Changing views on race – Country faces culture clash as foreign residents increase

With trade and commerce drawing ever larger numbers of foreigners to Chinese cities, tensions have become more common in a country of limited racial diversity.

How does increased immigration alter Chinese perceptions of race? How has the society historically dealt with ethnic differences?

Lou Jing, center, a contestant in a talent show this summer sparked an intense debate about what it means to be Chinese because of her mixed-race parentage. Gettey Image

Increasing tension

This summer, African immigrants, mostly the traders and merchants who make up a growing enclave in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, protested over a black man’s accidental death. Hundreds gathered at a police station, drawing attention t the plight of Africans in China.

Meanwhile, in a well-publicized moment, a 20-year-old Shanghainese contestant to an American-Idol-like show named Lou Jing started a national debate about what it means to be Chinese. Lou, the daughter of a Chinese woman and a black American whom she has not met, considers herself completely Chinese.

Culture clash with workers

The Africans’ protests aside, foreigners working on themainland also feel the tensions that expose differences in work experience, pay levels and communication.

In the last few years, a growing number of Americans in their 20s and 30s have been heading to China for employment.

“The tight collaboration of the two countries in business and science makes the Chinese-American pairing one of the most common in the workplace in China,” said Vas Taras, a management professor at the University oforth Carolina at Greensboro, a specialist in cross-cultural work group management.

But the two groups were raised differently.

The Americans have had more exposure to free-market principles. “Young Americans were brough up in a commercial environment,” said Zhao Neng, 28, a senior associate at Blue Oak Capital, a private equity firm based in Beijing. “We weren’t. So the workplace provides a unique learning process for my generation.”

Sean Leow, 28, founder of Neocha, a social networking site based in Shanghai, says young Chinese employees often enter jobs with less hands-on preparation. They may also have less understanding about client services, he said.

In addition, he said, “I know a lot of my Chinese colleagues did not do internships in college,” in contrast to US student.