Chapter 9: Simplistic, Romanticized, and Eurocentric: The Narratives of Africa and Black History in a Chinese History Textbook

The recent rise in anti-Black racism in China has caught the attention of international media (Vincent, 2020; Marsh, 2021). In China, anti-Black racism is reflected in the ways in which Black people are represented in news reports, in social media, and in commercials (Jacques, 2009; Wang, 2021; Zheng & Bhargava, 2020). Phrases like “barbarian” and the “N-word” are common in describing Black people on Weibo, the most popular Chinese social media platform (The China Africa Project, 2021). Black people in China are targeted by the authorities and discriminated against by their local communities yet the Chinese government denies the existence of antiBlack racism (Marsh, 2021). Nevertheless, anti-Black racism has a long presence in the country. Traditional Chinese culture values light skin tone and associates it with beauty, high social status, and intellectuality. Darker skin tone, on the other hand, is associated with immorality, poverty, and manual labor (Sautman, 1994). In the 19th and 20th centuries, prominent Chinese scholars, influenced by Social Darwinism and anti-Black racism in the United States, portrayed Africans as the most inferior peoples (Dikötter, 1990; Dikötter, 1992). The use of “N-words” is another example of how anti-Black racism in the West has influenced racism in China and such portrayal has an enduring effect on the relationship between China and African countries (Sautman, 1994; Olander, 2020). For instance, some Chinese expats in Kenya were reported using racial slurs and implementing racial segregationist policies towards their Kenyan colleagues, which caused anti-Chinese sentiments in Kenya (Goldstein, 2018).