Africans in China, Western/White Supremacy and the Ambivalence of Chinese Racial Identity

Résumé En Zh

This article seeks to provide further insights into understanding the construction of Chinese identity by bringing the West/white into the picture of Afro-Sino racial relationships. It contends that the Chinese have internalized Western/white superiority through a long historical process, starting with the Western invasion in the 19th century and continuing with the construction of the contemporary historical narrative of the “century of humiliation.” This internalization and its ramifications can be observed in Chinese public discourses as well as diplomatic practices. Together with Western/white superiority, the Chinese also adopted a social Darwinist, competitive world view, using Western modernity as the yardstick by which to rank different peoples and societies in a racial hierarchy. Chinese racism against Africans is thus a projection of a harsh self-judgement. Unlike white supremacy in Western racial thinking, “Chinese supremacy” is often coupled with an inferiority complex.

本文将“西方/白人”这一面向引入对中非种族关系的考量，并期从这一角度为中国人之身份认同如何建构的问题提供新的洞见。本文认为，自清末西方入侵，至今日百年国耻之历史叙事的构建，在漫长的历史过程中，西方或白人至上主义已为中国人所内化。这一内化及其影响在中国公众讨论及外交实践中均有体现。除西方或白人至上主义之外，中国人也普遍接受了社会达尔文主义的竞争性世界观，以及一种以西方现代性为标准来排列世界各族人民及社会之高低贵贱的种族梯阶。因此，中国人对非洲人的种族主义是其苛刻自我评判的一种外在投射。与西方种族思想中的白人至上主义不同，所谓“中国优越”之观念常与某种自卑心理相伴随。