I am angry.
Livid.
And I don't get angry.
Not usually. Frustrated, annoyed, upset, and tired.... yes. Even if you've never seen me get overly emotional, it does happen on the rare occasion. Still. Not angry.
But now.
I went out for dinner today. Just me and my neighbor after a hard day's work... and we decided to go someplace quick. Get in, get some food, eat, and leave. We walked right up to the door of this little restaurant. The door opened from the inside - and I froze.
They were in the middle of putting up this sign:
Reject Japs, it says, in plain English. I couldn't read the Chinese around it, but I stopped in my tracks and turned around.
"We're not eating here," I said.
The server who was putting up the sign saw me twist around on my heels. She was shocked. I didn't care. I was too surprised to go in and explain.
We ended up eating next door.
On the way home, I heard the Chinese National Anthem blaring from someone's stereo. I gritted my teeth and walked all the way back. Then, a couple minutes later, I (and pretty much every other American teacher who works here with me) walked through West Street back onto campus. One of our colleagues - a Japanese foreign teacher - was teaching late. Her last Friday class ends each week at 8:10pm. I was meeting her because she had asked me to walk her home...
This particular Friday night, we all just happened to be hanging out together. And we all decided to walk her home. While we waited, we walked by another restaurant.
This second restaurant was owned by the same person who ran the other restaurant I went to that night. It was on the way to campus... and I wanted to see if they also had the Reject Japs flyer. They did. The two Caucasian Americans who came with me stopped to take a picture of the flyer.
I mention them because... just the fact that they were white and in Baoding was enough to make people stare at them. Now, these two were staring at a flyer and taking pictures of it... and the restaurant's patrons and servers noticed. We didn't say anything.
Just took the picture and stormed off.
Then we proceeded to walk our Japanese colleague home.
---
Let me take a step back and explain where all of this is coming from.
Right now, there's a bit of an international crisis going on in East and Southeast Asia. Specifically, China and Japan are fighting over the ownership of an island known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkakus in Japan. There are boats involved, nationalists on all sides, protests, riots, and a lot of politics.
But I don't care about all that. I don't care about who's right and wrong, and I truly don't agree with the black-and-white view that so many of my own students have taken. What I do care about is what's happening here - and, specifically, what's happening to the lives of two of my colleagues.
I look out for me and mine.
(Yeah. That's a Firefly quote.)
It started, for them, at a coffee shop - one that they (and we) all feel safe in. The two of them had gone out to the coffee shop on their own to prepare for class. While they were talking (in Japanese, of course) a customer in the shop walked up to them. In Chinese, he asked....
你们是日本人吗？
"Are you two Japanese?"
One of the teachers replied in the positive. This young man made a face and stormed out.
The good thing is that one of the staff walked right up to these two to ask what happened. The staff and the owner of the coffee store are great. They've been friendly and helpful and amazing. And the problem here doesn't seem huge... but, imagine if someone had come up to you and reacted this way simply because you are American.
Or, if that doesn't help, if someone had done that to you just because of your background or because of the color of your skin.
The next day, I learned that out on West Street (on the road between my home and the university campus), one of the food vendors had placed the Japanese flag on the ground right in front of his stand. To buy anything from his stall, a customer would need to stand ON TOP of the flag.
I understand protests. I understand that, even if I don't agree with a cause, protests are important in a free country. Ignoring the fact that most protests aren't legal in China (and, thus, ignoring the implications behind why these protests are allowed to take place), I can understand... plain and simply... why my Japanese friends here would be afraid.
That same day, I started hearing rumors that out on Yuhualu, one of the main roads in Baoding, restaurants were putting up stickers: "No Japanese Allowed," they said. I was annoyed, yes. But I hadn't seen them yet. It was all taking place too far away to have made an emotional impact on me.
On September 18, the anniversary of the Mukden Incident, which lead to the wartime occupation of China by Japan in World War II, classes for the Japanese teachers were canceled. The university advised them to stay at home. The university also closed the gates to its campus, in a bid to keep their students safe and to limit the amount of students participating in the protests.
Then Thursday, when I taught a class on Asian American issues, I started speaking to my students about racism in America. I started a discussion about racism in China... and, interestingly, most of my students told me that they believed racism was rare here.
Racism. In China. Rare?
(And I am saying this as a Chinese American who grew up with Chinese immigrant adults around me).
Or, maybe, because of the lack of diversity here, they just didn't understand racism as we did.
The discussion didn't get too far (lack of time, and some timidity on my part. This lesson was more lecture than discussion). There was a moment, though, when I wanted to ask them about racism against Japanese people. I started my sentence... and froze. I knew all of the students there, and I knew most of the teachers who were attending (the Chinese English teachers were interested and curious). BUT, still, I didn't bring it up.
I censored myself. In an university classroom.
(I was showing bits of a graphic novel - American Born Chinese - and I also had to censor a part where a new student corrects his teacher. In this part of the story, the student explains to his class that he's from Taiwan, not China.)
Then, the day after that, I went out to eat.
And I saw the sign.
Reject Japs.
This was topped off by the Chinese National Anthem playing on the street.
And all of this, right after my Chinese tutor had explained to me that there were signs (that I didn't notice because I could not read) all over West Street protesting the Japanese claim to the Diaoyu/Senkakus. All of this, right after she proudly and patriotically proclaimed "寸土不让。"
We will not give up one inch of our land, she said.
She's a good person. But all this extreme nationalism is starting to scare me.
And, if it's scaring me, it must be paralyzing my Japanese friends.
...Not so.
Not exactly.
Or maybe they've learnt to deal with it. When I brought up that I saw this sign at the restaurant, they laughed. That sign, they said, should just say "No Mayu or Yohei allowed." They were, after all, the only two Japanese people who would eat at that restaurant. They laughed, with the attitude of people who knew that they were here and that they would need to deal with it anyway.
It is better to laugh, however nervously, than to be afraid.
(I showed the initial draft of this post to them. Since their names are here, I wanted their approval before I posted this. Here's what one of them told me after she read this post:
"I didn't laugh because I didn't think it was important. I am not that strong. When I first heard about the 'No Japanese' stickers [on Yuhualu], I was scared, annoyed, frustrated, disappointed.... When you told me about the flyer you saw, I was feeling something...." She trailed off here. "But now, after all the help and support my friends have given me, I can laugh about it. I can laugh because, otherwise, I would feel scared all the time. And that doesn't help, when I have to live and work here.")
There are worse protests happening in China than what's happened in Baoding. But protests and riots are different from the lives and fear of real people. So here I am, using a VPN to get around Chinese censors so that I can get this story to you.
These signs on restaurant doors remind me of Nazi Germany and Jim Crow America. They remind me, even, of China... when European imperialists put up signs forbidding the entrance of "Dogs and Chinese."
But there is hope.
For every restaurant that has put up a "No Japanese" sign, there is another that didn't.
The owner of a place that we frequent has walked up to their Japanese patrons and said, plainly, "Don't worry. I will protect you if I have to."
And, just today, after I had written the initial draft of this post, one of my former students made me proud. He approached us when we were walking home from lunch. Then he proceeded to do something that no other Chinese person has done in my time here.
He brought up the issue directly.
"I just want to say... I have spoken to my friends, and we are all very sorry for anything bad that has happened to you. I want to say we all support you. If you need any help, we will be there."
To the people of China, if you ever happen upon this blog, I have this to say:
The world is watching you. China is growing, both economically and militarily. The countries surrounding China are reacting to her growth with fear. They don't know what kind of superpower China will be.
So show them.
Show them that you are better than the US, who interned her own citizens during the Second World War.
Show them that you are better than the European imperialists who invaded and occupied your country.
Show them, and don't let your foreign guests live in fear.
