#sinophobia

And you need to push any white-dominated transfem community she interacts with to see her and stand with her against sinophobia and sinophobic-transmisogyny.

Trans Musings #39

One of the biggest arguments against transandrophobia and other words like it is that trans men don't experience hate crimes at the same rates as trans women. This is a bad argument that fails to hold up in real life.

i feel like we're at a really interesting point in time right now, particularly in regards to the shift in american consciousness + changing world order, so i thought it would be fitting to document my thoughts about the xhs situation as a chinese american. however, please note this post is NOT speaking on behalf of any community, and i am only speaking to my own personal opinions.

the good

american propaganda is getting dismantled in real time. there's so much cross-cultural communication right now in relation to america's political issues, everyday life, and what china is really like

im already seeing people starting to learn the language, becoming interested in visiting china, etc. and i truly haven't seen this kind of mass interest in chinese culture in a long time

to be precise, the last time there was really "chinese soft power" in america was during the mid-to-late 2000s. notably this time period included the 2008 beijing olympics which was monumental for china on the global stage, as it showcased their prosperity, openness ("北京欢迎你"), and equal footing in the modern world. ive seen people compare the xhs phenomenon to this event and while both are drastically different, i do think this is an apt comparison (though obviously this xhs thing is on a muchhh smaller scale...)

so many new friendships and connections are being made!

the bad

to add on to what op said, theres definitely a difference between just generally understanding that as diaspora, most people around you will hold sinophobic views about china and chinese people VERSUS actually having empirical evidence that most normal people didn't see chinese people as human before. its jarring to say the least. like everyone is praising chinese people on xhs now, but just last week everyone was fearmongering about us?? really reminds you that in the eyes of the public, favor for any asian culture (and by extension, its people) is fleeting and will often change easily with the season

and yes, its definitely weird to see people talk about chinese people as if they've never seen a chinese person in america before. like obviously there's a HUGE difference between mainlanders and diaspora, but there's also international students that come to america to study so... ??

the memes are funny, and i like how the people on xhs are playing along with them, but something about the "chinese spy" memes rubs me the wrong way. tbh, most mainlanders actually have a positive view of westerners and america, and if they don't study abroad themselves or know anyone that went abroad, they will never truly understand what it's like to be discriminated against simply for being chinese (there's a difference between knowing and understanding ofc; not saying that they're ignorant & don't know anything lol). this is just the honest truth, just like how i'll never understand what it's like to live and grow up in mainland china since im diaspora. anyways, i kind of question if mainlanders are actually aware of the loaded context behind those words. while americans are using the "chinese spy" memes as jokes now in reference to why tiktok is getting banned, it doesn't change the fact that many other americans truly do believe that there is mass chinese surveilliance/planted chinese spies in america (i.e., see modern-day mccarthyism, like how chinese researchers are often stripped of their titles/reputations, interrogated, and then silently deported). like language and framing does matter, and it has actually affected chinese people in america, but now you guys are treating it like a joke?

"...white people, Asian people and other ethnic groups don't necessarily have the struggle that [Black people] have, when it comes to, or in relation to hair. So they've never been isolated, discriminated against, or had to encounter/experience racism because of their hair."

This was said by a Black creator talking about the appropriation of African-American styles of braids by Asian people (which I won't get into the weeds of. All in all, Asian people, listen to and RESPECT what African-Americans are saying about THEIR CULTURE and keep your hands OFF it.)

But to address this specific snippet. The first part is true.

Non-Black people have not faced the discrimination directed towards their hair in the same way that it is directed to hair on Black bodies. Hair that is not 4C has not faced the TYPE of discrimination directed towards 4C hair, especially 4C hair on Black bodies.

And this is also mutual: non-Asian people have not faced the discrimination directed towards their hair in the same way that it is directed to hair on Asian bodies. Hair that is not 1A has not faced the TYPE of discrimination directed towards 1A hair, especially on Asian bodies.

But the latter part is ahistorical.

The racial models created by Linnaeus (the most common and popular one that the West adopted), the Bernier descriptions, and the Blumenbach racial models all involved describing hair from different racialised groups, INCLUDING Asian peoples' hair. The Bernier descriptions fetishised Asian fem slaves (yep, sex slaves) for their features including their hair.

Asian hair has always been racialised.

Later, in US, there were policies created to control, humiliate and override the consent of Asian peoples to their hair; such as The Pigtail Ordinance, which mandated that Chinese men cut off their queue. While it was claimed to control "sanitary issues", the actual reason was that white people knew what hair meant to Confucian values (cutting it symbolises severance from one's ancestors and their gift of life) and wanted to humiliate them into submission.

Racist depictions of white slave masters pulling on coolie rioter queues and subjugating them with violence.

Hell, the chopsticks in hair depictions, the bangs on an Asian fem, the "Indian hair is so oily stinky and gross" issue prior to the "clean girl aesthetic slick-back bun".

Even facial hair on an Asian person was discriminated against whether it was Asian men unable to grow a full beard, the Fu Manchu beard to signify a villain, bushy eyebrows, or beards and mustaches on women.

Body hair on Asian peoples have ALWAYS been stigmatised whether we were nypermasculinised "too hairy with dark body hair", or if we were hairless and hyperfeminised + infantilised + fetishised + emasculated for it.

Sinophobic race-motivated hate crimes have involved Asian hair, including the display of it as trophies post-violence, murder, or other methods of dehumanising subjugation.

A hair for masculine people and on Asian mascs, is typically insulted as non-masculine (which is a form of Sinosexism especially targeting EA masculinity). Hair on Asian fems have been fetishised and exoticised which has led to material harm, this has shown time and time again in media, but also in reality.

Asian peoples have had their hair touched and cut without their consent (I personally can attest to this too).

Head coverings for Muslim Asian women, the fetishising of seeing a Muslim Asian woman's hair, and "liberals" forcing Asian women not to wear their hijabs, is also tied to the control and possessing a sensory experience of Asian hair. You wouldn't see this occurring to white people.

Y'all have spent the last two decades drilling into me that I should have absolutely no expectation of privacy. No expectation of privacy from my own government, who are by far the entity most likely to use my information to really harm me. No expectation of privacy from advertisers who will do anything with that data, give it to anyone, if they think it will make them a few cents of profit. No expectation that anything I write, even in private documents that are never posted, won't be used to train machine learning models to let capital owners eliminate more workers and further consolidate their wealth and power. All that's just how it is and I have to accept it.

i have a personal problem with this kind of attitude. it's not a petty thing i am unreasonably angry about. there is a politics of translation and it affects one's understanding of art and popular culture/cultural geopolitics.

yes, tbhx has an unprecedented world wide release for a donghua/Chinese media and it's vital for its popularity, especially among transnational fandom spaces. Transcreated works are important for easier access. BUT, my gripe with the Japanese dub of a Chinese media WILL never be resolved. I am not talking about the quality, the issue lies in the very creation of the Japanese dub of a donghua itself. Let me give you an example.

Last year, we had an optional course called translation studies and one of the first things our professor asked was : who are the writers of A Doll's House and Waiting for Godot? He told those few of us who had read these texts closely to shut our mouth and let others take a guess. Most people answered : British writers. The texts are English texts. Because it's so famous among literature enthusiasts and when a piece of literature has a 'classic' tag attached to it, we tend to generalize and oversimplify it. So, a Norwegian playwright's original Norwegian play or an Irish playwright's play originally written in French- both get labelled as British literature. Get my point?

The anime industry is justifiably dominated by Japanese productions but when we forget to accommodate the nuances, the origin culture decays. It is, in many senses, a form of subtle cultural imperialism brought by ignorance.

People complain about Link Click's 'poor marketing' but I think Haolin was clever doing so. Even in the reviews by Indian anime bros™ I see them trying to pronounce 'donghua'. People RECOGNIZE that Link Click is a Chinese media, it's NOT an anime. You may laugh at those link click related youtube video titles saying stuff like : China is taking over anime, this Chinese anime is better than your favourite anime, PEAK Chinese anime, the best anime of 2021 is NOT Japanese?!, Link Click is taking over anime, China's hidden gem, China might have created the best anime of the year- CHINA IS IMPORTANT.

Whenever people talk about Chinese donghua- Link Click, Heaven Official's Blessing, Master of Diabolism etc are mentioned and people KNOW that it looks like anime but not really anime. It's... something... something else. This distinction is critical and essential.

Now, thanks to censorship (the Chinese version is not available on any official platform), many people think (not all people dig that deep while watching things, like come on) Spiritpact is a JAPANESE anime. Who the heck is Tanmouki or whatever. They are are Duanmu Xi and Yang Jinghua.

Reading up to this part if you think I am a Japanese anime hater then...*sighs*. Please read the whole thing again.

I like the Japanese dub of Link Click but there was a c*** in the comments who said "uwu it's not in japanese so I won't watch it" b**** doesn't even understand Japanese. B just wants an 'authentic Japanese anime experience.'

I feared that tbhx would face this issue.