‘You need to pay for it’: Chinese influencer hits back at racist ‘slant eye’ antics of British girl with threat of exposure to 3 million followers
- Chinese vlogger confronts white British girl who aimed racist gesture at her on the street of a university city
- Influencer explains that she is using ‘Chinese wisdom’ to turn the tables on her tormentor
A Chinese internet influencer has been applauded for her brave actions in response to vile racist taunts which were aimed at her by a white girl on the streets of Britain.
Minutes after being accosted, travel vlogger, He Xiangbei, found and confronted the white girl in a bookstore and threatened to expose her on her channel which has three million followers.
In a posting on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, on April 9, He told how she would use “Chinese wisdom” to make the racist pay for her actions in the university city of Cambridge in England.
The 23-year-old vlogger said she was recording street scenes when four white teenagers walked up behind her.
As He’s camera rolled, one of them placed both middle fingers at the sides of her eyes and made a “slant-eyed” gesture.
He said the manner in which the girl performed the racist gesture suggested it was not the first time she had done it.
With this in mind, He decided to fight back.
She and her friend began looking for the girls and found them in a bookstore.
He approached the shocked girl and told her: “I’m sorry, I’m a YouTuber. I just got a video of your...you know what it is.”
After confronting her racist tormentor, the British girl claimed she meant no harm and was only massaging her “uncomfortable” eyes.
He did not believe her and said: “Deny it all you want, but I know what I saw. You are not a child anymore. You need to pay for it.”
After realising that He was not going to back down, the girls began throwing tantrums and swearing in the street.
He told them: “I will post it on my channel. Your friends, your family, your school teachers might be interested in it.
“By the way, just want to tell you, I have 3 million followers on my channel. Everyone’s going to know you are a racist.”
This caused the girl to break down and cry in the middle of the street.
He, who recently began her graduate school life in the southern coast city of Brighton, said she must say “no” to racial discrimination because tolerance of such behaviour would only encourage discrimination against Chinese people.
Explaining her “Chinese wisdom” comment, He said she was peaceful throughout the whole confrontation with the girls and hit the nail on the head without making a scene or getting hurt.
The vlogger’s video followed a recent controversy over an advertisement by the French luxury brand Dior on Instagram which featured an Asian model pulling up the corner of her eye.
The brand soon took down the photo after people flooded its social media accounts accusing it of “racial discrimination”.
Cases of discrimination and hate crimes against Chinese have been increasingly reported following the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the BBC reported that a Chinese woman, who went by the name Yan Ma, said an old white lady pointed at her in the UK and screamed: “You are a Chinese virus. Go back to your country.”
Under He’s video, another UK-based Chinese woman said she had also experienced discrimination at the hands of local teenagers, to whom she barked back: “You are a racist”.
“Racism is weak people bullying people who they think are weaker than them, so they can feel better. Make sure that you are safe and fight back,” the woman said.
