As US President Barack Obama prepares to visit Asia for the President’s first-ever dialogue with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the issue of the President’s race is having more of an impact on Chinese netizens rather than his foreign or trade policies.

For the past few months, the television viewers of China’s “Jia you! Oriental Angels,” a Chinese version of American Idol, have been engaged in a mix of soul-searching and identity questioning as they followed the rise of the show’s leading star, Lou Jing, a half-black, half-Chinese contestant, who has on more than one occasion been likened to President Obama himself. What has actually followed is an outpouring of racist sentiment against Lou Jing and her mother by Chinese ‘netizens.’

Lou Jing was born of an extra-marital affair her mother had with an African-American, who later returned to the United States. While Lou Jing has been attacked for being a mixed-race child, her mother has been openly denigrated for her marital indiscretions.

ChinaSmack.com, one of the many English-language Chinese blogs following the debate over Lou Jing, documented the series of racist attacks against the reality pop star. In a post titled “Shanghai ‘Black Girl’ Lou Jing Abused By Racist Netizens,” blogger Fauna traces the series of exchanges between Jing and viewers that appeared across the internet. The website NetEase stated that “many netizens learned that Lou Jing was born after her married mother had [extra-marital] relations with a black man, and let loose a torrent of abuse on the internet” while the site KDS took the racism to another level with the following:

Lou Jing’s mother had a husband, then had an extramarital affair with a black man, then gave birth to Lou Jing, and then after her birth divorced. And that black devil, after fucking ran back to his home in Africa. It is unimaginable how that Shanghainese man [husband], excited and anxious to see his own “daughter”, must have felt when he saw that she was black…

On August 30th, 2009, Lou Jing responded to her attackers in kind with a clarificatory post on KDS where she explains:

I am DragonTV Angel Lou Jing, and here I make a statement!
1. My father is American, not African.
2. I am a born and bred Shanghainese person.
3. I should not have to bear my parents’ mistake, I am innocent!
4. Sternly but strongly protest some people’s racism, my skin color should not become a target of attack!
I reserve the right to take legal action!

Nonetheless, comments on ChinaSmack appeared to escalate racist sentiment rather than diffuse it. While one reader wrote ‘Fucked by a black. How come a zebra wasn’t born?’ another said “I cannot help but say, those coming out of mixing yellow and black blood are all truly ugly, a dirty feeling [appearance]…”

Meanwhile, website ChinaHush.com did it best to underline that despite appearances, Lou Jing is Chinese through-and-through.

“Chocolate” girl Lou Jing’s skin color lets people mistaken her for a foreigner. In fact, she is an outright Shanghai girl, and she speaks fluent Shanghai dialect. On the stage, [...], Jing Lou sang a classic Shanghai opera piece…

The ongoing debate over Lou Jing echoes another case of discrimination against China’s small but growing minority of mixed children, half-black and half-Chinese. Ding Hui, China’s first black volleyball player, attracted international attention when he was booted off the national team for his color. Writing in The Guardian, journalist Steven Vines says:

A stark reminder of official racism came last year when Ding Hui, of mixed Chinese and African parentage, was barred from representing his country in the national volleyball team.

Vines goes on to confirm the widespread trend of racism throughout China:

One leading actress, Jiang Ziyi, who has an Israeli boyfriend, has routinely been accused of betrayal for consorting with a foreigner… China officially lists 56 approved ethnic minorities within its borders, but discussion about ethnic differences is largely taboo. Racial tensions have recently broken out between the Muslim Uighur population, who look more like Europeans, and the “Chinese”-looking majority.

Though the website Shanghaiist.com debates the fact that Ding Hui was booted off of the team out of discrimination saying that said booting actually never happened, it confronts and welcomes the debate of inherent racism in Chinese society, likening Hui’s supposed fate to that of Lou Jing’s:

Ding Hui’s presence on the national team has the potential to improve or worsen China’s issues with racism—and it will probably do a little bit of both. On the one hand, it reinforces stereotypes of African blood endowing people with exceptional athletic gifts—and, conversely, Asian blood being a distinct disadvantage in that area. On the other hand, his presence in the public eye will make more people aware that people like him do exist, do speak native Chinese (media repeatedly remark [sic] that both Ding and Lou speak Chinese, and only Chinese), and absolutely expect and deserve an active role in Chinese society—including representing their country in athletic competition.

The vocalized vitriol against mixed-race children is a stunning occurence in a period in time in which the Chinese government and Chinese companies are heavily increasing their investment presence in Africa. Nonetheless, the future of such debate in the Chinese media and exposure to the presence of mixed-race Chinese can only further sensitize what is still an insular society to the social-cultural fruits of globalization.

Regarding Lou Jing and her future (she was eliminated from the Top 30 of “Jia you! Oriental Angels”) The Guardian has the full dish: “In two years she will graduate. After that she plans to study in Europe or America.”

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