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 (??) 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.
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