Jim Crow In China

by Patrick Appel

Fallows posted a picture on Friday of a help wanted sign in the Xinjiang region that read "This offer is for Han Chinese (汉�) only." This sort of racial bias is widespread in China according to Jim's readers. Here's a bit from a "foreigner with experience in China":

Regarding the "no Uighurs" sign, that type of thing is pretty common in China.  Many advertisements for foreign English teachers will include something like "Whites only" or a "Looking for Caucasian teachers" sentence somewhere in the text.  Additionally, many a native speaker have flown from their country to China only to find upon arrival that regardless of the applicant's qualifications, the job could only be performed by a white person. At these times the Chinese are usually polite and a little embarrassed (most Chinese are very nice people and mean no harm), but they will remain very firm in their conviction that a person with darker skin than theirs could not possibly make a good teacher.