City perspective: Guangzhou

I'm reading this interesting article on the influx of African immigrants into Guangzhou, China (here) and, having just been there and witnessed it myself, it kind of struck a chord with me. One little event that has stuck with me since my trip (bearing in mind my trip just ended two days ago) was going into a little noodle shop in Guangzhou and seeing a family of four: mum, dad and two little kids. For me it seemed pretty unusual because the mum was Chinese (probably Cantonese, and yes there IS a difference) but dad and the kids looked African. This was especially surprising for me, as you see the white male/Chinese woman combination a lot, but never this.

For the most part (my family included) the Chinese people that I've encountered are quite racist against Africans and people with dark skin. Or if not racist, ignorant at least. So it was a bit unusual. But for me, what made me look twice, three times, more, were the little kids speaking Chinese. I know that it would make sense for them to speak Chinese if they were brought up in China and attended a Chinese school but... I kept looking over and eavesdropping shamelessly, wanting to hear more.

I'm used to seeing/hearing foreigners speak Chinese now of course, but these little kids spoke Chinese like native Chinese children. Of course they were young so they spoke of child-like things and teased each other. It was all simple words and sentences, but if you closed your eyes you would think they were Chinese.

Is it strange that I found this situation so fascinating? It helped that the children were absolutely beautiful. Big eyes, long eyelashes, cute chubby little faces. Mixed babies are just the best.

I guess it's just something that I didn't expect to see in China, and it broke the usual stereotypes of white foreign males and Asian women that you always see around.

*edit*
I just realised that the tone and content of what I wrote doesn't quite match up to the link that I posted. However the link really is interesting! :o)