Discussion Chinese novel and racism

naah i know my review will change nothing

 

Because they are translation. The are officially published in China. They care about their 'pride' more. So its normal for them.

 

Naah.
Power of the majority.
Vote with your wallet
Power to the people

 

Well the east asian countries are pretty homogeneous and nationalistic. And historically China, Japan, and Korea have had issues. China doesn't like Japan cause Japan invaded China, and since China ruled over Korea for a long time Chinese people feel superior? Not sure but there are some reasons.

Personally I think it's terrible. Just don't read CNs like that.

 

Unfortunately, casual racism is everywhere in Asia. I blame government brainwashing.

 

Honestly, Ive been ignoring it slightly but I've found only a few Chinese novels that lack racism and aren't xenophobic. I can understand everyone speaking Mandarin in a fantasy world (the target audience is Chinese after all) , but what I don't understand is why ever Japanese/Korean person becomes retarded in modern Chinese novels. The (extremely) strong nationalistic elements are also somewhat annoying, MC becomes god/goddess/overpowered but for some reason the Chinese government is always favored and every other Asian country gets taken over or belittled.

This isn't to say Korean/Japanese novels are lacking in this, however. Mostly with Korean novels, I find that the racism (towards Chinese especially) is present in many novels. It is either a hidden disdain like where they make fun of its overpopulation and lack of technology or they make China want to take everything over. I don't evem know if what they portray CAN be considered racism though, since China has a small (read: massive) desire to impeach on the sovereignty of other Nations in the real world.

I think the fault lies with the communist party and the "training" every youth went through in recent times in China. China is not as free a country in matters of opinion after all.

 

It's just that authors are strongly driven by their origins that it influences their writings. East Asians are generally proud of their culture. And that's good. But somehow, like rare cases in the world, we would encounter extreme writers who promote too much of their side by disdaining others~... I fell in love with Oriental culture because it really is rich but we are smart enough to steer clear of those bullshit writers. Just move on to the next novel, authors here are generally great at inclusive writing

 

I can ignore the inter-Asian racism dynamics (heck, Japan & Korea are having a trade war right now & it's gotten so bad in Korea that Japanese brands have taken a pretty big hit in sales) in novels. Heck, even my mom hated the Japanese over WWII stuff (but she's a hypocrite so she still likes Japanese stuff & Japanese brands).

It's the racism against black people that I can't stand though. And it seems to be coming exclusively from Chinese novels.

They have like barely any history beef with Africa & if it was beef against their skin color, India has been China's neighbor for millenia & they're almost as "dark".
And it's not just a xenophobia thing - they're prescribing exclusively to a Western-style racism towards black people. ("Oh they're all violent thugs, they look like gorillas, etc.").

The BL story "Don't Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trashcan" has a Chinese-Canadian anti-black character who can probably explain the mindsets of those types of authors though......

Spoiler: warning for (censored) slurs

Zhou Kai slammed his hand on the table and started cursing in anger, “Each and every one of those n*****s are always acting like everybody owes them something! It’s not like I’m white, I’ve never killed their ancestors, I’ve never did them any wrong. Who’s it hurting if I talk a little about not liking them in private?”

So it might be an entitlement/superiority issue.

 

I dislike racism on these novels because it fully show the mindset of the author not towards his work but people irl, you clearly see what he thinks of people in this world too, i did saw some of this thing on korean and japanese novels but nowhere near extreme as CN ones, korean is still bad to me, if anything japanese were more often than not really chill when it come to other countries they might show some nationalism here and there and there is also those character from the country being the best but you still see that at least they dont really are targeting someone or a country with their mindset in the work, it makes me remember some sport animes it was rather cool seeing interaction from other countries with japan ones and you also saw that there was both good people and bad people just like in any other on them

 

The irony is - more often than not they depict they own counry as horribly corrupt place, with rich families, big CEOs and "young masters" trampling everyone else for slightest disagreement, beating, killing, maiming and raping for fun, with police not doing shit, with everyone whose are less rich and powerful (exept MC ofc) just shamelessly sucking up to them.

Yeah, such things happens everywhere from time to time. But then author's exagerrate those tremendously for the sake of some cliche plot progression.... and slander they own country in the process. Such a weird nationalism.

 

Actually, i dont think that's probably too far off reality actually. The Li Gang incident comes immediately to mind.

 

As i mentioned, similar things can happen anywhere, world is far from ideal. But excesiveness elevates situation from "sh#t happens" to "live is hell, everyone is scum". Many novel authors just can't hold themselves in this regard.

And yours life example only proves my point. It's about abusing power, true, but look at the real results - guy was strongly dissed and ostracized by public, him and his family were forced to publicly apologise, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison and ordered to pay to the victims.
It could've worked better for him in some little misdeeds kept low-key, but you can't become too arrogant and insolent. And absolute arrogance is the second name of novel vilains.

 

Racist or not if it's enjoyable then it can be enjoyed.
It's entertainment after all, I wouldn't judge how racist the author are...
I will drop it if I don't like it and I try to keep it simple like that.

 

Seriously, this topic should be brought back to life xd

So I totally agree with the fact that racism is shown in major Chinese novels, I do know a case about a translation group that has dropped their prior project because of brainwashed backstory about an Asian country in the novel.

This is only my personal opinion | stereotype racism warned! |

We do feel bad and hateful for extreme racist Chinese novels because they show, sadly, truthfully the authors' POV in real life. Some of them are really good, it's just that we have to bear with those irritated lines of discrimination.
I guess everyone is aware that China is still a communist country so haha the population's any kinds of liberty are limited. I literally did meet a Chinese woman who has told me that Taiwan belongs to China. When my friends tried to explain that it wasn't the case for everyone here, she was very shocked. It was in 2016.
As they are trapped in their country, there are no light for them, honestly. They saw all the advanced technologies in their mother-country, they feel proud about it, it's just that their reaction are too extreme compared to the Europeans. (#thankyoueducationandoverreactedasianteens)
Just stop complaining the fact that they are too nationalism, most of them had no choice. It's the old conservative generations' fault.
Another user has mentioned this fact in this thread, "we, the younger generations wouldn't understand the messed up situation during wars" and another who put on this remark: "Maybe if you all stopped reading and paying for such novels. Spam with negative reviews criticizing the company will change." That is all fair and doable, just do it.

Second example, the anti-black does heavily exist in Asia compared to U.E simply because Asian people favor white skin and soft long hair, speaking with low voice. This model has lasted in their culture for centuries, even though they can still appreciate African culture, they can't just suddenly like another type of beauty which is a very visible contradiction of their def of beauty.

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Now everyone are all saying that Chinese novels are the most racist genre compared to Korean's and Japanese's.
I totally agreed that Korean novels of these days do slightly (mostly non-existent) show racism, which is nice. That is pretty understandable since, you all know, the K-Pop culture has developed into an international level, and became more tolerated to new things.
But heyyyyy Japanese folks, here is the sad truth. Japanese novels' racism presence can reach to the invisible level, but people aren't novels haha. They don't show it out doesn't mean they don't think about it, it's just simply that they find this act to be worthless and undignified. If you can find any black MC in a well-written Japanese novel, then this will prove me wrong. Because what I'm saying is that, once they are anti-black, their racism level is no different from a Chinese's. Oh and they are obviously anti-America as well, don't be sad, they are still respectful towards your country, blame the war.

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And now is Asian racism time!
Woohoo, you are all complaining that most of Asian countries are nationalism, thus this could possibly be equivalent of being conservative and racist. Haha, there is no smoke without fire.
When a nice Asian is outside of their country (the one who respects everyone, not your racist), having holidays in Europe, I guess people's courtesy has reduced to no-need level. I have an Asian friend and whether we would go in a café or a shop, haha, I'd always be the one to feel awkward and drag my buddy out. But well "every country 's bad people" always outnumbers so it can't be help.
Outside of their country, Asians are the most detestable population whether they are well-educated or not, because they are known for not playing fair and that is haha human worst flaw.

 

Well for me most of JP novel i read is isekai genre so i don't meet any of racism in it, even when they're proud of their food, it;s not like others' food is bad, like in shokugeki no souma in this case, the french, italian, indian, chinese food is included in a very good way.

CN novels i read is about the fighting, cultivation, and the technology one like i have a mansion in post-apocalypse, and monster factory, and from my experience if the world setting is in our world there's always some nationalism there, the very bad one i once read is rebirth in perfect era when the MC go to US, he made a social media app and games and it's very popular and no response from US goverment (as we know the goverment is wary of chinese app, like how people resist epic store right now),and MC made movie about JP invader in WW2 era, i feel so bad about it i dropped it there.

 

How dare you! XD

 

Actually it's a general mental attitude problem in China. Where shameless & arrogant behavior are considered virtues over there go figure. On note most of the other Chinese group not from China thankfully don't think like them. So please don't generalize all Chinese with the same brush.
Thank you..

 

Asians have no equivalent to white guilt and feel zero need to play nice with others. And China in particular has its government encourage extreme nationalism in a CHINA NUMBER 1 ALL DAY EVERY DAY GLORIOUS 5000 YEARS OF CULTURE way via its education system and media. Trying to be progressive and multicultural might even rub someone in the Party the wrong way and hurt your sesame score.

 

Reminded me of series Russian novels where author introduced characters of different colors... And several novels later the hero's party remembers that they have a <insert color> who is suited for infiltration.

 

China racism is only annoying because they make it seem as if they're the victim and everyone is bullying them so it's justified for them to blow up other countries and hate them. Amazingly, they still have a grudge with Japan but not Mao when Mao killed over 40 million Chinese. The brainwashing by the communist government has worked wonders honestly.