China Local News
“Black Man Causing Trouble in Hefei” Incident Triggers Waves of Racist Remarks on Weibo
Photos of the arrest of a black man in Hefei triggered waves of racist remarks on Weibo this weekend.
On August 4, police in Hefei, Anhui, arrested a black man in the city for “causing trouble” and “picking quarrels.” The man reportedly injured another person on the street.
Photos of the incident made their rounds on Chinese social media on August 5. Hefei Headlines (@头条合肥) was one of the accounts sharing the news on Weibo with the headline “Black Man Causing Trouble in Hefei” (“黑人男子合肥寻衅滋事”).
The incident occurred around 4 pm on Fanhua Street, right before the Foreign Languages College. In the photos that are making their rounds on Weibo, the man can be seen running from the police, wearing nothing but underpants and sneakers.
It is not clear what triggered the incident and what the man exactly did, nor are there any reports on where the man comes from or whether he is a student at the college.
The photos triggered two types of responses on Weibo: on the one hand, there were those people who just praised the police for the work they are doing and risks they are taking, and on the other hand, there were large numbers of netizens who made racist remarks about the black man.
“Black monkey go back to Africa,” or “black trash” were typical comments amongst the thousands of reactions on Weibo.
“There are so many black devils in Guangzhou, and they bring AIDS with them, it’s disgusting,” one person said. Guangzhou has the largest black community in China.
Online racism against Africans has been an ongoing issue on Weibo ever since the platform was first launched in 2009. At the time, an essay about the racism against Chinese in Africa drew much attention. In 2013, Weibo was flooded by news of Chinese being killed in Ghana.
The existing idea that Chinese are looked down upon in Africa has allegedly worsened anti-African sentiments in China, although there are also those who already warned in 2013 that “the denigration and discrimination of black people [in Africa by the Chinese] is spreading like an epidemic.”
Throughout the years, multiple news stories concerning Africans have triggered waves of racist remarks.
In “From Campus Racism to Cyber Racism”1, scholar Cheng (2011) argues that anti-black racism in China has re-emerged with China’s deeper economic involvement in Africa, due to which large numbers of Chinese and Africans have come to work in each other’s countries.
Cheng writes that although there already were waves of racism against Africans in the early post-Mao era, it has resurfaced over the last decade with the rise of China as a global power. Given that there are still many regarding Africans as “racially inferior,” “these people think it is wrong for Africans to create social problems in Chinese cities and impede China’s actions in Africa” (561)1.
But on Weibo, there are many who take the issue of racism in China lightly, comparing it to other countries: “If this were America, this guy would have already have been shot and killed.”
“We have no racism in China,” one commenter says: “We just have a distinction of good versus evil.” Others had similar jokes, saying: “There are only two types of people I can’t stand: 1. racists and 2. black people.”
Despite all racist slurs and racist jokes, there were also those who had a serious message for all foreigners: “There are many foreigners from wherever who don’t take Chinese law seriously. I don’t care where you are from, but you have to abide by the Chinese law if you’re in China.”
It is unknown how long the man will be detained.
By Manya Koetse
Follow @whatsonweibo
1 Cheng, Yinghong. 2011. “From Campus Racism to Cyber Racism: Discourse of Race and Chinese Nationalism.” The China Quarterly (207): 561-579.
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China Local News
Boy, 15, Fatally Beaten and Buried by Group of Minors in Shaanxi
The heinous crime has sparked discussions on the problem of campus violence and China’s criminal liability age.
A brutal incident that took place in the city of Xingping in Shaanxi province is top trending on Chinese social media today.
On October 29, a 15-year-old boy by the name of Yuan (袁) was fatally beaten and buried by a group of six people, all minors.
Beijing News reports that Yuan was a second-year student at the Xianyang Xingping Jincheng Middle School. He had taken time off from school and had a temporary job in Xi’an before the incident occurred.
Yuan’s father told reporters that his son had returned to Xingping on October 29. A small group of minors, including four students, allegedly demanded money from Yuan, which he refused. It is also reported that a conflict occurred because Yuan added one of the minors to his phone’s ‘blacklist’ (电话拉黑).
According to various news reports, the group of minors attacked the boy with a pickaxe after which he became unconscious. They then brought him over to a nearby hotel and discovered he was dead the next day. They later buried his lifeless body in a pit near the school premises.
The location where Yuan’s body was buried, photo by Beijing News.
On November 2, other students who had heard of the crime reported it to the police. Yuan’s body was found in the pit shortly after officers arrived at the scene.
Local authorities released a statement about the case on November 10, in which they stated the suspects have been detained and that the case is still under investigation.
Various sources on Weibo claim that Yuan previously also suffered beatings at school, with severe school bullying being the main reason for the 15-year-old to temporarily drop out of school.
In a video report by Pear Video, Yuan’s father says they are still unsure of how their son died, suggesting he might have still been alive when he was buried in the pit.
China has been dealing with an epidemic of school violence for years. In 2016, Chinese netizens already urged authorities to address the problem of extreme bullying in schools, partly because minors under the age of 16 rarely face criminal punishment for their actions.
On social media site Weibo and on the news app Toutiao, many commenters are not just angered about the incident but also focus on China’s laws regarding the criminal responsibility of minors.
Some write: “Our criminal laws for minors should protect minors instead of protecting juvenile offenders!”
China’s criminal liability age is currently set at 14. Last month, Global Times reported on a proposal to lower the age of criminal liability in China from 14 to 12 in response to concerns about an alleged increase in juvenile violence.
“These minors need to be severely punished,” multiple commenters wrote: “Who knows who else they might hurt?”
By Manya Koetse
Follow @WhatsOnWeibo
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China Food & Drinks
Viral Video Exposes Wuhan Canteen Kitchen Food Malpractices
Boots in the food bowl, meat from the floor: this Wuhan college canteen is making a food safety mess.
A video that exposes the poor food hygiene inside the kitchen of a Wuhan college canteen has been making its rounds on Chinese social media these days.
The video shows how a kitchen staff member picks up meat from the floor to put back in the tray, and how another kitchen worker uses rain boots to ‘wash’ vegetables in a big bowl on the ground, while another person is smoking.
The video was reportedly shot by someone visiting the canteen of the Wuhan Donghu University (武汉东湖学院) and was posted on social media on November 7.
According to various news sources, including Toutiao News, the school has confirmed that the video was filmed in their canteen, stating that those responsible for the improper food handling practices have now been fired.
Can imagine the students at Wuhan Donghu University were not happy to see this behind the scenes footage from their canteen – kitchen staff smoking, picking up food from the floor and putting it back in the tray, and using their boots to mix vegetables in the bowl 😵 pic.twitter.com/vV9NnsQX6v
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) November 8, 2020
The Wuhan Donghu University also posted a statement on their Weibo account on November 8, saying it will strengthen the supervision of its canteen food handling practices.
“The students at this school will probably vomit once they see this footage,” some commenters on Weibo wrote.
Wuhan Donghu University is an undergraduate private higher education institution established in 2000. The school has approximately 16,000 full-time undergraduate students.
“I’m afraid that this is just the tip of the iceberg,” one popular comment said, receiving over 25,000 likes.
Students from other universities also expressed concerns over the food handling practices in their own canteens, while some said they felt nauseous for having had lunch at the Wuhan canteen in question.
By Manya Koetse
Follow @WhatsOnWeibo
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Truthspeaker
August 8, 2017 at 5:27 pm
Tiny nationalists of the internet never miss the occasion to remind us all how pathetically small their manhood is.
Joe
August 10, 2017 at 2:41 am
You must know from sucking their manhood .
Adolf Hitler
October 14, 2017 at 1:46 am
This guy knows. I love getting my dick sucked by these pussy ass leftists. Every time there’s a black blocc protest in the tristate area I make sure to swing by, fully erect and ready to party. I just make sure to bring protection, both from all the bike locks and all the rampant AIDS spread by these racemixing faggots.
14/88 y’all, jet fuels don’t melt steel beams.
Ya boy A.H.
SpeakTheTruth
August 11, 2017 at 8:52 am
Better question is why are there so many black African sexpats in China who pump and dump Chinese women and project their desire for racial supremacy over Asian men and anti-Asian racism?
garrett
October 12, 2017 at 7:55 am
Chinese and Asian citizens are nothing but suspected white supremacists. No different from white americans who they stupidly call “good”.
Moshe Shekelsteinberg
October 14, 2017 at 1:38 am
Oy vey, just reading this article made me remember all the racist remarks those nazi’s made against me in the death camps, we better start helping china in rooting out all those racists and accept the ways of multiculturalism.
No jew will rest until all chinese women have accepted progress, diversity and a beautiful black man in their lives.