Mind Your Steps
27
Aril 2007
During the time when Shanghai
was divided into eight so-called concession
zones by eight foreign powers including
France, Germany and Japan, in British area
there was a sign in front of a park on the
Bund which read, “No Chinese and dogs
allowed.” Mind, it was on Chinese soil and
it mentioned Chinese in the same breath as
dogs.
Of course, it was decades,
decades ago, by then some British people and
some French people and some German people and
some other people were yet to be touched and
moved by their own heroic acts of upholding
the lofty values such as democracy, freedom
and human rights, and feel privileged to look
down from their perceived moral high ground
on the world with dignified pity and
disapproval.
And China, despite being
plagued by many faults as any other nations
are, has long prohibited the racial and
ethnic-based discrimination historically
practiced by the Mongol’s Yuan Dynasty, by
the Manchurian’s Qing Dynasty, and by the
foreign powers from Briton, France, Germany
and Japan.
Or has it?
Local media in China reported
that the act of discrimination against
Chinese has reoccurred in some patches of
Chinese soil, for instance, in some
specialised shoe shops, just this time the
place is in Beijing and the perpetrators are
Chinese.
It is said that those shoe
shops in the capital’s eastern Chaoyang
district would ban Chinese from stepping into
their premises by using a sign, a curtain or
even guards.
When the complaint was
launched with the local consumer association,
an official in the organisation is reported
as replying, “A merchant has right to
determine whom he wants to do business with.”
Sure, the Englishmen who built
the park also aimed to gain profit and
therefore were even greater merchants than
those shoe dealers, they certainly as well
had right to determine to whom they would
like to grant aceess privilege.
And that is not an isolated
incidence.
In an office building in
Shanghai’s Caohejing Industry Park Chinese
are reportedly not allowed to walk into an
elevation when foreigners are present.
The elevation
service contract states that
Chinese must respect foreigners’
privilege in using the service.
Those in the West who say
China may get into a Yuan Dynasty's bloody-thirsty
wolf-worship mentality promoted by few
elements in the country, or adopt a Qing
Dynasty's outlook of the world that enslaved
other ethnic groups and rejected other
nations, therefore China's renaissance should
be warned about and prevented from, is
utterly a scaremonger with suspicious
motivations, because the evidences show that
some Chinese are working so hard to make sure
their guests will be the masters of the
locals forever.
