Illustration: Lu Ting/GT





Global Times Metro Shanghai reporter Wang Han recently wrote an article titled "Why Westerners think Chinese girls are easy," where she criticizes Shenzhen-based expat Winston Serpentza Sterzel for his video mocking local females for being so quick to jump into bed with foreigners in order to leach their money and visas.

"As a single, post-90s generation Chinese female, I laugh at Sterzel's supercilious assumption that we are all just a bunch of peasants who arrive in urban cities like Shanghai en masse to seek out wealthy-husbands," writes Wang. "Sterzel really flatters himself by believing that we are all so desperate for money or overseas green cards to escape China that we'd hop in bed with the first Caucasian who crosses our paths."

Although I myself, a Turkish student in Shanghai, have had no intimate experience with Chinese women during my seven years here, and therefore can not attest if they are as "easy" as Sterzel claims, I agree with Wang's premise that many Westerners in China try to sexually exploit native girls. It becomes quickly obvious to them the moment they arrive that some Chinese women will lavish them with attention, so why wouldn't they take advantage of that?

This is in fact quite normal for white men in most Far East nations. From Thailand to South Korea, male foreigners often enjoy the fawning of native females. It also becomes very obvious that this has little to do with their handsomeness (or lack thereof) or even their perceived wealth, but simply their exoticism and otherness. This is a kind of reverse-Orientalism, where Asian natives are naturally curious about Westerners.

But the problem with Sterzel's video is his blanket borderline-racist judgment against the women of an entire race and nation As he himself is plain as a pikestaff, and arrogant to boot, I doubt that he has had so many sexual experiences in China to warrant making such categorical accusations against "all" Chinese women. And if he had, wouldn't that make him the "easy" one? The irony of his South African-style neocolonialism is not lost on me.

Sterzel, who has become Internet famous in China in recent years for his audacious videos, reminds me of another scumbag pickup artist, Daryush "Roosh" Valizadeh. Armenian-American Roosh, an unabashed anti-feminist, is notorious for traveling to Asian nations specifically to humiliate unsuspecting local women. He films his encounters for expatriate men to watch at his "how to seduce native females" seminars. Gauging how successful Roosh has become, clearly there is a large global sexpat market.

Fortunately, in February the Chinese government was smart enough to deny Roosh's visa application to China, where he intended to hold his misogynist troll group Return of Kings' "make rape legal" meetings in several cities. But it baffles me how expats like Sterzel can continue to stay in China despite his debauched attitude of Chinese girls. In fact, Sterzel has capitalized on his local notoriety with an upcoming CCTV-produced television series, demonstrating that even Chinese State TV is willing to give this kind of disrespectful person a platform.

My schoolmate, Onat Kibaroglu, yesterday wrote a TwoCents titled "Chinese students abroad are self-isolationists," where he criticizes Wang for refusing to date foreigners during her studies abroad. "This kind of blind refusal to even consider dating abroad is exactly why Chinese students are getting a bad rap," writes Onat. "Instead of encouraging her countrymen to blend in, she is promoting isolationism."

Onat makes a valid point that "closed-minded" Chinese students like Wang are missing out on interesting friends and experiences by flatly refusing to date Westerners. Indeed, pillowtalk is an age-old method of learning foreign languages and customs while abroad. On the other hand, if it's done disrespectfully or with no long-term intentions, which would continue to widen the cultural misunderstandings between East and West, then certainly Chinese girls are right to be wary of Westerners.





The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.