Nick wrote:
Louis Blair wrote:
I wrote:
In Sam Sloan's book on Chinese Chess, he described
the atmosphere of the game as being quite different
from that at a European chess event. Evidently, there
was a lot of crowd participation. Perhaps we need to
be more like the Chinese.

Nick wrote (31 Jan 2006 19:15:46 -0800):

Some of my context was snipped by Louis Blair.

If 'you' were perceived as 'more like the Chinese',
then 'you' would experience more racist stereotyping,
condescension, prejudice, and hatred in the West.

In the interest of clarity, I have not noticed any racist
comments by Louis Blair in rec.games.chess.*
What I wrote was not intended as a personal criticism
of Louis Blair, and I regret it if Louis Blair got the
impression that it was such a personal criticism.

I have noticed racist comments (not necessarily against
the Chinese) from at least several American writers
in rec.games.chess.*. I also have noticed that
most writers in rec.games.chess.* tend to write
of the Chinese in terms of ignorant stereotypes.

But *it's true* that Chinese people have often, if not
usually, experienced racist stereotyping, condescension,
prejudice, or hatred in the West. There's ample
evidence (including that cited in books by some
Western scholars) to support that statement.

I do not know to what extent Louis Blair
may or may not be aware of those facts.

Until a few years ago, I would hear some Western
chess players saying (with varying degrees of
euphemism) that it must be impossible for any
Chinese players ever to play chess as well as
strong Western GMs.

By the way, Chinese teams have dominated the
recent International Mathematical Olympiads.

Does Nick deny the existence of differences of
custom and culture between Europe and China?

I suspect that I understand more about 'the existence
of differences of custom and culture between Europe
and China' than Louis Blair does.

To what extent is Louis Blair aware of the existence
of anti-Chinese racism in the West, particularly in
the United States (where Louis Blair lives)?

If not, is there a way to refer to such differences
without someone feeling obliged to start talking
about "racist stereotyping, condescension,
prejudice, and hatred"?

In fact, 'racist stereotyping, condescension, prejudice,
(or) hatred' have been common experiences of Chinese
people in Western societies. In fact, anti-Chinese
racism was long written into US laws (such as the
Chinese Exclusion Act).

A good general book about this subject is
"Chinese America: The Untold Story of America's
Oldest New Community" (2005)
by Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic.
(Dusanka Miscevic is Peter Kwong's wife/partner).

The last sentence (above) may not necessarily be accurate.

As I recalled, the book described the backgrounds of
Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic and mentioned
that they are living in New York City, in a context
that seemed to imply that they are living together.
After checking the book, it does not state explicitly
that they are living together, so the current status of
their relationship cannot be inferred with certainty.

I hope that Louis Blair will read that book,
though I don't expect him to do so.

--Nick