Yellow+peril+slurs+stain+rainbow+nation,+D+Accone,+Mail+and+Guardian

Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, //20 May 2007 11:59//
='Yellow peril' slurs stain the rainbow nation=


 * Darryl Accone: COMMENT**

It was from Canton, now known as Guangzhou, that the first wave of Chinese immigrants sailed to South Africa in the 1870s. There had been Chinese in the country well before: the Dutch brought Chinese labour from their colony of Batavia as early as 1658, for example. But the 19th-century migrants from the southern ­province now known as Guangdong are the ­ancestors of most South African-born Chinese.

Today there are three distinct ­Chinese communities in South Africa. The longest established is the South African-born Chinese community descended from the initial Cantonese settlers. Now in their third, fourth or fifth generation here, they have diversified beyond small family-run businesses into the professions.

The Taiwanese community was drawn here beginning in the 1970s, when Pretoria sought an alliance with the then Republic of China/Taiwan. Initially, Taiwanese investors were attracted by an industrial development policy that encouraged foreign investment in or near the Bantustans.

Vigorous bilateral relations between Pretoria and Beijing have led over the past decade to a growing influx from the People’s Republic of China, whose effect on business is considerable. The mushrooming of a second Chinatown in the east Johannesburg suburb of Cyrildene attests to the third wave of Chinese immigrants.

The newest arrivals have exerted a marked effect in another key area: the image that South Africans have of Chinese. It is these “new Chinese” who have borne the brunt of recent Yellow Peril treatment in the media.

Through its history of ­struggle, South Africa has made a huge contribution to the idea of human dignity. This makes it doubly tragic that this fearful old racist slur -- that the “yellow” races might overrun the world -- should resurface here.

I write as a South African-born Chinese. I am, first, deeply distressed by the racial stereotyping and caricaturing of “new Chinese” -- and hence all Chinese -- by certain South African media commentators.

Even more worrying is the increasing number of violent crimes committed against Chinese. Gino Feng, founder and editor of China Express, the most widely read ­Chinese- language newspaper in South Africa, was murdered two weeks ago. A friend of mine was ­tortured with a hot iron in her house by robbers demanding cash -- hers is but one of many typical cases. Many Chinese ascribe such acts, in part, to the perpetuation of stereotypes and ignorance by the media.

Most disturbing of all is the situation of South African Chinese vis-à-vis the government. Chinese were classified non-white in the old South Africa, but in the new South Africa we are struggling for government recognition of that history of official discrimination. The South African Chinese community has resorted to the Constitutional Court, where it will be represented by George Bizos, in an attempt to be accorded previously disadvantaged status.

It seems that many South Africans -- apparently even some in government, who have far less excuse for such ignorance -- believe that under apartheid Chinese were accorded official status as “honorary whites”. Not so: Japanese businesspeople were classified as “honorary whites” -- a “status” about which they were, understandably, not particularly happy.

Chinese under the National Party, and the various governments preceding that, were classified ­variously as non-European, coloured, Chinese or non-white.

All the odious apparatus of apartheid legislation applied to the Chinese. The Immorality Act and Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act ensured that they could not marry freely. The Group Areas Act meant they could not live or trade where they wished.

In sum, to be classified non-white meant you were severely disadvantaged. While apartheid legislation reserved the worst treatment for Africans, its discrimination was absolute: it absolutely advantaged whites and absolutely discriminated against non-whites.

Yet the government is unwilling to grant previously disadvantaged status to South African Chinese. Nor is there room for us in the employment equity stakes even though, for generations, Chinese were restricted in the schools and universities they could attend, and the jobs they could seek.

But rather than intelligently examining the position of Chinese communities in South Africa, the media seem determined to add Chinese to Zimbabweans, Somalis, Nigerians and countless other despised makwerekwere who know all too much about ­the stoking of hatred of foreigners in this country.

Neither that nor the government’s attitude to Chinese is in keeping with what South Africans tirelessly tout as the most liberal Constitution in the world.


 * //Darryl Accone is books editor//

From: [|**http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=308938&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/**]

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