Racism in Australia

Today, Australian and Chinese media blew up over a racist video covering Chinese history. I actually posted the video 2 days ago, and predicted it would blow up. Now it has. Australian media has censored the video, only showing a screenshot, because of its extreme racism. However, the original video can still be accessed on a different site, below. The video is supposedly a comedic satire, showing a yellowface actress portraying a Chinese Empress eating all kinds of insects and wild animals, which is the basis on the episode of Chinese history. The series falls under an educational world history series for children in the Western world. It was released in 2015, and was broadcasted again recently last week 20 November 2020 (the fact is that the re-release coincides with extremely heated Sino-Australian tensions, especially from Australian PM Scott Morrison).

https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZedong/comments/jy38hr

What is the most disturbing would be the reactions of Chinese-Australians. Many in the Australian Chinese community have condemned the video. However a handful of female Chinese Australians (who coincidentally have Caucasian husbands in the screenshots shown) was not worried about the racism in the video, but instead that Australia was being unfairly treated because of the controversy, where Australia released a racist video of China and Chinese people for show.

This also happens when we at SDF talk about racism in Australia. Last week, news reported that 19 special forces Australian soldiers were guilty of multiple civilian murders in Afghanistan. An extremely NSFW video also showed a cruel beheading of an Afghan farmer who was in the way of passing Australian soldiers. This comes together with physical assaults of Asian international students in Australian cities such as Melbourne (they ranged from Singaporeans to Koreans, Japanese, and were attacked for being 'Chinese') over the 2020 COVID pandemic, as well as general virulent anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia.

So what do you guys think?

I think it's interesting to point out that there were 7 million views of the video, and only 500 signed a petition condemning the video. I would presume a large number of those who signed the petition were Asians and other minority groups.

I just went on a quick trip to reddit to see some of the comments to gauge reactions, since comments are not allowed on the news article. The commenters who identified as Asian criticized the video, while the rest of the commenters said nothing was wrong with the video as it was comedy (and therefore acceptable). A commenter also said it was sad that bat meat "wasn't shown" in the video.

Of course we should also talk about the general problems in Australian society as well, especially racism against all minority groups, including Muslims, aboriginals etc. The article pointed out there was 'worries' the racist video would be used as 'political propaganda' by Beijing to 'attack' Australia.

Would've been a complete different story if it was Blackface instead of yellowface

Also last week, French president Macron made it illegal to show the police in a negative or unflattering light, or to make fun of the police force. Whether through cartoons or paintings etc. If you made fun of the police, you are liable for imprisonment. However, it is still fair game to make fun of Muslims by drawing negative cartoons about Muslims and what they believe in.

Christ, Australia sounds like a right horrible place to live in.

At this point, is it really surprising that the descendants of the UK's worst would do something stupid and backwards like that? The only people who would be surprised by this would be those mainlander "Chinese" Australians who think Australia is a wonderland.

Crang said:

Also last week, French president Macron made it illegal to show the police in a negative or unflattering light, or to make fun of the police force. Whether through cartoons or paintings etc. If you made fun of the police, you are liable for imprisonment. However, it is still fair game to make fun of Muslims by drawing negative cartoons about Muslims and what they believe in.

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People also draw cartoons and make fun of Jesus, the pope, Buddha. So far in the 21st century, I haven't heard anyone been killed for that. Religious extremism should be condemned and rooted out.

texx1 said:

People also draw cartoons and make fun of Jesus, the pope, Buddha. So far in the 21st century, I haven't heard anyone been killed for that. Religious extremism should be condemned and rooted out.

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Just because I eat pork and beef doesn't mean I will force my Indian or Muslim peers to eat them as well.

It's not extremist to be outraged at something specifically created to insult your culture.

solarz said:

It's not extremist to be outraged at something specifically created to insult your culture.

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You can be offended , but you can't kill others for it especially in a secular society. It just empowers the other side. The moment you start killing in the name of any religion, it becomes extremism.

I think such incidents would make Chinese more united including some from overseas as they began to realize there is no place like home as the West began to become more and more agitated by China's rise. Perhaps we might see more talented oversea Chinese coming to China and it reminds me of Qian Xuesen.

Qian Xuesen: The man the US deported - who then helped China into space

Qian is the father of China's missile and space programme. His research helped develop the rockets that fired China's first satellite into space, and missiles that became part of its nuclear arsenal, and he is revered as a national hero.

Zuoyue Wang, professor of history at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, says there is no evidence that Qian ever spied for China or was an intelligence agent when he was in the US.

He was, however, stripped of his security clearance and put under house arrest. Caltech colleagues, including Theodore von Karman, wrote to the government pleading Qian's innocence, but in vain.

In 1955, when Qian had spent five years under house arrest, President Eisenhower took the decision to deport him to China. The scientist left by boat with his wife and two US-born children, telling waiting reporters he would never step foot in America again. He kept his promise.

"He was one of the most prominent scientists in America. He had contributed so much and could have contributed much more. So it's not just humiliation but also a sense of betrayal," says the journalist and writer, Tianyu Fang.

When he had arrived in China there was little understanding of rocket science, but 15 years later he oversaw the launch of the first Chinese satellite into space. Over the decades, he trained a new generation of scientists, and his work laid the foundations for China's Lunar Exploration Program.

Ironically, the missile programme that Qian helped develop in China resulted in weapons which were then fired back on America. Qian's silkworm missiles were fired at Americans in the 1991 Gulf War, Fraser Macdonald says, and in 2016 against the USS Mason by Huti rebels in Yemen.

A former US Secretary of the Navy, Dan Kimball - later head of the rocket propulsion company, Aerojet - once said it was "the stupidest thing this country ever did".

While most Americans have no idea about Qian and his role in America's space programme, Tianyu Fang says many Chinese Americans and Chinese students in the US, do know about him, and why he had to leave, and they see the parallels with the present day. "US China relations have got so much worse they know they could be under the same suspicions as Qian's generation," he says.

Last year, when China made history and landed on the far side of the moon, it did so in the Von Karman crater, named after the aeronautical engineer who was a mentor to Qian. A nod, perhaps, to the fact that American anti-communism helped propel China into space.

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