British Born Chinese in Beijing Part 4

British Born Chinese Trip to North and South of China Part 4

George Clooney, Modernisation and Chinese Culture

Having experienced Guangzhou's development, my last week back in Beijing opened my eyes to modernisation. I visited an exhibition of new and up and coming artists. Here I felt artists were experiencing a forced cultural transition from 'old'ie traditional Beijing culture to 'extremely new' and finding unease.

  People of china sucking from the teat of the communist cow.

Artificial future that could collapse like a tunnel of plastic chairs ?

In a western style cafe I met a young 20ish Beijing female artist and the topic landed on Chinese culture. When asking her about what the government are doing to promote Chinese culture, she told me ' I don't even think the government themselves know what Chinese culture is.' I took a look at her work she showed me on her ipad - all western artist influenced. A naked woman being sexually devoured by an octopus with penis like tentacles. I asked her where she was going to study next, and she revealed she was eager to go New York to Study Sculpture. I could only nod in sad agreement thinking 'we've lost another one'.

White Minorities

It's not such a major issue but what I did notice was the amount of white people at one of the exhibitions, ironically the Summer Palace, which was besieged several times and burnt down by westerners, and a considerable amount of tourists.

Hows it feel to be the 'minority' now ?

 'Read: where the allies invaded...'

Read:'destroyed by Anglo French Allied forces...'

White Guy/ Chinese Girl Couples

Several times, amazingly in Summer Palace and at the Forbidden City, two places that were besieged by allied imperialists, I saw these Chinese girl White guy pairings, and some white guy taking photos of his Chinese friends, who amazingly were all female.

It didn't help that my mainlander friend is unhealthily fascinated with white people, and so in a tourist resort full of Chinese, I somehow found myself surrounded by white tourists.

White Advertising

The big 12 X 18ft George Clooney watch poster in Wang Fu Jing shopping district, and the interracial ad with GC and a Chinese girl on TV didn't exactly help my wishes of wanting to see a less white worshipping China, and nor did this George Clooney commercial which was doing the rounds on Chinese TV at the time:

And if there's any compensation, I did actually see a white skin cream bus poster next to an energy drink with a pic of a Black man. So maybe Beijing is focusing on international relations. Sorry I don't have pics of these, you'll just to have to believe me.

On the whole, Beijing with it's TV, tries to emulate the US with its new found 'freedom'. The intro to the tennis opening, noticeably showed only white sports players, and indeed most of the participants were white (Polish etc ) but there were Chinese players - so why no Chinese players on the opening program intro?

Winner: Modernisation or westernisation?

My thoughts during my second week were mixed. On one hand it's clear that people are happier, but at the same time whilst the younger generation are on the way to and from work, the more affluent older generation are just grateful for what the government has done.

 Millionaire hutong owners

For most however, from the street peddlers selling bracelets, hats, and all kinds of trinkets just to make a living, to the taxi driver who took me from the railway station to the hotel who I just sensed had a pretty tough life... I can't help but feel a sense of emotional disparity. Its feint, but its noticeable. Like I said before, It's a great place, but being culturally sensitive to my fellow Chinese, I feel that only those who can afford to stay, stay in Beijing and those who cannot, despite having residence here are forced to become homeless or struggle to maintain their new standard of living.

Historically China's whiteworshipping can be seen as a case of Chicken or Egg. Sun Yat Sen fought for modernisation but now CCP seems desperate to westernise, but in reality whatever cultural offering they have from 'investing in innovation' to ' making museums free' to 'building another cultural centre' ends up in mass disinterest. Bit watching like a senior citizen learn how to breakdance. You know he wants to show you he can, but he's 50 years too late and its painful to watch.

Bottom line: unless the people have real freedom and not the illusion of freedom, culture will continue to embarrass.

I have heard some things about Shanghai, which I havent visited yet, so I will reserve judgement for when I visit, but in comparing Beijing and Guangzhou, I'd say Beijing is more apparent in it's whiteworshipping maybe because it's much younger in it's adoption of modernisation.

 

Despite demonisation by the west, we BBC'ers are still lucky to still have such a great motherland, which is more than I can say for the other countries that have been pillaged by Imperialists.

But regardless of modernisation, as a BBC and a  Chinese ethnic 'minority' in the west,  I'm grateful for having a homeland that is thriving and growing. Just a shame that when I arrived back home I got withdrawal symptoms for at least a week and a half . But that's the way it is. Can't wait til my next trip out there again.

Wonderland Chinese Tiger Mothers

Wonderland - British Tiger Mother's BBC 2 9pm Thursday 5th January 2012,

In terms of academic achievement, British Chinese children are the most successful ethnic group in this country, and behind each success story you will usually find a formidable Tiger Mother. Play by her rule book, and you get hours of homework and music practice, strict discipline, and not too much time for play. But you are also more likely to get A grades.

Is this the way forward? What is life like in such households? In Hannah Berryman's film, we meet three British-based Chinese mothers doing their best to make sure their children do not pick up the slack habits of their Western counterparts. Do these children lose out in other ways, or are the Tiger Mothers right in simply expecting more from their children?

To quote Sally, mother of six-year-old Matthew: 'He only does about three hours homework a night - plenty of time to play!'

Amy Chua’s list of rules.
No grade lower than an A; nothing less than top of the class for any subject except gym and drama; no television; no computer games; no sleepovers; no play dates; no parts in school plays; no complaints about not being in school plays; no musical instrument except piano or violin; no choice of extra-curricular activities.

Watch on BBC Iplayer here: BBC Wonderland Series 4 Meet Britains Chinese Tiger Mums

Once You Go Black You Can't Go Back

Chinese parents have traditionally held  firm on the subject of marrying Blacks...“ng mau ka hakkgwai” is repetitively indoctrinated into our psyche, so much so that statistically interracial Chinese Black marriages remain an oddity (read this article Black Chinese inter racial marriage statistics). 

However, jungle fever does exist. I once knew a FOB Chinese female that worked for an offshore firm in the Caribbean, there she frolicked with local Black natives, but did not marry them. Another was a British Born Chinese female that grew up in London in a urban Black multi ethnic area, she gave birth to a Blasian child, but has remained unmarried, fulfilling the stereotype 'once you go black you become a single mom.'

Further examples can be found in the British Born Chinese Facebook group - this group epitomises the state of modern twenty something BBC's.

 

The above unnamed BBC female has (if one is not mistaken) a Colombian boyfriend. How can one tell She's partial to inter racial dating, especially men of color (i.e Blacks)? Well, the profile's content is a dead give-away. Firstly her 'swag,' heavy tanning (she's almost the same color as her boyfriend) either through excessive globe trotting or sunbathing on beaches/sunbeds probably in the Balearic's – copycat western culture. Secondly, cultural tastes. RnB, Alexandra  Burke, Rihanna, Beyonce, JLS, Cheryl Cole (married to Black footballer Ashley Cole), these are typical examples of urban ‘Black’ culture. She has bought into it.

She supports the British Legion - Maximum respect to the British armed forces! This is British multiculturalist indoctrination in action, She is proud to be British, but her social circle provides the biggest clue, her friends list contain a plethora of Blacks and other non-Chinese. BBC diaspora exhibit a tendency to deliberately display photos of themselves with their arms around/hugging their friends that are Brown, Black, White etc as if to prove they're one of them...and say 'yeah, I wannabe and can be just  like you.'

Now, look at two further social network profiles, one from Facebook and one from Tumblr, these are 'very' Black profiles...they must belong to Black's right?

Wrong, both profiles belong to British Born Chinese 'chigger' females, the first one lists three African American's as her philosophical role models. The second girl lists almost all Black Blasian Urban RnB Rap artists and pin up models as her musical tastes and role models. 

So why is this relevant? 

I was recently introduced to a BBC female, a very pretty girl, but unfortunately she exhibited these exact traits of a White and/or Black-washed multi-culturalist BBC, i.e heavy dark tanning, multi-ethnic friends of every ethnicity, her role models are Kim Kardashian, Beyonce etc, her music tastes are RnB, she vacates to the Balearics, she goes out drinking a lot with her non-Chinese friends etc, plus two other traits not visible to a Facebook profile...the accent, she had a strong regional urban accent and a stinky attitude, similar to a ghetto attitude. There is no doubt, this is the type of Chinese female most likely to be partial to dating ‘urban’ guys (i.e Blacks etc), the very thought of her with a Black guy was enough to turn me away for life. Its not so much  a case of ‘once you go black you can’t go back’...but 'if you go black...no Chinese man will want you, therefore you can't go back.'  (BBCZeitgeist)