Discussion A huge problem with modern day CN novels

I am not denying any of this either, I also know that no sane person would march up to the author to lodge a complaint, that'd be insane. I'm just giving a different opinion on the matter. By the way, it's not called freedom of speech. Most people actually make this mistake, but Freedom of Speech (specifically the American constitution) is the prevention of the Government from censoring speech - the government specifically. Private companies or even forums like this can censor your speech and it would be legal.

 

Most of those stories tend to put me off before it ever get to the racist stuff, since while the stereotypes used are usually likely due to ignorance and lack of research on the part of the author, the underlying story elements that make them over the top and ridiculous are often things that are already present in the rest of the story, with rapists, murderers and thugs everywhere as if the story is literally fueled by edgyness.

 

CN stories is fun, but we are not the target audience.

 

Racism is but a matter of perspective and how sensitive you are. I can read about race A raping race B and make a slave out of race C with everyone being OK with it as long as it doesn't contradict the plot or add any unnecessary self-justification bs.

Stop being so sensitive and just enjoy the ride. Don't like it? Drop it.

 

I believe we call that silent approval

 

I mean, I did say that there was racism in western novels (since people keep trying to use western racism as some kind of "Gotcha!"), but that the topic at hand is specifically "racism in Chinese novels" because that's what OP opened with.

And none of your examples are technically novels, but... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ehhh, I'm not the best person to ask whether you're a worse person for that. There's different thresholds for dark humor, and it's not like I have a definite answer for you lol

Maybe it's in poor taste—and it doesn't tickle my funny bone, per se—but like most dark humor is kind of Terrible.

 

Like that one game that was banned in China because it depicted China as a military superpower despite the fact that in said game the Chinese were the good guys. Fighting against terrorist trying to destroy the nation.

 

Well, those are authors who've never traveled to Europe or Northern America. I've read authors who have been to some Western countries and you can really notice it in their writing. You can't blame the other authors though, they've grown up being brainwashed all their lives. Much like people believing every country in Africa is starving and everyone lives in huts, or being warned of the water and thieves in any poor country. You get some true and some false preconceptions of countries if you've never visited them. The Chinese takes it a bit extreme though, but I won't say why or how since this will turn political quick. When I see this bias seeping into a novel, I get where it's coming from, so it doesn't bother me as much, I suppose.

As for Germany... One of the towns I've lived in was a university town. I'd been approached twice by men who wanted to invite me in the local porn industry. It happened to almost any foreign female student there, pretty or ugly didn't matter. The less German they spoke, the better. But even they, the men weren't aggressive about it - just like any job on commission. They would ask very nicely if they could ask you something, then they'd say they could arrange for you to meat with lots of men, etc. I stopped them speaking right there and then, but I've heard from other girls who were a bit more naive and listened to them till the end. Let's just say, lots of porn gets produced in this town. In the other university town I went to, the police were always on the lookout for black and brown men selling drugs in the parks. Funny thing is, there was a white German living in my student WG who sold drugs. He never got randomly stopped and searched tho, wonder why. Still, I was never once approached by anyone wanting to sell me drugs lol. You had to find them yourself. For an author who's never been there or had any dealings with the shady society, it's very possible to over-exaggerate things. Not gonna talk about the shady stuff in China, but in my opinion, it tends to be even more hardcore and covered up.

 

That sounds vaguely familiar. i may have read that novel or a novel with something like that (probably dropped it for being shit though. cant even remember it XD)

Your example is flawed. Tintin was first published in 1929 where travel, even between european countries, wasnt exactly easy when you consider all the stuff that happened from that point onward, including the start of the Great Depression and a world war followed by the cold war. It was also influenced by the cultural climate of the times.

I seriously can't tell if this is top-class sarcasm or you're being absolutely serious.

I partly agree with this. If you're going to have real villains, then they've gotta do real villainous stuff. If it's actually well-written, then most sensible people wont needlessly read into the race, colour or nationality of the villains (unless your villains are Nazis or something). That said, Chinese novels are rarely well-written and either as a result of ignorance or nationalism and 'China is the best, all others are scum/idiots/insert insult here' attitudes, when there is racism it's so horribly written that it's hard not to either poke fun or criticize it.

C&C Generals. Yeah, that was a strange case. CCP was offended that 'landmarks' were damaged or destroyed despite that the chinese got a good rap overall in the game.

 

Being Nazis is the easiest way to tell your readers that "You see this guy? Yeah, him. Look at him, that's a real, 100%, authentic villain and you should hate him." ( Unless you are like me who wanted to watch the world burn. Also, Nazis outfits are badass af. )

Also, you should probably avoid novels that had a modern RL setting and read the fantasy one. There should be almost none of the nationalism and racism.

 

Yeah. Nazis (or obviously Nazi expys) are a simple way to deal with actual villains.

Even with fantasy, CN can be prone to racism. just look at Otherworldly Evil Monarch >.>

 

I would like to ask the Mod team why the trolling and insulting posts by Asdq are still here. They violate the forum rules left, right and centre.

 

Just report it and move on, no need to snipe the man.

 

I did. Several days ago.

 

LOL. I think a lot of users here are misinterpretating the OP's post. OP was saying that foreigners aka western people in modern CN don't act like westerners but acted more like a typical Chinese villain instead. For example, why would a Western gang use words like 'Black Dynasty' as their gang name?

If those foreigners bad guys are acting like a typical Chinese villain, why didn't just change the character to Chinese? That way, it will look more logical. I think that's what the OP is suggesting.

 

I think that would be worse considering that they go into a foreign country. Chinese people wouldn't probably control all of the underground business across the world, would they?

 

Probably not, but the story villains would be more believable, then stamping them with the typical China villain overlapping on foreigners.

 

These stories aren't meant to be believable. They venture into foreign countries to add a spice of the exotic, and the writers don't bother to do the kind of research to do it justice. This kind of writing shows up everywhere (and China itself is often the subject); it may be more common in Chinese novels because China itself has less exposure to the outside world than developed countries do.

Having said that, there are a ton of Chinese writers who do put in the effort and can end up doing a great job. The reason being that historical stories are hugely popular in China, so authors both have the interest and inclination to go the extra mile. I just read a book with over a thousand characters, and only two of these have any connection to China. Not only did the author portray things well, he did a better job with this subject than any English-language author I've come across.

 

TBH, I don't think a western gang calling themselves "Black Dynasty" is unrealistic, considering there's a western/American hip hop group called Wu Tang Clan.