Netizens Outraged at George Ding’s “Return to China”

Our “Peking Man” columnist George Ding has found himself at the center of an online firestorm this past few days, after his “Why I’m Coming Back to China” piece (published in the Beijinger’s December issue) was translated by several bloggers and reposted on Sina Weibo by multiple Chinese media outlets, including business news giant Caijing.

The background: George’s November column, entitled “Why I’m Leaving China,” was a satirical take on the numerous farewell-to-China articles that had been published by expats winding down their China experiences. Some people didn’t get the joke.

For his December column, George thought the obvious next step would be that his fictitious alter-ego, having returned home, would struggle to adapt and make a hasty return to China, having “missed being the center of attention just because I was foreign. I hadn’t counted on the fact that going back to my home country meant that I was not going to be a foreigner at all.”

So that was “Why I’m Coming Back to China.” And this time even more people missed the point.

At first, George was slammed on our own blog, being labeled a “racist” by one reader and criticized by an intern’s father for writing “in poor taste,” but nothing could prepare him for what would happen when his article blew up on Chinese blogs and social media.

The first bloggers who translated George’s piece into Chinese, Fei Xionghao (飞熊号) and Yao Hong’en (姚鸿恩), seem to have seen the humor. However, when Yao reposted his translation to web portal 163.com’s education channel, things started to get out of hand. Over 4,000 readers viewed the page, with over 200 comments posted, and many of those failing to realize that the “laowai loser” depicted in George’s piece was a fictional creation bearing no resemblance to George himself and – we really hope – little resemblance to any foreigner living in Beijing.

The eruption continued over the weekend, the translations were reposted on Sina Weibo by numerous Chinese media, most notably Caijing.com.cn. It wasn't clear to us whether Caijing thought the article was genuine or not, but Caijing’s post has so far been shared over 800 times, with over 300 comments. Some readers have seen the joke, but many others have heaped scorn, ridicule, abuse and condemnation upon poor old George.

We can understand why people missed the joke, especially those reading George’s piece in a second language. We also assume many didn’t read the piece and jumped to conclusions based on the headlines used by the various Chinese media who posted the story to Weibo. Still, it’s pretty tragic that some people have such low expectations of foreigners that they could believe this story, not to mention such a low estimation of the reasons why China is an attractive place to so many foreigners. People, it’s really not all about cheap beer and having an ayi wash your socks.

Our favorite conspiracy theory so far: George Ding is being paid by the Chinese government to slander life in America and promote a rose-tinted view of the joys of life in Beijing.

To clarify: George Ding writes frequently satirical columns for the Beijinger magazine. His “Why I’m Leaving China” and “Why I’m Coming Back to China” were definitely satirical and not at all a true reflection of George's personal opinions or circumstances. George Ding is definitely not a racist. Nor is he a loser, and to our knowledge he does not steal money from his parents. He may well be a secret agent hell-bent on convincing the world that China is a better place to live than the United States. What do you think?