Original English article By Ikenna Emewu（the editor-in-chief of "Africa and China Media Center" in Nigeria https://africachinapresscentre.org）
英语原创作者：伊内肯•埃梅乌（尼日利亚“非洲和中国媒体中心”主编 官方网站：https://africachinapresscentre.org）
Article translation by Du Ao (Trainee english translation of "The China International Media Center" https://www.ccmc.com.cn)
中文翻译：杜澳（中国国际传播媒介中心实习英语翻译 官方网站：https://www.ccmc.com.cn）
The Chinese I know; Is he racist?
我所认识的中国人，他们并不是种族主义者！
I lived there, I worked there. I studied there. I toured there all within one year.As I compiled my reports of the vast country I came to see also as mine, I recalled a lot of good memories about China – from places to people; and all I have with me are fond memories of China. When I say China, I mean the people of China.
我曾居住在那里，我曾工作在那里，我曾学习在那里，我在一年之内游览各地。当我整理关于这个广阔的国家的资料时，我也把它看作是我的国家。我回想起许多关于中国的美好回忆，从地方到人们，给我留下的一切都是对中国的美好回忆。当我说到中国时，我指的是中国人民。
I can say I saw almost all about that country touching about 18 provinces – from the east to the west, south to the north and the centre, borrowing the Chinese traditional reference order of the cardinal points.And what did I find the Chinese to be? Just the normal human being. Some embrace you, some distance you, the same mannerism you see among Nigerians and all human beings.
我可以说，我几乎看到了那个国家的所有情况。借用了中国传统的参考顺序的要点，涉及关于到18个省份，从东到西，从南到北，还有中部。我所了解的中国人是什么样的呢？他们也是普通人。有人愿意和你接触，有人会和你保持距离，就像你在尼日利亚人和其他人群中看到的一样。
Are the Chinese demons? Never! Are they all angels? Far from that. They are just like you and I. Do they hate strangers? Oh, not at all. They love people including strangers. But the Chinese is naturally shy or not too keen to open up easily, but never could be classified as cold or repelling. China, like Nigeria has all characters – the restive, the withdrawn, the loving and easy going, the troublesome and swashbuckling guy ever ready for a raw deal. Remember it is an aggregation of 1.4b people – the largest lump of human beings in any single country in the world. If they are diverse characters among 200 people, I bet there would be a lot more among over a billion people.
中国人都很坏吗？他们从来都不抱有恶意。中国人都如天使般善良吗？也远非如此。他们就像你和我一样都是普通人。他们讨厌陌生人吗？当然不是，他们友爱人们包括陌生人。但中国人天性比较内敛，或者不轻易敞开心扉，但绝不能认为他们待人冷漠或排斥他人。
China, like Nigeria has all characters – the restive, the withdrawn, the loving and easy going, the troublesome and swashbuckling guy ever ready for a raw deal. Remember it is an aggregation of 1.4b people – the largest lump of human beings in any single country in the world. If they are diverse characters among 200 people, I bet ther。e would be a lot more among over a billion people.
不管在中国还是尼日利亚都是如此，所有不同的人也会有不同的性格特点：友爱、随和、暴躁、孤僻，那些令人讨厌的和弄虚作假的人当然不会受到公平的待遇。
请不要忘记，这是14亿人口的总和，中国是世界上拥有最多人口的国家。如果这只是200人中的不同角色，我保证在十几亿人中肯定会有更多形形色色的人。
As per the country, with my deliberate observation as trained reporter, I never saw a convincing reason that China is not forthright in its official relationship with Africa. I know the reasons China is sincere about Africa. They call it win-win.
就中国而言，我作为一名具有职业素养的专业记者，经过我深思熟虑的观察，我从来没有看到一个令人信服的理由表明，中国与非洲的官方关系并不坦诚。我知道中国对非洲真诚的原因。他们称之为双赢。
Ok, is the Chinese racist?
那么，中国人是种族主义者吗？
I will answer the question this way… in my book about China, I told the story of a particular friend I had in Beijing, a woman of about mid 50s by my assessment in whom I saw the entire China. She is that special kind of person, a foodstuffs seller not far from my Jianguomenwai Diplomatic quarters of Chaoyang District, close to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
我会这样回答这个问题。在我的关于中国文章作品中，我讲述了在北京遇到的一位朋友的故事，据我看来，她大约50多岁，我在她身上看到了整个中国。她是一个食品售卖者，她的店铺距离我在朝阳区建国门外的外交区不远，离中国外交部很近。
In November last year, all African media partners of the Chinese Xinhua News agency congregated on Nairobi and during the presentation of the Afri-China Media Centre, I told the gathering about this special friend of mine – the lady foodstuffs seller in Beijing that shaped my opinion of who the Chinese is towards other human beings.
去年11月，中国新华社的所有非洲媒体合作伙伴都聚集在内罗毕，在非洲-中国媒体中心的介绍会上，我向大家讲述了我这位特别的朋友—在北京售卖卖食品的人，她塑造了我对中国人对其他人的看法。
What did the woman do to earn my deep appreciation? Just two wonderful things. The first day I shopped for food in that market, she welcomed me to her stand and the trader who can’t speak a word in English language, did just more than enough communicating in the most effective language in the world – her hearty smiles. She always smiled happily whenever she saw me, spoke to me in Chinese I would not understand but knew the meaning. Some of the days I got there I saw her family members. In addition to her smiles, every visit to this great woman’s shop ended with a gift of a quantity of fresh vegetables to me. The vegetable I didn’t know the Chinese name seems to be the most prominent in China. The leaves have strong scent and minty taste.
那位女士做了什么来赢得我深深的赞赏？两件美妙的事。我在那个市场买菜的第一天，她欢迎我来到她的摊位，那个不会用英语说一个字的女士用世界上最有效的语言—她爽朗的微笑和我进行了充分的交流。每当她看到我，她总是开心地笑，用中文跟我说话，虽然我听不懂，但明白她的意思。在我到那里的一些日子里，我见到了她的家人。除了她的微笑，每次我去这位很友好的女士的店铺，她最后都会送我一份新鲜蔬菜作为礼物。我不知道蔬菜的中文名字，但似乎是中国最有名的，叶子有强烈的香味和薄荷味。
From trained hands, she would lift the vegetable and stretch to me; which I discovered was just the same quantity every time, wrapped with the wonderful smiles. As I appreciated and thanked her in my language, she would respond in hers and I bet we understood each other perfectly well. Her love was so warm and touching. It was for humanity, not race.
她用手拿起蔬菜熟练的递给我，我发现每次都是一样的数量，并且她一直带着灿烂的微笑。当我用我的语言感谢她时，她会用她的语言回应我，我敢保证我们完全理解对方。她的友爱是如此温暖和感人。这是人类之间的共鸣，跨越了种族和语言的障碍。
Another instance was a day I went to the outskirts of Beijing, so far that we exhausted the vast Beijing subway and our train ran on the surface for some miles before we arrived destination.
另外一件事情是，有一天我去了北京郊区，距离比较遥远，在到达目的地之前，我们已经乘坐了很久的北京地铁，列车还在地面上跑了几英里。
On our last lap of the train ride, my friend and colleague, Elias Mhegera from Tanzania asked a Chinese passenger how to get to our destination and the way he answered us was to drop with us away from his schedule to take us to where we were going before continuing with his own journey. On getting there, he took photos with us and exchanged Wechat contacts. The Chinese I know is the one that is more willing in a place like Beijing to direct you to where you are going more than many black people you ask in the street.
在列车旅程的最后一段，我的朋友和同事，来自坦桑尼亚的Elias Mhegera问一位中国乘客如何到达我们的目的地，他回答我们：他要改变他的行程，先带我们到达目的地，然后再继续他自己的行程。等到达了目的地，他就和我们合影并交换了联系方式。我所认识的中国人比许多黑人更愿意在北京这样的城市指引你应该如何到达目的地。
In May 2017, I arrived Beijing at about midnight, and was picked up by a taxi driver who dropped me off at my hotel and patiently waited for me who didn’t remember to get some Chinese money at the airport bureau de change to use the ATM that late, about 1am, without raising any quarrel of wasting his time.
2017年5月，我在午夜左右到达北京，一名出租车司机接走我，他把我送到酒店，耐心地等着我，由于我忘记在机场兑换中国人民币，就在那晚的凌晨1点左右使用了自动取款机，也没有引起他任何关于浪费时间的抱怨。
The following day as we readied to attend the inauguration of the Belt and Road Initiative that held on May 14, my friend, Ralph Oni and I went to a nearby hotel to pick up our press tags and materials and met two persons we later discovered to be journalists – a man and a lady. The man was later introduced as Mr. Du Xin and the lady, a reporter for the CCTV was Liao Youping. A little exchange to ask them where to get our tags exploded into good friendship that they even paid for the taxi that took Ralph and I to the next destination.
第二天，当我们准备参加5月14日举行的“一带一路倡议”的就职典礼时，我的朋友Ralph Oni和我去附近的一家酒店取我们的新闻工作牌和资料，遇到了后来发现是记者的两个人，一位先生和一位女士。后来得知是杜新先生和中央电视台记者廖友平女士。经过一番交谈，在询问如何取得工作牌结识之后我们发展为非常好的朋友，他们甚至支付了车费，把我和我的同事带到下一个目的地。
Till date, I have been chatting with Mr. Du Xin every week due to my articles published in the China International Media Center (http://www.cicmc.com.cn) and Media center of Africa and China（https://africachinapresscentre.org）.A year later he surprised me with a very elaborate documentary of me containing a long compilation of my published articles in China and Nigeria that I still treasure.
到目前为止，由于我在“中国国际传播媒介中心”（http://www.cicmc.com.cn）及“非洲与中国传媒中心”（https://africachinapresscentre.org）的相关文章发布，我每周都会和杜新先生进行聊天沟通。一年后，他发给我一部记录非常详尽的文章让我特别惊喜。文章中记录了我们在中国游览的美好时光，并附有我在中国、尼日利亚发表的文章，我仍然十分珍视这些文章。
At the evening of the following day, he called me to join them at one of the hottest night spots in Beijing where he introduced us to a bevy of friends who all welcomed us like old friends, two of us were the only non-Chinese among about 12 friends gathered. When we left at about midnight, they still paid the taxi to take us back to our hotel.
第二天晚上，他打电话给我，邀请我们去北京很热门的后海酒吧，他向我们介绍了一群朋友，他们都像老朋友一样欢迎我们，我们是大约12个朋友中唯一的非中国人。当我们大约午夜离开时，他们还是支付了车费把我们送回酒店。
And the story was just unfolding as Mr. Du still ensured he kept his words.He is responsible for all our plans and expenses to Xiamen, Fujian, and together with them as foreign guests and friends to participate in their career fairs for young people.We were hosted like VIPs and the following day at the event, I received the most resounding accolade as a journalist when I was called up to address the crowd of over 300 participants. The next day, we flew back to Beijing. Our major host was the chairman of the Quanzhou Yan King Biotech Company, Mr. Lin Lianfang, a well-to-do young businessman. My friendship with them still remains till date.I can go on and on with so many more instances of whom I discovered the Chinese to be, even way back here in Nigeria. I still keep in touch with over 100 Chinese friends through the Wechat.
这仅仅是我们之间故事的开始，因为杜新先生仍然保证他会信守诺言，他负责我们到福建厦门的所有计划和费用，和他们一起作为外宾和朋友参加他们为年轻人举办的职业博览会。我们像贵宾一样被接待。在第二天的活动中，当我被邀请向300多名参与者发表演讲时，作为一名记者，我获得了最热烈的欢迎。次日，我们飞回北京。我和他们的友谊直到现在。我可以继续举出更多的例子，甚至回到尼日利亚之后。我仍然通过微信与100多个中国朋友保持联系。
Why all the story? Because there is misunderstanding simmering between the authorities in Guangzhou and Nigerians/Africans. In one of my two visits to Guangzhou, the vast commercial city we visited the African office at the Yuexiu District, a place the number of Africans would make you wonder if you are still in China.
为什么要讲述所有的这些故事？因为在广州，中国人民和尼日利亚人或其他非洲人正存在一些误解。我曾两次访问广州，其中一次，我们访问了位于越秀区的非洲办事处，那里的非洲人数量会让你怀疑你是否还在中国。
The Africa welfare office is a public rights NGO run by the Chinese to cater to the rights and interests of the black population for good coexistence. The office helps new comers adapt to the new world and as we were there, three sisters new in the city from their native Senegal came in for their Chinese language course. They were going through free Chinese language classes prior to enrolling in school. We spoke to Africans that said they live in Guangzhou like in their own place. So the new development makes me ask what actually went wrong.
非洲福利办公室是一个由中国人经营的公共权利非政府组织，旨在保护黑人的合法权益，实现良好的共存。这个办公室帮助新来者适应新的世界，就像我们在那里一样，三个来自塞内加尔的新来的姐妹参加了他们的汉语课程。他们在入学前正在上免费的汉语课。我们采访了非洲人，他们说他们在广州适应得很好。所以事情新的发展让我思考到底出了什么问题。
After listening to an audio recording of what happened narrated by a Nigerian resident in the city, I thought twice about the sentiments swirling in the social media. Before I could linger to decipher what would have gone wrong, a chat popped up on my Wechat and that was from my friend, Woody Wu, a Guangzhou native. We had a very long exchange during which I deduced what went wrong.
在听了一段尼日利亚居民在该市讲述所发生的事情的录音后，我对社交媒体上流传的情绪反反复思考。我还没来得及琢磨到底出了什么问题，我的广州朋友吴先生就给我发来了微信，我们进行了很长时间的交流，我推断是什么地方出了问题。
I made him understand that while the misbehavior of some Nigerians and Africans triggered this reaction, and not justifiable, the officials over reacted in visiting the errors of the few on almost all Africans in the city called Little Africa by the natives.
我让他明白，虽然一些尼日利亚人和非洲人的不当行为引发了这种没有必要的反应，但官员们作出了反应，访问了当地人称为“小非洲”的地方，发现这是非洲人中的少数人的错误。
I complained to him about the loads of rabidly racist insults on Africans I read from enraged Chinese netizens who could not stomach foreigners resisting their orders. It was pitiable the way those few Chinese persons downgraded Africa and the black race. It was quite sickening to say the least. This is me, sustaining hundreds of friendships far away in China over the years, great friends indeed and professional colleagues who never treated me as unequal, faced with a situation that made me ask, are these venom-spitting Chinese in Guangzhou the same lovely and nice people I know?
我向他抱怨我从愤怒的中国网民那里读到的对非洲人的大量种族主义侮辱，他们无法容忍外国人反抗他们的命令。那几个中国人贬低非洲和黑人的做法是可悲的。我多年来在遥远的中国维系着数百种友谊，拥有伟大的朋友和从未不平等对待我的专业同事。面对这种让我发问的情况，一些言辞激烈的中国人，是不是和我认识的那些可爱善良的人一样？
But I had answered the question earlier because while I have had great experiences with Chinese persons, I never at any point lived with the notion that all Chinese are the same, just as I never imagined that about all Nigerians.
但我早些时候回答了这个问题，因为虽然我对中国人有过很好的经历，但我从来没有想过所有的中国人都是一样的，就像我从来没有想象过所有尼日利亚人都是一样的。
So I am persuaded that even though things went awry in that city that is home to most Africans in China, the way the crowd flew off the handle into frenzy and racially tore Africans into shreds doesn’t really represent what the Chinese is. Frankly if I hadn’t known the country the much I do, I would have thought otherwise.
所以我相信，尽管中国有许多非洲人居住的城市出现了问题，但人群失控、疯狂、种族歧视地把非洲人撕成碎片的方式，并不能真正代表中国人是什么。坦白地说，如果我不了解这个国家的话，我会有别的想法的。
It would also be fair that the Chinese – the authorities and the masses don’t use the same scale to measure all Africans even those that never offended the law.All of human beings are scripts of the environments where we were moulded, therefore, the mannerism of the African might not be the same with the Chinese and that is how their reactions to issues and situations differ.
同样公平的是，中国当局和民众并没有用同样的尺度来衡量所有非洲人，甚至那些从未触犯过法律的非洲人。所有人都是我们塑造的环境中的一部分，因此，非洲人的习性可能与中国人不同，这造成了他们对问题和情况的反应不同。
But there are common grounds that must be observed – we all no matter where we come from must obey the laws for peaceful coexistence, especially the laws of the host community while the host community must be humane enough not to lump all foreigners into one profile because one or some of them erred.
但有一些共同的事情必须得到遵守：我们所有人无论来自何方，都必须遵守和平共处的法律，特别是东道国的法律，而东道国必须有足够的人道主义，不能因为一个或一些外国人犯了错而把所有外国人都归为一类。
When we live with the understanding that all countries and societies have deviants, we would with wisdom manage deviants from other countries because we possibly also have them from our countries living in other lands and doing wrongs things too.
当我们理解所有国家和社会都有越轨者的时候，我们会用智慧来管理来自其他国家的越轨者，因为我们国家也可能有越轨者生活在其他的土地上，他们也会做错事请。
With the interventions I have heard so far, I am sure the matters would be resolved the best way and speedily too and the two worlds would get along better and stronger.
当然，以目前为止我了解到的干预措施来看，我相信事情会以最好的方式迅速解决，我们会相处得越来越好。
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