriend, my parents will have a heart attack. This has nothing to do with racism against blacks. My parents will disapprove of a white, blue-eyed boyfriend because he is a foreigner, not because he is black or white.
As always people tends to go off topic on these forum, maybe they are just bored or angry for something...
So mightymouse i can tell you in km i've seen many black guys/girls teaching english, native and non, actually talking about primary school being black might be even an advantage because kunmingers basically think multicolor is multicultural...so u plan to stay 6 months 1 year in china, if you want a part time job just search private primary schools, everywhere there are ad included on gokm, the real problem you might encounter is the low salary and lack of management/ incompetence (this one is really a km peculiarity) that often brings your class to be canceled...good luck!
@Yuanyangren
Dude - you're incredibly funny. China homogeneous? Chinese are about as racist as you can get. Qing dynasty - Mongolian rule. Yuan dynasty. The yellow turbans. Dongbei vs guangdong vs west china, rural vs city, minority vs Han. The list is endless. 5k years of civil war and slaughtering each other.
Homogeneous - pretty funny...unless you're serious.
As for racism - I tend to think of it more in terms of competitiveness brought on by fear of the unknown (except in the USA where it's just bluntly racist).
@laotou, I think this topic has just about been done to death, so I won't go any further as it will just bring out more anger and frustration on our part as we could go on and on about racism in China but let me just clear up what I meant by "homogeneous":
This term means that the population of China is largely composed of one ethnic group (92% Han), and even the minority ethnic groups look largely indistinguishable to the majority, except for their dress. Therefore China is nothing like the USA, Australia etc. with their large minority groups all largely living together in harmony these days. This means that anyone who doesn't look like the majority is automatically labeled a "foreigner" in China, whereas a black person in the USA is just as likely to be a native as a white person is.
Regarding your Qing Dynasty, dongbei comparison etc. yes you are absolutely correct.
Anyway, I think I've said enough about this topic, but just like everyone else, maybe it's just to blow off a little steam since I don't get much opportunity to talk about these kinds of issues with the locals as they don't seem to understand what foreigners have to deal with here.
In short, it will be better than Mississippi, but not as good as Boston.
If you want to teach, there should not be a problem as long as you don't have a strong accent or dialect. I'm black and I have no problem getting teaching jobs or other types of jobs.
