Fear and Loathing in China
It's amazing how things can shift from sublime to concerning in a matter of hours. Saturday afternoon marked a curious shift in my mindset when it comes to personal safety here in this country.
A friend who has lived here for years suggested to me at one point that I should actually register with the Canadian embassy. He is a Chinese-Canadian and was living here in 1989, and says the registration was very handy at that point, because the embassy was able to transmit information about where and when it was safe to walk around the streets, given what was happening. (One has to remember that the protests that summer were not isolated to Tian'anmen Square) I never gave much thought to registration for a number of reasons, not the least of which being the gigantic headache that dealing with the bureaucracy would cause, but mainly because it seemed a bit melodramatic, given that I've never really had any inkling of concern for my own safety in this country. However, this weekend did make me take stock of the realities of the situation foreigners face in this country.
We are guests in this country. Though we may have residence and can live and work legally, we are foreigners. Unlike other countries in North America or Europe, where you can hold dual citizenship, China is - for lack of a better term - for Chinese. If one wants to obtain a Chinese passport, one has to either be born in this country or give up your own citizenship in your country of origin. As such, it gives China a somewhat homogeneous distinction and creates a natural divide between the Chinese and laowai. And so when my friend received a troubling SMS on Saturday, one couldn't help but be a bit concerned.
The SMS my friend - a French-Canadian - received was a warning that an angry protest was taking place outside a French-language school in Sanlitun, and that he should stay away from the area because the demonstrators were chanting 'kill foreigners.' My friend, being a professional photographer, couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what was happening and hustled down to the area. Upon arrival, he got back in touch with another friend to relay that there was little in the way of protest left. But still, the dye had been cast. The information was in the wind that an anti-foreigner protest, with violent underpinnings, had taken place. It wasn't long afterward that another friend of mine, who has been in this country about as long as I have, asked me, in all honesty, if I thought this anti-foreigner mentality was going to spread. And the only response I could think of was, 'ya.'
Right now, for reasons that still sort of boggle my mind, Chinese anger is being focused on the French. Sure, the images of the protester trying to grab the torch out of a disabled Chinese girl's hands in Paris are disturbing and can easily generate anger, even among non-Han Chinese (I am amongst those who was appalled by that). But to blame an entire ethnicity and nation, the French and France, for the actions of one man or group doesn't make much sense in my mind. But it sort of typifies what has been brewing here in China for the last month or so. And, in some respects, I can understand it. For more than 150 years, foreigners have been screwing with China. From the Opium Wars to the Japanese invasion to the Cold War, foreigners have been poking China with a stick, trying to either dominate, subjugate or dictate to its people. So when the latest finger, AKA: the torch protests, gets stuck in China's eye, it's bound to conjure up anger. But what I fear is happening is a transmutation from understandable 'patriotism' to blind rage aimed at anything that even smacks of the perception of anti-China.
I'm not French. I'm Canadian. But, at the best of times, the Chinese have difficulty distinguishing one 'Western' nationality from another. As such, while the French may be the target, I fear anyone who might be deemed by an angry Chinese population as French, could become a target for frustration ventilation. 
Do I envision being whisked out of the capital al-la Saigon, 1975? No. However, part of me is now wondering if heeding my friends advice about registration isn't such as bad idea after all. And if I'm thinking like this, I have to wonder just how many other people around the world are pondering the same thing, particularly when it comes to possibly travelling here for the Olympics.
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Hi Paul
I'd recommending registering with the Canadian government whenever you move aboard, beside news updates and evacuation assistance, you can get notification about Canadian cultural events --which unless you're a member of the Canadian chamber of commerce/business council in the country where you're living, you're unlikely to hear about them. The cultural events are great for killing home sickness.
J.
@John Guise:
Thanks for the advice. I actually do get a lot of that sort of information through the Chinese-Canadian friend I mentioned in the post. Any opportunity to drink Canadian beer, you know...
What you wrote is really dumb and insulting. If you're so afraid to being here, then tell your fellow westners to stop poking their fingers at China. The conventional wisdom is that China is still not yet ready to grab those fingers and snap them. But soon enough, we will, only this time, we'll be doing that at your countries.
Unlike the Japs in the 80s, we'll retaliate.
@ MFK
I'll tell you what is really dumb, and sick: These protesters targeting a SCHOOL! Sure, go throw your stones of ignorance at the embassy windows, but please leave the kids out of it.
And, though I cannot say for certain, I'm pretty sure that 100 percent of the kids in this "French" school are not cheese-eating DL-supporting surrender monkeys. I'd say there are a fair few offspring of local corrupted officials/business heads in there too. You'll be in trouble if you hit one of those!
MFK, that's very mature of you. What do you think is going to happen to all the millions of Chinese living abroad when you are going to "snap those fingers"?
@ Paul,
You mention in the post that "kill foreigners" chant... I'm wondering if you could point me to any evidence that it was screamed? I've seen reports like this in a few other blogs, but I'm going to give the protesters the benefit of the doubt... until this is otherwise proven.
@Balboa:
I can't provide you with any more information one way or the other on that. I don't know for sure if they really were chanting 'kill foreigners' or not. The only information I recieved about this was annocdotal through my French-Canadian friend. Trust me, I wish I would have had first-hand information. But, even by looking at at the vitriol that's being fired around on this, and other websites, one can safely presume that the whole 'kill foreigners' thing isn't out of the realm of possibilties.
@Paul,
Maybe not outside the realm of possibilities - but I think its a fairly distant one. Sure, many were probably thinking it, but saying it out loud, or chanting it en masse (pun unintended), seems a bit far fetched to me.
But if things do go that far, and I share your opinion that they might, then I will pack my bags in disgust.
Balboa,
From what I have read, they were not targeting the school. They were targeting the French embassy in Sanlitun, but were stopped by the police. I haven't read any report about any French school.
XniteMan,
Practically every report I've read does mention the school. All cite Xinhua as the source.
Paste this into Google:
xinhua french school protest
The French media also picked up the school protest as well, but mentioned nothing along the "kill foreigners" line. I have a very quick and limited round-up of coverage in Libé, Monde and Figaro here:
http://tiny.cc/CZyCS
This is China, not Iran.
Citizenship in China is particularly troublesome for expats of Chinese descend. The Chinese government can claimed that you are Chinese just because of your ancestry, and deny you have any other citizenship, and all consulate service you may expect from your own country.
Citizenship in China is particularly troublesome for expats of Chinese descend. The Chinese government can claimed that you are Chinese just because of your ancestry, and deny you have any other citizenship, and all consulate service you may expect from your own country.
"But soon enough, we will, only this time, we'll be doing that at your countries.
Unlike the Japs in the 80s, we'll retaliate."
Good reason to get out of the way of a run away train.
"And, in some respects, I can understand it. For more than 150 years, foreigners have been screwing with China."
Well, China is a nation with an over inflated ego. They were not able to understand how nasty,greedy and technologically advanced some red hair barbarians were. That's the main reason why they go screwed by Westerners and by Japan.
PS : registering at your Embassy can be interesting. You may be invited to parties (eg. all you can eat) eheh
I'm sorry to hear demonstrators were chanting 'kill foreigners.' but i could assure you that it's just a few irrational Chinese's voice and wish you wouldn't get paranoid.
I wish you could acknowledge that the widespread anger in China isn't triggered by a single event.
It started with the Anti-Chinese movement. I'm a Chinese student studying in England, I was in London during Olympic torch relay and experience the hostile attitude from the westerners. Although there were many more pro-China protesters than the Tibet independence protesters, the reports came out completely differently by the western media. The next day, many Chinese students in Paris were beaten up by French youth and again, it was never a spot for the western media's interest. Don't say what happened one month ago, a Chinese student was killed by several French in Paris and his body was left on the street for 3 hours while the police just standing aside doing nothing. I still feel angry when thinking about it. In the French eyes, Chinese people certainly don't need human right but couldn't they at least show some respect to a dead victim?
Boycotting Carrefour is stupid, as Carrefour source local Chinese suppliers and hire Chinese employees and provide an essential service.
On the other hand, the so-called Foreign "Journalists" produce little of economic value. Their reporting can not even be consumed locally. What impact will it have on China if "Foreign Journalist" were suddenly all to quietly disappear from streets of Chinese cities? Less biased report to reach the Western audience?
I will leave Chinese patriotic youth to draw their own conclusions.
These are the same type of small events leading up to the Boxer Rebellion. I've been saying that this is coming for years and the time has come. China's ultra thin skin and ultra large ego are a bad combination.
SHA SHA SHA!
Calm down, Kebab boy. I said "quietly". Perhaps I should've said "one by one"
China would be a shit-hole if it weren't for the West ... oh wait, it still is (and always will be)
"It's just a few irrational Chinese's voice and wish you wouldn't get paranoid."
Please replace "Chinese" with westerners and take your own advice.
@summer
"a Chinese student was killed by several French in Paris and his body was left on the street for 3 hours while the police just standing aside doing nothing."
that's quite an accusation - any evidence?
@balboa
i believe the "kill the foreigners" chant. after they lost the asian cup in 2004 they surrounded the japanese bus with one group shouting "kill the japanese"
http://tinyurl.com/6mxtcr
people need to wake up to chinese racism and xenophobia
I was in China in 1999 when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Serbia. We were in the middle of the countryside at the time and we woke up to villagers telling us "American and China are at war!" The Chinese media didn't report the American explanation for the "accidental" bombing for 3-4 days.
Back in the city, my current girlfriend had rocks throw at her by construction workers as she walked to school. In general, people became very ugly to us, even when we lied and said we were Canadian instead of American. As one guy who was angrily fixing my bike on day said, "Canada is still a part of NATO." My bike broke again a couple blocks down the street. Might just be a coincidence, but I still remember it.
Violence is certainly possible, if unlikely. Harassment and disparaging comments wouldn't suprise me, but, then again, a fair bit of that happens to foreigners in China anyway, since people frequently assume you can't speak Chinese and say all sorts of things right in front of you.
Be safe. Don't give into paranoia, but don't be nonchalant about things either.
China would be a shit-hole if it weren't for the West ... oh wait, it still is (and always will be)
Actually the West would be a shithole without China giving it gunpowder and saving it from the Mongols. But instead of a shithole, it's now a genocidal, imperialist, thieving, lying shithole.
@Jonathan Walton,
I too used the Canadian ruse in 1999 as things were pretty scary here in Beijing!, but am surprised your rural bike repairer knew that Canada was part of NATO. Most college graduates here in Beijing had no clue what NATO is, or that the Serbian war was NATO as opposed to Ugly American.
I hate us vs them scenario's but as a blue eyed dabizi, I will be laying low this summer especially if the pride of China just happens to not win every single gold medal and proves the superiority of the Chinese (sorry Han) race as they are expected to.
Interesting times
The situation described in Beijing, above, and by Shanghaiist, seem remarkably similar to the events of 1999, when the U.S. bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. I have very clear memories from that time of some of my American colleagues huddled over their email and phones, whispering to their loved ones back in the U.S. that their lives were in danger, and if they didn't make it back alive, they wanted to pass on their last words and desires.
Needless to say, this was just a tad over-dramatic - shades of Hillary Clinton dodging bullets at the airport (also in the former Yugoslavia, no?). But these stories do serve as a reminder of the lure - for at least some expats - of lingering in the romantic (and colonialist) belief that they're living in the heart of a primitive darkness, surrounded by irrational natives who may erupt at any minute.
Of course, people (American expats - like me - included) can dwell in whatever fantasies turn them on. But I wonder if these fantasies obscure some others kinds of questions that don't seem to be asked often. Like why, on the whole, is life in China still so very safe for foreigners? In spite of all the China bashing that goes on the U.S. (well before the March incident in Tibet), and the profound depths of American misunderstanding of Chinese sensibilities on national sovereignty - why do Chinese generally still welcome foreigners? In spite of America's extremely unpopular war with Iraq, why aren't there more anti-American incidents, as there have been in other countries around the world? How is it that in spites of the massive misunderstandings between our two countries, life in China is still possible for Americans (and life in the U.S. possible for so many Chinese?)
Just wondering aloud...