I have blogged about race and Chinese identity before (most prominently here and here).  So, when I saw the stories about Lou Jing, a young Shanghai woman whose mother is Chinese and whose father is African-American, I took notice. 

I am a bit late to this story.  Shanghaiist and ChinaSmack and China Hush have all covered it, and they have all brought to light the inhumane and vicious attacks that Lou Jing has suffered on certain Chinese web sites.   It seems that many Chinese netizens resist (some in the crudest racist terms) the possibility that a black woman could claim Chinese identity.  But, if we were to follow a Confucian understanding of identity, they would be wrong.

For Confucius, "Chinese-ness," which is coterminous with civilization, is not a racial category but a cultural practice. The central value of
Humanity (ren) is an ethical ideal that anyone can pursue and accomplish. 
If you act humanely, you are humane, regardless of national or social status. That kind of openness allowed Confucianism, and the Chinese empires that embraced it, to absorb "foreigners" of various sorts: Mongolians, Manchurians, etc. Granted, these ethnicities are racially closer to "Han" Chinese than are people of more immediate African ancestry.  But the point is that, in theory, there is no reason (at least no reason internal to the moral logic of Confucianism) why a black man or black woman, if they wanted to and if they embraced the appropriate cultural practices, would not be accepted a a "noble-minded" person, which would place them in the same socio-cultural category as "Chinese" who were similarly cultured.  

Long story short: a black woman can, if she is so inclined, be "Chinese."

Lou Jing hao!

In the comments below, Isha quotes Gandhi in a manner that reveals more about Isha's own prejudices than Gandhi's tolerance.   Raymond Zhou has a much more thoughtful response to the whole affair:

Actually we outsiders do not know much about Lou Jing's parents
other than that her mother had an extramarital affair with an
African-American who later left them. Lou and her mother have never
spelt it out, but it could be a number of scenarios, ranging from a
one-night stand to Romeo-and-Juliet-style passion that did not
withstand the scorn of reality. We simply do not have enough
information to pass judgment.

Yet, many simply love to be a self-appointed moral arbiter. They
don't seem to understand that whatever happened between Lou's parents,
her mother brought her up and brought her up well. From what is
reported, Lou has been a good daughter and a good student, and the
mother and daughter are close. It takes a lot of courage for Mama Lou
to let her daughter pursue such a high-profile career. Now, in this
hailstorm of denunciation, she has been hiding from work and the
repercussions will linger for some time.

….

While aesthetics is a personal choice, it is high time we introduced
some sensitivity training on races and ethnicities if we are going to
latch on to the orbit of globalization. People should realize that if
you have a right to discriminate against another race you have
automatically given others the right to discriminate against you. And
what's the rationale for filling in the post of an English-language
teacher with a Caucasian who can barely speak English instead of an
African-American who qualifies on all counts?