Chinese inclusion

The Economist ran an article about California’s saying “sorry” for the 19th century Chinese Exclusion Act.

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14140230

Reminds me of another legislation which seeks to undo the harm (face-saving) of the Japanese-American internment years.Even as recent as the early 80’s, we still read about “Yellow peril” (Vincent Chen got killed on his Bachelor night out).

Maybe it’s not too late to open the flood gate at the Golden Gate . After all, the surplus Chinese construction labor has spurred abroad, this time to Africa in a labor-for-oil deal. In China Safari, the authors seemed to conclude that China (the Dragon) is merely flexing its teeth, anticipating a bigger bite at the American and European pies.

A few facts on the matter:

– China’s one-child policy, in couple with its cultural preference for a male offspring, has produced a huge manual labor force, readily and eagerly to be exported (even down to Vietnam, where red carpets are rolled out for them)

– Africa wanted to court a new and future Super Power, in the hope that it can at least have a say in the post-colonial  rules of engagement (infrastructure deals help African leaders to boast, while the Chinese auto owners can rest assure at the pumps)

– and last but not least, Chinese goods always seek new consumer markets, in Michael Jackson’s song “doesn’t matter if you are black or white”.

I was in three West African countries a while ago. And I was even entertained overnight at my friend’s home in Ghana.

While in Africa, I was greeted as a foreigner, not a minority as in the US, and people were genuinely friendly and diplomatic, not tolerant and/or apprehensive (this works both ways as well). Looking back from the vantage point of 2009, with Japanese-American internment/apology, the Chinese Exclusion Act/apology, we can anticipate a few more Asian “Frank McCourt’s”  outside of the already Asian-participated  Tech world.

The Chinese laborers in Africa today are better received than their counterparts in the 19th century (the US railways coolies). And while there aren’t that many Asian-Black inter-marriages in the US, we will see a significant number in future Africa (even if the Angolan government is trying to discourage any inter-mingling of the opposite sex).

From there, we can extrapolate that there will be more of Yao Ming’s,  Yahoo, and YouTube founders.

Just take a look at Tiger Wood, an icon of mixed race. And one can see the future of  Africa.

At least, we don’t hear much about H1N1 from Africa. The bugs somehow spared the once-labeled Dark continent this time around. Build baby build!  Just remember to save some Safari land for me. Maybe the Chinese construction companies will need to hire ESL teachers, and most importantly, cross-cultural communicators who can arbitrate differences and disagreements, maybe over a Blue Ribbon as they did last Friday outside of the White House .