At first when I used to read about racism by/to CN characters in Urban novels it put me off and I used to just drop the novels, nowadays I don't care enough to make that my reason to drop it, either the book is interesting enough to read on, or it isn't. Still. Why is racism so low level in CN novels, it's always the same insult-- 'yellow-skinned monkey'-- that no western person has ever said in the existence of western people. Racism to Chinese people is real, those topics are real enough topics, they could come up with the real examples we all know but these authors are just so lazy they all want to use the useless 'yellow-skinned monkey' one. I don't mind the use of racism as a minor cause of conflict, go for it, but ffs what's with the laziness.
Most of these authors are Chinese, not Chinese American. Within China, the kinda racism they face is probably based on how dark their skin is, rather than the size of their eyes or whatever are the stereotypes targetted in the US.
Maybe coz its not racism towards the them but the Chinese racism to foreigners that's more widespread. That's just my assumption, anything that makes China look bad doesn't come out in the light anyways. Also I don't hate Chinese, I know peeps and they are good to deal business with. Well, Some of them.
I felt the same thing at first, but then i realized the words might not mean the same thing in china. IMO If the words were uttered by a character the author said was a a foreigner, then yes its racism, and its a classic word that is known far and wide, like the N word. Simply put, its a go to word. (I know that sounds aweful, but thats how it is. Let me explain more...) Like the N word, could describe the color black in other languages: If yellow is used in other context, it usualy mean something old and used, like how paper becomes yellowish after aging. Example: old yellow faced wife, meaning the old wife at home who isnt pretty anymore. (Also an insult) If monkey is used, sometimes it refers to someone thin/skinny or naughy child. So when those two words are used in the chinese language, its the least racist term that they are able to use to paint a racis scene without having to censor words because of even more aweful words that there are in the chinese vocabulary for racist terms, and get into trouble with their publishers.
I dunno. I remember reading cannon fodder god of cooking, and at some point there was a face-slapping event in a foreign hotel because somebody insulted chinese cuisine. She showed the dude how stupid he was by making a speciality of each chinese cuisine. It was an okay scene till in her counterargument she says that it's "western cuisine" that's bad. And that ruined it lol. I mean, ignorant foreigners saying their food is great and chinese food is too oily was still okay, the scene wasn't over the top, but then she, as a cook, says that western cuisine sucks and that broke the ridiculousness meter. I have no clue what western, or european, cuisine is supposed to be. It just showed how ignorant the author was.
You're asking a lot from a country where people get put in gulags if their social credit score gets low enough.
That probably depends on the level of novels you're reading? To find something more interesting amongst racist topics you will need to read novels with good world-building on international level + proper antagonistic gang that is actually relevant to the story. Such novels are pretty rare. And it's actually pretty hard to find something more advanced in this direction cause all the 'westerners' are busy arguing among themselves and aggressively promoting bullshit like vegetarianism, feminism, LGBT, BLM, etc. We don't have much will or energy to pick up on 'amazing nationalistic youths' of great China in such conditions. Author also will need to take into account heavy censorship so he can't actually criticize anything more or less relevant? And don't forget that chinese internet is mostly local and closed up, so it's even harder to find something on this topic for them.
I agree with the censorship thing. It can also be something like the word losing it's meaning in translation. Like, in my mother language, there's 4 variation the insult "Bītch". Translating them in English, they would be "Bītch", "son/child of a bītch", "dog", "son/child of a dog". Now, "dog" doesn't really sound like an insult in English but in my language, it's just as insulting as "bītch". So monkey might be a pretty bad insult in China.
Culture difference. What you think are racial slurs might not be racial slurs to Chinese people. Before I studied in the UK, I have never heard of racial slurs like Ching Chong, small eyes etc. In terms of yellow money thing, I might be wrong, but I think it refers to the racial slurs used by soldiers/foreigners when eight nations invaded China. Cultural insensitivity goes both ways. In general, when we encounter something offensive, don't rush to get angry, especially when reading books that are translated from other countries. Context always matter, and try to be more understanding of other people's culture.
Honestly that kind of overt display of racism is actually very common in media even in the states. It's easier displaying open racism for the sake of telling a story than to get into it's more subtle forms. It certainly takes a bit more effort to describe in a setting where the audience picks up on it. In reality it is rarely so open, and rather a display of quiet actions. But media isn't always the best place to expect realistic depictions. It's probably just not a point the author considers important enough to spend too much time on as it's not really the point of the story as a whole. If it was a major theme, it would probably be approached differently.
Chinese people are insular. They use decades/centuries old racial slurs because most of them haven't experienced the modern slurs and don't care enough to find out what they are.
Good for them if that's the case; I honestly can't imagine specifically going to search up other people's racial slurs for you just so you can feel immense anger and throw up blood lmao