Ask Headmaster Ken

I have been teaching in China at a private kindergarten now for 6 months, and wonder why white South Africans are not treated in the same way as nationals of the so called "big five"?

I was born in South Africa and my family emigrated to England when I was 6. Due to my father being English, I am a dual national and travel on my English passport due to visas being generally easier to obtain. My accent is also English.

I am not saying it is right, but I have met black South Africans who are treated unequally simply due to the colour of their skin, the same way most non-white non-native speakers are treated in China, a topic you also brought attention to on your blog.

I have found it disgusting how non-white people are treated in China with regards to employment in China. I have heard a black Ghanaian man referred to as a "big monkey" and 3 parents actually moved their children to my school as the other kindergarten nearby has a black teacher employed there, despite the fact that he is more qualified than me. He also gets a lower salary, a fact that as you acknowledge, would be illegal in any western country.

However this is an issue that has already been discussed, and I don't wish to discuss it further here. I would just like to add that I have seen firsthand despicable racism in China toward non-white foreign teachers. It really hurts me to see this, as I come from a country which still bears the scars of institutionalized racism despite the fact the policy ended nearly 20 years ago, so we know what effects it can have.

But what I don't understand is why white South Africans are not treated with equal parity as nationals of other nations such as the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? Is it simply because it is not one of those admired "rich" Western nations according to the Chinese?

I have seen this firsthand. At first I was honest with the Chinese about where I am originally from but, after seeing their reactions, I now tend to keep the fact hidden. Twice, girls, evidently gold diggers, have come to me and asked where I was from and then walked away when I replied Nanfei!¹ I do a special class at my kindergarten with another foreign teacher who is from South Africa and the principal has had to tell the parents she is English as they would not accept a South African according to her!

South Africans' grasp of English is certainly equal to those other nations as it is the business language of South Africa. Around 2 million South Africans speak English as the first language, where just about all of the primarily 3 million Afrikaans speakers can speak English to a native level.

I am wondering if you have any thoughts on why South Africans are treated with disparity? I am wondering if it is because the Chinese, like the rest of the world, have a completely misguided view of Africa?

¹Editor's note: Nán​ Fēi​ is Pinyin for South Africa.

My thoughts on the matter are that Chinese citizens, like those in other countries, draw their opinions from those around them, what they read and hear, and what they personally experience.

Most Chinese have little direct contact with foreigners from other countries. So much, if not all, information they glean with which to formulate an opinion is second hand.

Second hand information, as we all know, can be incorrect.

You wondered if, "the Chinese, like the rest of the world, have a completely misguided view of Africa". That implies that this problem is one of global misperception.

And that may well be the case. For a long period in the States, most of the stories about South Africa were not positive.

I suspect, and hope, that given time, and more exposure to positive, current information about South Africa, misguided views worldwide will be amended.

I wish you well.

I'd like to expound on Ken's reply a bit.

There are two broad but related issues at play here, in regard to South African foreign teachers: Chinese social perception of differences between nationals of varying Western countries and, in many cases (but not all), the employability of non-native speakers as foreign oral English teachers in China.

The Chinese don't have a monopoly on racism and racism is often the result of misunderstanding and fear based on sampling bias and incorrect attributions.

Even to this day, the majority of Chinese have never met a foreigner face-to-face. When they do, as is true of most people, they tend to form generalizations about an entire nation based on the behavior of just that one individual. If that foreigner just happens to be "kind," then all nationals of his or her country are assumed to be kind. If, on the other hand, he is perceived as aggressive and abusive, then all other nationals from his country will be regarded with caution and suspicion.

Is this tendency to overgeneralize based on a biased sample of one or two fair? Of course it isn't, but it is part of the human condition.

In regard to the question of employability, there is another (but related) issue at hand: If one's native language is Afrikaans (meaning Afrikaans was the language primarily spoken and used in the home during the first five to six years of life) then English is that person's second language.

I know of a South African couple working as foreign oral English teachers in China. When they speak quickly to each other in English, I cannot understand most of what they are saying. That's because they are non-native speakers of English. Even when the husband, for example, speaks directly to me, I will often be unable to discern what he has just said. I will have to ask him to repeat himself.

Having just written this, I also know of another young couple from South Africa that I met during my first year in China. Although they definitely spoke with a regional dialect, I was able to easily understand every word they communicated: In fact, they truly were native speakers of English, i.e., English was used exclusively in the home during their formative years. In each of their cases, their parents were not South African but British. They just happened to have been born, raised, and educated in South Africa with South African passports. To the best of my knowledge, they didn't have any difficulties finding employment as oral English teachers in China.

In a perfectly fair world, people wouldn't overgeneralize about an entire nation based on a limited sample of one or two people but would evaluate each individual on a case-by-case basis. If that were true, then my Filipino wife--who possesses near-native listening skills and speaks English better than 99% of all Chinese--wouldn't have the difficulty she has had finding employment in China as an English teacher, nor would she automatically be paid less than white native speakers.

When I was at my first school in Sichuan, the other foreign teacher there was a white South African.

I guess it really does just depend on individual circumstances because, although that teacher had a thick accent that I sometimes had problems understanding, he was nevertheless highly regarded by the small community there.

CCTV came around to film him and he received the Teacher of The Year Award for the local area.