Clever Turtles

Growing up in the Netherlands as a Chinese I cannot remember a moment in which I felt I was treated differently because of my ethnicity. There have been curious questions and misunderstandings, especially in the early days when Asia was not regarded yet as an upcoming economical force but as just some mysterious incomprehensible piece of land in the East.

The other day, in my search for a better-paid job, I called about this English teaching job. I started out the interview in English and the woman on the other side of the phone was very happy and positive about me calling. She suggested we could meet next week. Then at the end of the phone call I mentioned to her that I am actually Chinese, but grew up in the Netherlands. She stopped me in the middle of the sentence saying that I should have mentioned this to her earlier so we could have saved both of us some time. The school was not looking for anybody with English skills; they specifically wanted a person who looked foreign. Otherwise the students' parents might object, because they want their kids to be taught English by a foreign looking teacher.

A friend told me that her friend, who is of Taiwanese descent and has a degree in Child Development, applied for an English teaching job here in China and got through the phone and e-mail formalities without any problems. The day of the face-to-face interview, she walked into the director's office, only to get one glance from the director who immediately threw her out before the interview even started, because she simply did not look foreign.

It's funny that my first personal experience with discrimination did not happen in the Netherlands or anywhere else in Europe, but right here in the Motherland, where I was discriminated because I look like one of them. I was discriminated by the Chinese because I look Chinese. How messed up is that?