Forums > Living in Kunming > Is Kunming Racist?

@aaronb
Thanks for your insights and the heads up. Of course my beef was not with the social make up of Kunming or Gokunming expats but I did detect the 'conservatism' you talk about in some of the posts. Like I said, I wasn't looking to pick a fight with anyone on here nor were the 'expats' my problem so it's all good.

I'll take on board the opinion in your point 2 even though you're equivocal as to how you'd characterize my treatment lol. Thanks

Forums > Living in Kunming > Is Kunming Racist?

@ Dudesons
Thanks for your contribution. I think you and @tigertiger have, as they'd say in french to seriously 'décortiquer' the issue. First the let me say I wasn't looking to pick a fight or troll. Of course I was disappointed by my treatment and made conclusions (prejudice). @Dudesons or @ tigertiger, even the others don't dispute this. The difference is the latter gave reasons to justify this treatment that are off the mark, in my case. It s those reasons that I was disputing in my last post.

I also want to say that as a someone mostly on the wrong end of stereotyping I agree with your conception of 'China'. Life is easier if you go the 'gestalt' way I'd say. So even tho' I know some in China (and Asia) or Kunming are prejudiced, I also realize it is by no means everyone and it's like this everywhere in the world. It's just that having not been in Kunming before and this being my initial interaction with someone in 'authority' there, I found it all startling. First impressions and whatnot. There's racism in the west but I've never ever had a similar experience in England.
It was something new to me.

As for fixation on Kunming even after I have sorted this out elsewhere. I mentioned reasons for my fascination with Yunnan and Kunming earlier. I already know a lot about the place even tho' I haven't set a foot there. From Honghe, to Dali, Lijiang, Yuxi, Kunming itself, I find the place intriguing, diverse and interesting. I would still love to spend sometime out there before my time in China is up. It is just that this experience kinda sullied my idealised view of the place. I felt need to seek clarifications. With the opinions of the likes of @Dudesons ('If I ever have the choice to cure a Southern State Redneck or a Chinese from their racism, I for sure chose the latter'), and @tigertiger above, I think I can in a way appreciate the nuances of this issue in China. I'll follow the implied advice in @Dudesons 'choice' above. What the Chinese put in their 'tabula rasa' as regards their perceptions of me, is entirely upto me. I can live with that kind of flexibility.

Forums > Living in Kunming > Is Kunming Racist?

@TICexpats and others saying it's policy.

I don't think your assessment is right and I kinda find the those wholesale accommodating pronouncements a bit hilarious. For the record, I am African (Black) and I have a Visa. I went to the Chinese embassy here with the necessary documents and I was given my one year multiple entry visa. No hassles whatsoever. That's why I don't agree with your policy argument.I wasn't asking Keats or KUST to apply a visa for me. All I wanted was an opportunity to apply to follow a course. They chose to deny me that based on prejudice. My issue was not about visa as some are erroneously, albeit gleefully making it out to be- with barely disguised hint of arbitrary/exclusive entitlement. Nankai didn't apply my Visa for me. They did offer me a place tho'. And if it were policy of the Chinese govt to discriminate wholesale against Africans based on actions of some, I wouldn't have gotten a Visa either. This is why I asked if Kunming (specifically) is Racist as I've been treated decently elsewhere by Chinese and their govt, despite my colour/ heritage which, from the so very unequivocal statements I read on here, is supposedly irreparably tainted in China. Just like in the US, Europe and everywhere else in the world then, huh? What else is new lol.

Forums > Living in Kunming > Is Kunming Racist?

@ TICexpats
It's ok to call the spade what it is and I get your point which kinda proves mine. I wonder if when some Brit is caught smuggling crack into Bali or Bangkok or wherever, a native out there enounters the next white guy ( not necessarily Brit) and clinks 'smuggler'. It's not the same for you when one (or gazillions) of your own (sorry) screw up. You get your own brush. It is that sort of thing that I find disturbing. IMO western racism, if I may call it that, long moved beyond such crudeness (as in it is kinda nuanced). So is African racism but that is to be expected when you're bottom of the shit pile i guess. ha ha

Forums > Living in Kunming > Is Kunming Racist?

@tiger
I might sound pedantic but is it racism or laziness then? Or is it that the former somehow induces the latter, in which case it is an excuse. That is a 'virtuous' act ( 'don't like to waste time') conveniently wrapped around the not so virtuous act to make it acceptable? I can understand how guilt would come in then and I really think it is the mind that legitimizes its bigotry with such kind of counter-intuitive fallacy deserves pity. There is something from this episode that tells me that the Asian (Chinese) strain of racism (or bigotry) is deadlier and uglier than strains found elsewhere (both for the perpetrators and those at the end of it). Of course I will only find out after I've lived in China.

Btw tiger, are there any black Africans in Kunming? I gather there are black African enclaves in Guangdong and Tianjin. Not sure about Kunming