Last month, fans of late kung fu star Bruce Lee were incensed by a whisky advert featuring a likeness of the “Chinese icon”. It’s interesting that Lee’s Eurasian heritage is almost never referred to. Many in Chinese communities around the world, including in his hometown, Hong Kong, aren’t even aware of it. Not surprising, perhaps, considering that he is still lionised as a Chinese saviour-hero who kicked and chopped Western and Japanese imperialists to a pulp. The inconvenient fact that Lee was part- European adds a farcical element to this myth.
When the Nationalists overthrew the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), they chose to play the race card in a very simplistic way, pitting the majority Han Chinese against the Manchu. It didn’t matter that the Manchu rulers had been Sinicised to such a degree that almost none could speak Manchu, or that the Han were among the most venal court mandarins and military commanders. The ignoble appeal to race always guarantees a primeval response, whether in Sri Lanka from the 1980s until 2009, the Balkans in the 90s or China in the early 20th century.