I thought it was the Manchurians who made the Chinese their bitches? They even made the men grow pigtails!!!

The Manchurians burst into China yelling “Cook the man some fucking eggs bitch!” and instantly the Chinese were falling over themselves to obey.

The only Chinaman who showed the Manchurians some spunk was Koxinga. But he had a Japanese mum who raised him not to be a kowtowing coward.

Nature versus nurture – not much of an argument when you’re talking about the Han, eh bro?

I don’t think you need to compare contemporary China to late 19th century Europe to come up with similar dynamics. Speaking from personal experience this sort of cultural/racial essentialism is still going on at all-white high schools in middle of the United States; I’ve heard the way the preternatural skills of the one black kid on the basketball team are spoken of with awe and reverence. The way his body is seen as in a different category from everyone else.

China has it’s own unique genealogy of race and nationalism to deal with. Susan Brownwell’s book Training the Body for China (http://amzn.to/1cJfukd) is easily the best account of the history of competitive sports in China and how they link up with ideas of the nation. The short version has to do with the way Western colonialism introduced ideas of China as the “sick man of Asia,” how this racist discourse has been internalized, contested and reproduced in opposition to other nations. There is a nice article by Gladys Chong (http://dare.uva.nl/document/482104) that discusses this legacy by considering the way the hurdler Liu Xiang and others embody a new form of Chinese masculinity.

Belle Epoque. . . suck my cock!

I’m struck by the quote from Liu Jianhong on the bodies of Uyghurs/minorities – it strongly reminds me of the Belle Epoque European obsession with national masculinity and how other nations/races (be they Germans, to the French, or peoples of Asia/Africa/Americas to other Europeans) were more “virile” or “masculine” and so presented a threat.

Have you noticed any similar threads running through Han Chinese society?