Stereotypes of Chinese People

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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    China has the largest population of any nation in the world. Chinese people are often stereotyped as being of a single ethnicity, when in fact the population of China is made up of many ethnic groups.

    Western media

    In Western media, they often get lumped in with other East Asians.

    Western tropes specific to Chinese people alone include

    • Chinese Laborer - Thousands of young Chinese men migrated to western North America and Australia in the hope striking it rich off the Gold Rushes there (in the mid-Nineteenth Century). They, and particularly successful individuals, quickly became resented. Especially when the prospect of miscegenation arose due to the gender imbalance.
    • Chinese Launderer - In The Wild West, and the inner-city slums of England, many launderers were Chinese in origin, and were... frowned upon.
    • China Takes Over the World - Yep. Because with Japan not what it once was, global conquest predictions have to go somewhere.
    • Inscrutable Oriental
    • Yellow Peril

    Japanese media

    In Japanese media, Chinese people often have a much more specific depiction. They have prominent roles in many anime, especially in fighting anime. Not surprising, given the length of China and Japan's relationship, plus the fact that there are a lot of Chinese people on the planet. Very seldom born in Japan, members of this trope are usually from mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan. Often drawn in anime with narrower eyes, though this may not be the case with a main character or cute Chinese Girl. Hei, with "normal eyes", from Darker than Black is a case in point, with every other Chinese character in the series appearing with narrower than normal eyes.

    Japanese tropes specific to Chinese people include

    General tropes that occur in Japanese portrayals of Chinese people include

    • Funny Foreigner - Chinese is a stock funny foreigner type in anime.
    • Stock Foreign Name - A high chance of having the last name 'Li/Lee," although this does have basis in fact with Li, Wang, and Zhang being the three most common Chinese surnames. Wong is a variant that almost every character from Hong Kong gets.
    • The Triads and the Tongs - Will often be part of families, or organizations with a lot of power and wealth, implied to be the Triads. Eg. Mr. Chang from Black Lagoon, the Tao family from Shaman King, or the Li family from CCS.
    • Verbal Tic - They will be portrayed with particular speech idiosyncracies (such as ending sentences with "aru yo"), although there's a decent chance their Chinese will actually be intelligible.

    Examples for any of these tropes or stereotypes should go under the relevant sub-entry, not on this page.

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