A recent advertisement for a teaching job in Beijing reads: 'Wenmei Language and Culture Centre. Co-operates with Beijing police force. Requirement: white American.' As one can see, it discriminates against everyone who is not a 'white American'.
In the mainland, many English-language teaching jobs require that applicants be white. And those that do not require this make it clear that they prefer a white person. The demand for white English teachers is so high that there are schools which will hire virtually anyone who is white - such as a continental European or a white Russian - regardless of their English ability, let alone their teaching qualifications.
Obviously, this racial discrimination is unacceptable, and from a Chinese-American's point of view, or that of any other ethnic Chinese raised in an English-speaking country, it is especially appalling.
This phenomenon occurs while the central government actively promotes a policy of welcoming ethnic Chinese from all over the world to return to the motherland and contribute to its development. I am an American-born Chinese. My first China experience was through the China Synergy Programme - Hong Kong-based and sponsored by Beijing - which invites ethnic Chinese from around the world to tour the country. It was a flattering experience full of pomp and circumstance. I met senior officials, such as former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, former vice-premier Qian Qichen and Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member Jia Qinglin . This momentous experience undoubtedly influenced my eagerness to come back to China.
After graduating from college, I knew about the extremely high demand for English teachers in China. So I decided to teach English there, but as soon as I arrived and started looking for jobs, all the formal welcoming and fanfare deteriorated into a feeling of exclusion and blatant racial discrimination.
I went through rejection after rejection, with replies such as: 'You know, now in China, many many students want their foreign teachers to have a white face. It is extreme, but it is understandable.' I can understand, for example, that the parents of the students who want to learn English do not want a Chinese-American teacher, because they find it hard to believe that an American can look Chinese. But this is wrong. Choosing a teacher should not be based on one's physical appearance but on his or her effectiveness.
The classic, Shi Shuo, declares: 'When learning, regardless of whether your teacher is rich or poor, or old or young, where knowledge is, your teacher is.' The idea that knowledge is indiscriminate should not be confined to wealth and age. Although official policy is obviously anti-racist, the prejudices of individuals are drastically different. What is happening in the English-teaching field is racial discrimination, and also a unique racial self-discrimination, or reverse racism, where the Chinese discriminate against their own kind.