Stereotype 15 : Western stereotypes of China

Western stereotypes of China

Do Westerners think that all Chinese people can eat spicy food? How can there be a stereotype that all Chinese people can eat spicy food when there are more than a billion of them in China, and each family may have different tastes? I don't blame him, because due to the influence of online media, we always unconsciously show our stereotypes in our daily language. This is also the paradox of human brain cognition, to know the world by labeling, but limited by the label. Therefore, it is recommended that all people do not say "you x x people x x".

The West has not stereotyped the East since ancient times; on the contrary, they used to yearn for the Eastern world with unbridled fascination. From what moment and for what reason did they start to stereotype the East ...... In this stereotype, not only the Chinese, but all Asians are spared. 

The Other East in Oil Paintings: Someone Was Once So Fascinated by This Skin of Mine" is about some Western oil paintings from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, in which there used to be many mixed images of Western women in Chinese dress, full of curiosity and conjecture about the mysterious East in the Western world at that time. However, at a slightly earlier time, or even a period that overlapped with this time, there was another image of the Chinese in the Western world, as in Figures 15-1 and 15-2, that was dirty, ugly, obscene and lowly. And there is a striking similarity between this image and the video representation in the recent hotly debated events.

(15-1) An advertising flyer during the plague in Rice, with the image of a Chinese preparing to eat a mouse

 (15-2) A Chinese eating a mouse with chopsticks on a Thanksgiving Day painting in 1877

(15-3) Screenshot of a brand advertisement video

You will notice that after more than a hundred years, as in Figure 15-3, the image of Chinese is still a squinty-eyed person using two sticks to eat. This issue is viewed in neutral colors and belongs to a stereotype. Stereotypes are narrow, but not necessarily discriminatory. For example, we may think that French people are elegant and romantic, while Africans are foolish and lazy, the former may sound pleasant to French people, while the latter sounds harsh to African people.

On top of that, there are eating habits that are very different from those of the West. Whether or not chopsticks are used properly, and whether or not they have a long history, is of little relevance to stereotypes or discrimination. There are many foreigners who clumsily use chopsticks the wrong way and no one would actively associate them with discrimination. What triggers more discrimination in the Western world are some eating habits. In the early days, the Chinese workers who went to the Western world were from the lower class, and most of them suffered from harsh exploitation and very poor living conditions, so the Western world's impression of the Chinese at that time was that they ate everything, including eating rats, which appeared in the previous pictures. The phrase "we dare to eat anything", which we ourselves tease the Cantonese, is actually discriminatory under some interpretations, not only eating rats, but also eating dog meat and many other ingredients that are not in the Western recipes.

Once there are differences between lifestyles, comparisons are inevitable, and because of recent history, it is very easy for the Western world to feel that their way is the superior one. Of course each of these differences would be highly debatable if they were to enter into an in-depth discussion, but they are beyond the scope of this paper. But much earlier, China was not portrayed in the Western world as such, but as a more mysterious and luxurious ancient Eastern country. This positive and imaginative image remained for a long time, until the Western world began to rise and Westerners who came to China passed back newer and more detailed descriptions. The image of China began to crumble, becoming a pagan world in desperate need of rescue. The weakening of the country at that time brought not only a collapse of the image, but also a decline in the living conditions of the lower classes. The Western world was in the midst of an abolitionist movement, so young adults from China filled the void of exploitation, and history turned to the bloody page in the textbooks where Chinese workers were "sold as piglets". The precarious Chinese Empire was obviously unable to do anything about this situation, let alone protect the rights of Chinese workers.

A large number of the Chinese exported were young and middle-aged people from the lower classes, and a very small number of women in special occupations. When these people arrived in the Western world, their already poor living conditions were further oppressed, and there was a concentration of pornography, gambling, and drugs, thus presenting an even worse image of China.

(15-4) Chinese workers in California in the 19th century

If these pulled down the image of China, then due to the arrival of Chinese workers, the employment space of local workers was squeezed due to the low price, as shown in Figures 15-5 and 15-6, which all directly turned discrimination into hatred. Rice, for example, has produced a series of far-reaching discriminatory laws against Chinese.

(15-5)

 (15-6) Anti-Chinese worker propaganda posters of the time

These discriminatory laws against Chinese in Rice were only passed by Congress in 2012 with a resolution to apologize, but without any compensation. It is easy to see from here that the shadow of discrimination against Chinese has not been dispersed, and probably in the eyes of many people, we have just changed from being "piglets" to pigs who can pay.

The Western stereotype of China, along with discrimination, has always existed. It's like sexual harassment, where the perpetrator finds it normal or funny, but the victim finds it offensive or even disgusting. What always leads to arguments is whether we should start from the motive or from the feeling.

Reference.

Zeng Xianghong,Li Linlin,Stigma and Stigmatization in International Relations[J],International Political Science,2020,5(03)