BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY New trend? Chinese migrant workers in Africa marry black women

Opinion

by Clutch Magazine

Over the weekend I stumbled across an interesting article on The Atlantic about Chinese workers in Africa marrying “locals.” The article, “Chinese Workers in Africa Who Marry Locals Face Puzzled Reception at Home,” was based on a post on the site ChinaSmack that wondered if these new marriages could be the key to solving the gender imbalances in China.

Because boys are lauded in Chinese culture and because families are limited to only one child per household, men far outnumber women in China. One of the many problems this creates manifests itself in dating and marriage. Some estimate that for every 100 Chinese women, there are 110 Chinese men, which leaves many men uncoupled and unmarried. And apparently, Chinese workers in Africa are finding ways to level the playing field.

Despite the growing trend of Chinese workers marrying local African women, predictably, many in their home country have a lot to say about it. On the Chinese culture blog, ChinaSmack, one writer suggests that the “large-scale” marrying of African women could be the key to Chinese men finding love, but of course, only if they marry “high end black girls” without “greasy skin.”

Fauna of ChinaSmack translates:

Chinese women marrying blacks is no longer something rare, whereas in comparison men very rarely dare to bring black girls back home to China. I won’t say anything and go ahead and post the photos.

In my neighborhood is a Chinese engineer who returned from Angola, and his wife is a black girl. However, she’s one of those very pretty high-end black girls. She’s very slender and not one of those fat auntie types. Her skin also isn’t the kind of oily/greasy black but rather black-brownish and more brown. They have two children, about five or six years old, twin boys.

As for their appearance, unfortunately, the father’s genes were really too strong. Aside from their skin being slightly darker, their faces look very much like their daddy.

Large-scale marrying of African women can effectively solve China’s male-female sex-ratio imbalance problem!

Although I’m sure something is lost in translation, I’d wager that the intent of this writer — to encourage Chinese men to marry the right kind of African women — remains intact. And judging from the comments on the ChinaSmack website, many of these men and their wives will face discrimination, racist rhetoric, and down-right disgusting behavior when/if they decide to return to China.