There must be a reason why there have been so many blog posts recently looking at the issues surrounding racism in China. The pieces have been packaged in different ways: post-colonialism, outright racism, and moral relativism. Regardless of the phrasing, as Dan Harris pointed out last week, the topic is getting a lot of traction in the expat blogging community. He says it is not exactly clear why this trend has emerged, but I think I have an idea.

The first time a person comes to China everything is amazing, perplexing, and intriguing. Those starting in cities with small foreign communities have tended to feel this awe even more strongly. When Peter Hessler landed in rural Sichuan he sank himself into the local culture almost immediately. Tim Clissold arrived in Beijing during the 1980s, at a time when even the capital showed few signs of westernization, and he writes about having eaten cabbage every day, just as the Chinese did.

Today, in 2007, the front pages of the New York Times and Financial Times feature China with predictable regularity. Meanwhile, in the Middle Kingdom the banking, legal, and consulting industries are booming, bringing tens of thousands of full-time expats. For people arriving for the first time, China is hardly the daunting obstacle that it once was. This seemingly innocuous fact has far-reaching implications for ‘town-gown’ relations.

In Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen there are entire neighborhoods swarming with foreigners, much as New York has its Chinatown, London its Indian immigrants, and Detroit its Arab population. Just as in those other places, many expats here lead lives relatively isolated from China’s laobaixing, the common man. Entire bars in Shanghai rarely see any locals at all.

With this shift in lifestyle comes a distance that changes the relationship between locals and outsiders. When you only know a few foreigners it is difficult to criticize harshly the society in which you are a guest. On the other hand, when you are in the comfort zone of people who think like you, talk like you, and have similar backgrounds, it becomes much easier to pass judgment on the locals.

Clearly, many foreign communities in China have reached this point of saturation. Scathing criticism flies out of the mouths of some expats with relative regularity. Frequently they are not aimed at the government, as the case used to be, but instead at Chinese people and culture themselves. The complaints are not necessarily incorrect or racist. On the contrary, often there are legitimate points being raised (other times the words can be pretty hateful). However, it is the frequency of the criticisms that raises red flags for many of us.

The point is not that all foreigners should fully integrate into Chinese society. Nor should they stop saying what they think. Instead, I am merely trying to explain why there are so many people out there asking whether the foreign community is bigoted, exploitative, or even hateful. These are legitimate and healthy questions for a changing expat community to be asking itself.

Many foreigners here are quick to criticize Chinese people and society. Others(like me) criticize everyone, from my host government to the one Stateside, from the locals to the expats. Fortunately most people are a little more upbeat than that. However, I would strongly argue that it is crucial for us to question the motives of the criticisms, just as we should examine the societal problems that spark the original conversations. We are a growing community, both as expats, and as bloggers. In order to improve we must keep asking uncomfortable questions.