http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/03/morrissey-china-subspecies-racism
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| Morrissey calls Chinese people a subspecies in an Guardian interview... |
"Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies."
In response, Sunny Leong from the Labour Party wrote in his blog... http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2010/10/06/have-the-chinese-lost-face-over-the-morrissey-%E2%80%9Csubspecies%E2%80%9D-comment/
"If Morrissey had made such comments about Indians, Africans, or Jews, there would be uproar, marches down Parliament and demonstrations across the land. So where are the Chinese protests or demonstrations? Nowhere. Absolutely zilch! "
So Why Was The British Chinese Community Silent?
The perception is that British Chinese people seldom fight back or argue back in the face of racism. I remember years ago, an English doctor on-call visited my ill grandmother. My grandmother could not speak English, my FOB Sister had to translate, this annoyed him. He said...
In the UK, some forms of racism are more acceptable than others, none more so than a social tolerance of casual racism towards Chinese. Casual racism is opportunitistic, a fleeting malapropos comment, its so common that its no longer perceived as malicious, merely "politically incorrect," Chinese have heard it all before...anywhere and everywhere, if you look for it you will find it. For example, today, former England football manager Glenn Hoddle made a Chinese 'knee-shin-toe' joke live on Sky Sports television.
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1357091/Glenn-Hoddle-centre-Sky-Sports-scandal.html)
As a silent and almost invisible ethnic minority, the Chinese in the UK are a soft target as a consequence of many factors, these include a lack of representation, inability to respond due to an inadequate command of English, lack of leadership, political illiteracy, western superiority, segregation, negative police response, Confucian humility and passive neutrality. The UK Census 2001 states that 50% of British Chinese have no religion, the highest for any British ethnic group, unlike British Muslims, there are no religious leaders or radicals to rally around or speak on our behalf, nor have Chinese ever been part of any organised labour movement which historically has been a source of political radicalism. But perhaps the real problem is the lack of homogeneity within the British Chinese community. British Chinese immigrants can be classified as follows...
(1) Mainlanders / Taiwanese - Third wave British Chinese immigration. FOB's - Huge influx post 1990s. Predominantly Mandarin speaking, many cannot speak nor read adequate English (standard of English in the Mainland is poor), they won't know who Morrissey is nor will they read the Guardian. This group is the most FOBBY, insular and clueless about racial stereotyping, many have no white friends and take no interest in the opinions of White people like Morrissey.
"This translation is time-consuming, shall I try and speak Chinese? Ha-saw, wing wang wong."This contumelious behaviour from a professional doctor is unacceptable, yet my FOB sister just smiled at him and carried on as though nothing happened. It was a kairotic moment, a realisation that Chinese FOB's and elder's of my parents generation will never fight racism - yan yiu sau hei. If Chinese are unwilling to fight racism to protect themselves, they're certainly not going to do it for anyone else. Recounting the observed instances of racism in my life, only once do I recollect a Chinese female with the fortitude to verbally confront her perpetrators, such passiveness makes the Chinese victim the bete noire not the perpetrator.
In the UK, some forms of racism are more acceptable than others, none more so than a social tolerance of casual racism towards Chinese. Casual racism is opportunitistic, a fleeting malapropos comment, its so common that its no longer perceived as malicious, merely "politically incorrect," Chinese have heard it all before...anywhere and everywhere, if you look for it you will find it. For example, today, former England football manager Glenn Hoddle made a Chinese 'knee-shin-toe' joke live on Sky Sports television.
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1357091/Glenn-Hoddle-centre-Sky-Sports-scandal.html)
As a silent and almost invisible ethnic minority, the Chinese in the UK are a soft target as a consequence of many factors, these include a lack of representation, inability to respond due to an inadequate command of English, lack of leadership, political illiteracy, western superiority, segregation, negative police response, Confucian humility and passive neutrality. The UK Census 2001 states that 50% of British Chinese have no religion, the highest for any British ethnic group, unlike British Muslims, there are no religious leaders or radicals to rally around or speak on our behalf, nor have Chinese ever been part of any organised labour movement which historically has been a source of political radicalism. But perhaps the real problem is the lack of homogeneity within the British Chinese community. British Chinese immigrants can be classified as follows...
(1) Mainlanders / Taiwanese - Third wave British Chinese immigration. FOB's - Huge influx post 1990s. Predominantly Mandarin speaking, many cannot speak nor read adequate English (standard of English in the Mainland is poor), they won't know who Morrissey is nor will they read the Guardian. This group is the most FOBBY, insular and clueless about racial stereotyping, many have no white friends and take no interest in the opinions of White people like Morrissey.
(2) Commonwealth Immigrants - Second wave of British Chinese immigrants. Post 1950's -1970's mainly Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and also refugees from Vietnam. Predominantly Cantonese speaking, many do not work for White employers nor socialise with White people. There is some cross cultural and cross ethnic racism between (1) and (2). Some Cantonese crack similar Morrissey type jokes about Mainlanders about them being dirty, uncivilized and unable to speak Cantonese. (comparatively it's not as acute as the racial problems between Afro-Caribbeans and Africans in the UK). Some would find the idea of the Mainland Chinese as a subspecies rather amusing, Sunny Leong and Anna Chen however, perceived the subspecies comment as an indiscriminate attack on the Chinese as a race, inclusive of Chinese diaspora.
(3) BBC's - Offspring of (2) and (1), both are different. The mandarin group is Taiwan and Mainland orientated, whereas the Cantonese speaking group is split into 2 sub-group's.
Group A is westernised and tries to be white by following white culture, some cannot speak Chinese, they define themselves as British and seldom make a point about their ethnicity, ie they don't like discussing or referring to their Chinese ethnicity.
Group B are wannabe FOB's that follow East Asian culture i.e Chinese TV drama and Chinese music etc, they have little interest in British politics and are highly unlikely to be Guardian readers.
(4) Other - First Wave Of British Chinese Immigrants, 'Those of Chinese Descent,' and Mixed Race. The first wave arrived before the main influx of Commonwealth immigrants and settled in Limehouse, Liverpool etc. Many are married inter racially and are the most culturally assimilated and integrated into British society. This group includes mixed race, as a corollary, some Chinese may not consider this group to be Chinese as they cannot speak Chinese, but it is incorrect to call them 'gwai-sing,' they have 'White blood,' its to be expected. Whereas this group of mixed race consider the UK as their permanent home, its in contrast to many full blood British Chinese holding second passports and may not necessarily view the UK as their permanent home, but a temporary home, there is less incentive to get involved, integrate or assimilate.
This group is the most vocal, visible and media savvy. British Chinese Celebrities David Yip (The Chinese Detective), Gay Fashionista Gok Wan, TV presenter Alexa Chung...are part of this group. They have assumed the role of representing the British Chinese within the mainstream White media, ironically in Sheeps clothing as none of them are full blood Chinese. A glance at the bottom of the Sunny's Independent blog, there is no one who comes across as being Chinese except mixed race Madam Miaow AKA Anna Chen. She is usually the lone spokesperson within the white media as full-blood Chinese (who are not White enough) don't have access to the media. She feeds off it, her audience for her performances are predominantly White, her blog friends are predominantly White men. She made a huge fuss over the Fu Man Chu broadcast on Radio 4, yet Chinese people don't listen to 'White middle aged' radio stations like Radio 4. The average age of its 450,000 listeners was between 52 and 55. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/17/radio-4-axes-childrens-show-go4it
Cultural Segregation
Last weekend, David Cameron said "multi-culturalism had failed." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12371994 "different cultures have been encouraged to live separate lives." The following illustrates cultural segregation....
White Singer Morrissey
White Singer Morrissey
http://www.facebook.com/Morrissey 400,000 fans (can't see Asian faces or Asian names on his fans list)
Asian singer Jay Chou
http://www.facebook.com/jay 1million fans (can't see any white western names on his fans list)
Morrissey's band The Smiths
http://www.facebook.com/TheSmithsOfficial 1million fans (no Asian fans)
It is no surprise, globally speaking, westerners listen to music produced by Whites and Asians listen to music produced by Asians, but locally its no different, within the Chinese Community Groups, we have cultural segregation too. Groups 1,2,3(b) don't assimilate too well into White British culture, whereas Groups 3(a) & 4 have 'lost touch' and are detached from Chinese Culture. As the Chinese community is segregated with their own interests and language, it will be difficult to find a leader who can represent these disparate groups, ideally they need to be fluently trilingual.
To illustrate cultural segregation within the media, Fobby Chinese read Chinese publications written in Chinese characters and watch Chinese news channels, Chinese programming made for Chinese people, therefore those who write to British broadcasters to complain about Radio 4 or Eastenders etc are unlikely to be FOB's. For a prime time programme, commonwealth immigrants may complain, but if its anything else such as the Guardian Newspaper, the complainants will be largely formed of BBC Sub group A, mixed race, those in interracial partnerships and White liberals. It is not dissimilar to the types of people who complained about the late Wendy Richard on BBLB when she described the Chinese as "inscrutable." A FOB Mainlander will not understand the meaning of the word inscrutable nor will they understand the concept of racial stereotyping.
Recalling a C4 TV show called 'Banzai,' an ode to Asian FOB stereotypes, games with chopsticks and a Burt kwouk voice over, it was backward and cringe worthy. The show was pulled during its first season in USA after complaints from the Asian American community, yet in the UK, the show managed to run for 4 seasons, this is difference between America and the UK, the Asian American community is larger, more diverse, with more clout and is more racially aware. As UK FOB's are clueless about racial stereotyping, I was convinced the script was written by a FOB, however it was actually written by a White guy - Gary Monaghan, that would also explain it.
The mainstream media in the UK does not represent the views of Chinese people in first place, there are few Chinese journalists, except those of Chinese descent (ie. Chris Choi, Ben Chu, Polly Samson etc. Programming is largely produced by White people for White people to watch, newspapers largely written by White people for White people to read, therefore what is the point complaining when their audience is white? These publications are not written for the benefit of Chinese people. Once, I wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC, they reviewed the footage and concluded it was far from offensive but complimentary towards Chinese people, this is what happens when those on the review board are not Chinese, but even if there was a token Chinese on the review board, it would be an obsequious Uncle Tam.
China now regularly makes news headlines in the west for all the wrong reasons...aggression, failure or disaster, I.e Tiananmen Square massacre, environmental disaster, pollution and dangerous manufacturing, animal and human rights abuse. All negative material to present the Chinese as an evil subspecies...except of course when a cuddly panda is sent over for breeding. Everyone say "Awwwww."
To illustrate cultural segregation within the media, Fobby Chinese read Chinese publications written in Chinese characters and watch Chinese news channels, Chinese programming made for Chinese people, therefore those who write to British broadcasters to complain about Radio 4 or Eastenders etc are unlikely to be FOB's. For a prime time programme, commonwealth immigrants may complain, but if its anything else such as the Guardian Newspaper, the complainants will be largely formed of BBC Sub group A, mixed race, those in interracial partnerships and White liberals. It is not dissimilar to the types of people who complained about the late Wendy Richard on BBLB when she described the Chinese as "inscrutable." A FOB Mainlander will not understand the meaning of the word inscrutable nor will they understand the concept of racial stereotyping.
Recalling a C4 TV show called 'Banzai,' an ode to Asian FOB stereotypes, games with chopsticks and a Burt kwouk voice over, it was backward and cringe worthy. The show was pulled during its first season in USA after complaints from the Asian American community, yet in the UK, the show managed to run for 4 seasons, this is difference between America and the UK, the Asian American community is larger, more diverse, with more clout and is more racially aware. As UK FOB's are clueless about racial stereotyping, I was convinced the script was written by a FOB, however it was actually written by a White guy - Gary Monaghan, that would also explain it.
The mainstream media in the UK does not represent the views of Chinese people in first place, there are few Chinese journalists, except those of Chinese descent (ie. Chris Choi, Ben Chu, Polly Samson etc. Programming is largely produced by White people for White people to watch, newspapers largely written by White people for White people to read, therefore what is the point complaining when their audience is white? These publications are not written for the benefit of Chinese people. Once, I wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC, they reviewed the footage and concluded it was far from offensive but complimentary towards Chinese people, this is what happens when those on the review board are not Chinese, but even if there was a token Chinese on the review board, it would be an obsequious Uncle Tam.
China now regularly makes news headlines in the west for all the wrong reasons...aggression, failure or disaster, I.e Tiananmen Square massacre, environmental disaster, pollution and dangerous manufacturing, animal and human rights abuse. All negative material to present the Chinese as an evil subspecies...except of course when a cuddly panda is sent over for breeding. Everyone say "Awwwww."
