Sorry, I forgot about this thread among all the spam messages!
Dwarkin CrispyCritter On the contrary, I do know that (though less true now than it used to be). How is it you know that I didn't know that?
Because people who know it usually don't judge Chinese as racist. I've never heard anyone accusing Chinese in it when I lived there and interacted with many foreigners.
Then they don't know history very well. I agree that racism in China is different from the present racism in the US. and Europe. But it is very similar to the less overt racism that existed decades ago in the areas where black presence was under 1-2% (50 years ago in some non-South parts of the US, a bit less for Europe). Racism becomes much more overt when the majority culture feel threatened by the minorities.
We saw that in China in the Chinese protests against the favorable treatment of blacks in the student riots of the 1980s. And again we saw the racist treatment of blacks in the recent Covid scares as Chinese folks felt threatened. But as you say, it hasn't affected most Chinese because they've never encountered blacks.
Can the Chinese culture change to accommodate its blacks and ethnic minorities? The jury is still out. The Chinese culture is much more top-down than the US, so different paths will be taken. But the situation as you describe it is not encouraging.
Joking:
Dwarkin Since we read novels targeted to the Chinese readers, they can be considered as "friends" and we as "strangers". They also joke about Chinese culture and stereotypes, and some of the jokes are really harsh
Sorry, stereotype jokes based upon race are racist, and intended to put down their target. You are correct that there are some very savage sterotypes aimed at Chinese sub-groups (greedy businessmen, haughty government officials), but none of those are race-based; they're subgroup based. I don't see negative jokes like "You can't feed a Chinese child bread (or something skin colored) because they will bite their fingers off" that are negative and apply to all Chinese.
Whiteness: There is no way to favor white skin color without regarding black as inferior. If any opportunity is lost due to black skin color, it is racism.
Marriage: Socially forbidding inter-racial marriage is a major racist action. It's very easy to determine a minority spouse is "not one of us" and immediately shun them, while couples of the same race will get a "bye" until they get known as individuals. Very different race-based treatment.
All in all, you have presented a strong case that racism is pervasive throughout Chinese culture.
Dwarkin Considering the context you provided it is indeed too much for a joke, even a harsh one. IDK what caused the author to write this, and I admit that he's possibly a racist. But 99.9% of other cases of "racism" (from what I read), where people complain in the comments, it's just a joke that is too hard for a western, politically correct, mind.
Since Chinese people like to repeat important things I'll do it too - that was indeed too much to consider it as a joke.
(edited to add a blank line here so my response is not part of his quote!)
Thank you. I agree that it's unusual, by a fair bit. My records show I've completed substantial parts of over 80 webnovels, and this is the only one that I've abandoned because of racism. There was still noticeable racism in several others (not counting the often very strange treatment of blacks upon in-story visits to the US), though not nearly as offensive. (I give a bit of a pass to Japanese bigotry, given the strong ill-feelings on both sides are too recently caused historically.) But note that what you earlier judged as just joking turned into extremely offensive racism. You are making a distinction with your joking that is not part of the Western definition of racism.