Wednesday 27 February 2019

Stereo-typing: 3 (London)



Another evening class ex-student of mine is a Gambian called Victor.  

Victor is very friendly and sociable, but he is very dark-skinned and has a tribal-ritual type of scar across each cheek, which makes him look a bit menacing.  Sure enough, he was cast as a baddie in a Jackie Chan movie (or two??)!

American ex-student Jason told me he was walking down Chinatown’s Gerrard Street one day when he caught sight of, ahead of him, a Chinese couple holding a young child, with a black man standing opposite them, apparently in a conversation with them.  As Jason got closer, he heard fluent Cantonese, but the Chinese man’s lips were not moving!  The fluent Cantonese was coming out of the black man’s mouth!  The black man was Victor.

Victor teaches kungfu and Cantonese.

(London, 1980s)

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