Chinese Gamers Calling Lucky Players ‘European’, Cursed Players ‘African’

Chinese Gamers Calling Lucky Players ‘European’, Cursed Players ‘African’
May 29, 2018 By eChinacities.com

Chinese gamers are using racist terms to describe their online fortunes, with lucky players referred to as “Europeans” and unlucky players known as “Africans”.


Photo: Wikimedia

The SCMP reports that the synonyms for a player’s prowess are so commonly used that when searching for the two terms together on Chinese search engine Baidu, a long list of results about online gaming appears. Baike, China’s answer to Wikipedia, also lists “African” as an online expression that describes unlucky gamers.

It is believed the terms entered gaming language around five years ago when the Japanese game Kantai Collection was absorbing Chinese gamers. They have since evolved, with “European emperor” describing the most fortunate of players, and “African tribal chief” describing the least. Those “stealing into Europe from Africa” have seen their fortunes change.

Gamers have also been using the stereotypes to mock themselves for their misfortunes on social media. One video shows gamers in dark makeup and leopard print costumes singing about being African tribal chiefs, the Post reports.

Although the terms have not yet penetrated outside of the gaming community, observers say they reflect casual racism in Chinese society. Niesha Davis, a Shanghai-based writer and editor, called the nicknames “microagressions”.

“When using ‘African being black’ and ‘European being white’, it perpetuates a racial stereotype ... and perpetuates a culture of negative connotations pointing towards black people, and faux superiority towards whiteness,” Davis said.

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Keywords: Chinese gamers European African

3 Comments

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ambivalentmace

Racists are in every country, but unlike most countries where you could call them stupid, here, you can add ignorant and stupid to the description.

May 30, 2018 06:40 Report Abuse

andybrocks2012

agree

May 30, 2018 14:54 Report Abuse