Cultural background to Danish politician’s hate of Chinese

“I hope that it will be 140 degrees and that all the Chinese will burn, so the world will be free of that Chinese filth.”

That was the dramatic statement which a Danish local politician, Fuat Yalan – originally from Turkey – suddenly one day seemingly out of the blue wrote on his Facebook page.

When the local newspaper Helsingør Dagblad called him on the phone, he even elaborated:

“If there was a Chinese person in front of me right now I would shoot him. I don’t care if I’m thrown out of the party, kicked out of Denmark or shot myself. I don’t care about politics and I stand by my words.”

In the following days, the Chinese Embassy in Denmark expressed its shock over the statement and his political party, the Social Democrats, demanded that he resigns from the party.

What happened?

Fuat Yalan himself has explained that he was misunderstood. His hatred was of course not towards all Chinese, but he was really upset because he had just watched a youtube video where he had seen some Chinese people abusing a white boy.

Fuat Yalan believed that what he had watched in the video clip was a mob of Chinese people, who kicked and pulled the hair of a little white boy. His conclusion was that they did this because he was white. One of the Chinese even crushed  the fingers of the boy by stepping on his hand. Bystanders did nothing to intervene.

boy

On other websites, where people able to understand Chinese have discussed the incident, it turns out that the boy is in fact racially an Uyghur – a Turkic ethnic group living in the Xinjiang province of China. They are often blue eyed. The harsh treatment was linked to a theft, possibly of a motorcycle, by some other people who managed to get away while the boy was caught. The angry man says he wants his property back, a person understanding the language in the video explains.

The video with his and other comments is found here:
https://thisaintnews.com/view/video/105442/Chinese-men-beat-up—crush–the-hand-of-a-small-boy-in-China–GRAPHIC-

The violence in the video is upsetting, especially when you believe that what you are witnessing is a racist attack on a small boy and hear the screams of the little boy.

Apart from the attack itself, there is also a cultural dimension to the inactivity of the bystanders. Another hard-to-watch video shows how a little 2 year old Chinese girl is run over by a car in a narrow and busy street full of people. Several normal Chinese pass by her without helping the seriously injured girl. A second car runs over her but this time only over her legs. Eventually a garbage scavenger risks getting involved by crying for help and finally her mother appears – and the scavenger quickly disappears, too.

The reluctance to get involved is blamed on a famous case from Nanjing where a judge ruled that the person who brought an injured person to the hospital had responsibility for the injuries. But it runs deeper in the Chinese culture than this rather recent case from 2006.

In one of the comments, a viewer tries to explain:

“With regards to this incident, we first cannot blame the driver, who makes a living with his physical labor. We cannot close our eyes and demand that he bear too much responsibility, as he didn’t mean to hit someone either, and it was definitely very difficult to have noticed [the child], and afterward he was conflicted too, only he was afraid of bearing the burden of compensation and that’s why he chose to run away. I can sympathize with him. After all, running away means still having a life to live while not running might mean his life is completely ruined. Though running away means his conscience is to be condemned, how important is one’s conscience for the rabble where simply getting enough to eat is already a major accomplishment? Not betraying one’s conscience in reality is a kind of spiritual luxury.”

“The people who passed by are also not worthy of being blamed. To conclude that they are cold-blooded for turning a blind eye is a bit arbitrary. If it were a small cat or a small dog struggling on the ground, I think they would definitely give their attention, even kneel down to investigate the injuries, maybe even carrying them home to nurse them back to health. But when it is a child, everyone pretends they don’t see, it is always like this, almost without exception. This is not about whether or not a person is cold-blooded or not cold-blooded, but it is definitely about there being a very serious problem in society. These days, it is better to be less involved than more involved. Getting involved may very well mean getting majorly screwed. There are really too many of these kind of precedents, and everyone has silently evolved from these observations. No one is more qualified than anyone else to criticize.”

The video with the above comment appears in this news clip – after the advertisement: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzEzMDY4OTcy.html

The statement issued by the Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen after the Danish politician’s outburst of hate towards the Chinese does not reflect any of this background.

“We have noted the remarks. We are deeply shocked and vehemently against the irresponsible and extremist comments from a specific Danish politician and we don’t want to see a similar thing happen again,” Fu Wenyan, a spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy, wrote to Danish paper Ekstra Bladet.

“We also noticed that many Danes have voiced concern over the irresponsible comments. That proves that extremist words and racist actions will not win the day,” the statement added.

 

About Gregers Møller

Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

View all posts by Gregers Møller

15 Comments on “Cultural background to Danish politician’s hate of Chinese”

  1. Pathetic little coward. I can understand this little wimpy turk felt the ridicule and contempt directed at his country in Western Europe these days, and took his anger out on an easy target so he can avert the humiliation on his own part.

    I bet if you drop him in Beijing now he will immediately shout “I love China! Death to Denmark!”

    Pathetic little creep!

  2. To Shanghai Wu: hope u come back and read this. just clarify a fact: This Fuat Yalan is not Danish, he is turkish. next time, read and understand clearly before reply. (I am a chinese btw). as for the video, according to the voices in it, the kid belong to a group stealing things (including motor?), when people (victims as well) found out, the adult thieves run away and the kid was left behind. the kid is poor and not responsible due to his age, but the adults behind him should be the most responsible! what the law says of adults instigating 8-year kid(s) into crimes?

  3. We don’t understand why modern European, well educated, rich in their life materially and spiritually, can put on a colored glasses to see China and Chinese. Imagine you have over billion peoples, most of them not even have primary school education, not even go abroad seeing this world, facing a group of greedy and corruptive government officials, what do you expect the governor of this country to do? You can’t put most of the officials to jail in one day, and you can’t fire them (like what Fuat Yalan said) at their back, you can’t even lauch a democratic vote in the country because they are not ready, what can you do? Other than long time education plus tighter policy, you can’t change the sky in one day.

    We do not want to see this world is full of hatred, fight, surveillance, enemy, war…, we would like to have peace, allow time for our people to live and grow. If you really understand Chinese, we are people love peace, we have zero history to attackmother people, oppositely, we are always victim of being attacked…

    I sincerely ask you guys, do not force Chinese to become hostile, because that’s not our nature. Blaming and pointing are most welcomed for our wrong doing, but discriminating is not acceptable.

  4. china is not even worth commenting on. such a place where human dignity and compassion does not exist makes me sick.

  5. Fart Yalan is not doing any good for Denmark. Like Bin Laden, he should go back to Turkey to further his cause. Denmark has enough of these bigots. They do not represent Denmark and a danger to the Danish society.

  6. Ooh! we do not know Danish hate us that much! Now we know it! But I will suggest Fuat Yalan to take advise from his friends in Danmark, i.e. to hate Chinese in his heart but not to speak out. We will only hate Danish in our heart and will not speak out as well. We will of course try to avoid Danish, because you are thinking of burning us by 140 degrees!

  7. And, Fuat Yalan, I am not curse you and threaten you in anyways, because if I do, then I will be just as disgusting as you!

  8. I think politician such as Fuat Yalan should not be in politics. He is clearly driven by passion and he himself is a great example of a racist extremist! Just because of someone done things wrong, the whole nation needs to be punished? Seriously, what is the difference between you and Bin La-din? There are many extremists in Turkey, so does it mean everyone there SHOULD be killed alive.
    The Turkey boy was a thief, and I am not excuse for what they have done. But isn’t Fuat stupid for saying such curse?! If there is a hell, I think you should be burned and roasted first.
    In my mind, he should definitely be FIRED. If a politician cannot keep a cool mind and make a fair judgement about society, then it is far too dangerous to let them having too much power. If people such as Fuat Yalan stays in power, then I am sure the world will see another Hiltler soon.

  9. Again, the first video is not about racism in China, Uyghurs are so bold in crime because they enjoy a rather loose law in China. A Han in Chana will be executed if he rape and kill a girl. For a Uyghur, it is only 5 yrs in jail. if Fuat Yalan love his people so much, go back to Turkey and help the religion reformation,instead barking all the way in Denmark. And you Europeans don’t get so happy to see these, the Christian world is the number one oppressor to Islamic world and its greatest enemy, not us. Have fun in your anti-terrorist war with Islam Jihad and Neo-Nazist.

  10. well, the boy was a little thief, and the guy did beat him up and the old woman did talked the man out of this. Still, there is no reason for Fuat Yalan to say shit like that. He should think why his people dropped from the glorious Osman empire to little thief in first place. other wise, hope he get shot by a bullet covered with lard. period.

  11. A cruel nation will never develop and reach the top, a unself-esteem people will never receive respect from other people. That’s what i teach you Fuat Yalan. You r welcome.

  12. parochial thinking. Bad thing exist in every country, even in Denmark.If a politician said a word like that, it prove that he is a parochial and radical man. no difference between he n Bin Laden.

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