It was a touching scene. A young American male sat outside of a McDonaldâs in Nanjing, sharing a meal with a homeless lady. He had purchased two orders of French fries and poured water into her water bottle.
A passerby snapped photos and uploaded them onto a Chinese social working site. Online, people praised the young manâwhose name is Jason Looseâand gave him the nickname âBrother Friesâ. This wasnât the only recent act of laowai (foreign) kindness: earlier this month, a Brazilian man got beat up as he attempted to stop a robbery.
And just as the Chinese internet dubbed both heroes, a 25 year-old British man was caught allegedly molesting multiple women and raping one. An altercation broke out and the 25-year was beaten senseless. Online, forums erupted with some stating how awful foreigners were.
In much of Asia, many peopleâs interaction with foreigners is somewhat limited. Maybe theyâve studied English. Maybe theyâve met foreigners in bars. But simple math says that the vast majority of the population will not have any sort of meaningful interaction, such as being neighbors, work colleagues or even friends.
This isnât due to racism in countries like, say, China, South Korea, or Japan. Like I said, itâs simple math: the number of foreigners is comparatively smaller, so not everyone has the opportunity to pursue a deeper interaction. Thus, much of peopleâs perception of foreigners is based entirely on things they read online or popular culture they absorb. This isnât unique to Asia. This is, however, also why foreigners (in Japan, at least) are often peppered with possibly irksome questions and comments. People have a perception, which informs the things they ask and the things they think.
âAfter I grabbed his neck and saw heâs a laowai, I felt more obligated to save the girl.â
The recent footage of 25 year-old British man, who is in China on a tourist visa, underscored everything awful imaginable. Besides the footage of the inebriated man appearing to rape a woman near Beijingâs Xuanwumen Station (footage that has been analyzed as if it were Blow-Up), social networking sites supposed revealed photos of that same individual Itâs difficult to make out whatâs going on in the pictures, but the uploader claimed a bald foreigner was thrusting his erection towards women. The photos were apparently earlier that same evening, before the alleged rape incident occurred.
In the video (viewable here, viewer discrention recommended), the woman said she does not know the man. Her underwear was exposed. The man who first appeared in the video was a 24 year-old security guard from a nearby building. âAfter I grabbed his neck and saw heâs a laowai, I felt more obligated to save the girl,â he told the Global Times. Does that mean heâd be less obligated if the accused rapist was Chinese?
âPictures showing a foreigner helping a Chinese might help raise public awareness about doing good deeds.â
The beatdown the British man was filmed and uploaded online with the title: âLaowai, Weâre Going To Kick Your Ass Out of Chinaâ. The man, who speaks no Chinese and who is on a tourist visa, is currently in police custody. Chinese legal experts think heâll serve about two weeks in detention and then be deported.
The whole incident clashed with the foreigners-sure-are-nice attitude that the media played up, and itâll serve to reinforce any unsavory stereotypes people in China have. Many people, no doubt, are able to make the distinction between the individual and the group, but not everyone.
Whatâs more, making divisions, such as foreign or native, cannot be helped. This is a foreign man in China. That is no mistake. However, these same distinctions cause people to lose sight of the individual. Instead of thinking that a foreign sharing his food with a homeless lady means all foreigners are nice, itâs more accurate to note that the act is revealing about this particular individual. The same holds true for the British man. Whatâs lost in this is the big sweeping brushstrokes that the word âforeignerâ leaves out. Even if itâs being used in a neutral context, it separates âusâ and âthemâ. This is underscored in Looseâs reaction to his generosity.
âI shall never gain such wide attention in the U.S. by doing so,â Loose wrote online about his French fry sharing. âOne reason could be I am not a âlaowaiâ (foreigner) at home. Another is this kind of thing is quite common in America.â
But this goes even further. Li Yonggang, a professor who teaches Internet phenomenon at Nanjing University, told the Global Times, âPictures showing a foreigner helping a Chinese might help raise public awareness about doing good deeds.â By that logic, video of a foreigner doing awful things might help public awareness about doing evil deeds. But the sticking point is whether these individuals are behaving this way because itâs their personalityâwhether that is good or badâor because they are in another country and behaving in a manner that they never would at homeâwhether thatâs doing good deals or truly deplorable ones.
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(Top photo: Sina Weibo/Youku)
