Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been keeping up with Indian Idol fairly religiously. (You can catch up on all the episodes here, if you’re so inclined.) I don’t even understand Hindi all that well, but I love the music, the contestants are entertaining to watch, and the show doesn’t take itself nearly as seriously as American Idol does. Needless to say, I’m hooked.
I’m already placing my bets on one contestant in particular — Meiyang Chang. Unlike the other contestants I’ve seen (even those on American Idol), I actually feel moved by his voice. He’s that impressive. Not to mention that he’s also articulate, he writes well, and he looks good in fitted t-shirts. He’s quickly attracted a steady following.
Yet despite his appeal, the show is fairly obsessed with reminding us brown people that Chang is (gasp!) not quite one of “us.” Although Chang was born and raised in India, the Indian Idol website promotes him as the “contestant from China.” The show’s co-host first introduced him by stating, “His surname is Chinese, but his heart is Indian.” Even more embarrassing is this condescending exchange between the judges and Chang during the duet round, in which Anu Malik tells him, “You’ve just proven that music knows no language.” Thanks, Indian Idol, I had no idea that Chinese people could actually sing.
I can only imagine the sort of outrage that would follow in our community had the producers of American Idol promoted Sanjaya as “The Indian,” “The Contestant from India,” or “The Brown Guy Who’s Really an American at Heart.” But I have to give credit to Chang, though — in spite of the ignorant comments, he only smiles and nods, never protesting or showing frustration. Poor guy. And I thought I had it rough growing up in southern California.
Here’s a clip from the theater rounds:
Chinese Indians have always been a part of the varied ethnic landscape of India. So sad to see this kind of ignorance on national TV.
Makes it difficult to express any “righteous indignation” for any subtle racism we face here.
I don’t know if anyone remembers Deepa Mehta’s “Fire”. She faced crticism- justified I think – for her portrayal of Chinese Indians in that movie.
Naina, I wouldn’t be so harsh. two things, (i) someone Chinese living in India is rare, not like someone South Asian in the US, so without a statement like this people would assume he was not Indian born (ii) this is not an example of reminding people Chang was is not one of “us” as you put it. I have lived in several parts of the country, and I was told my “heart is Bengali”, that it is Marathi and what not. I don’t see it as an exclusion. In fact, I have been, and even today I always automatically “belong” to those groups at a very intimate level.
There would be an uproar in the US because people here also realize that someone who wishes to exclude an ethnicity from the mainstream would make a similar statement. OTOH, racism in India has not been PC’ed—real racists don’t hide it behind statements like the above.
To me, this is similar to the other story on this blog (some stupid channel relayed these images from West Indies which most of you Americans saw as very racist—with the contention that it indicated blackface or something like that). Someone who has grown up in India will realize that neither is meant to be racist. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of racists in India of every imaginable variety—but these are not examples of it.
Thanks for posting this, it was great to see. I think you are being a bit rough on the show though, yes brown Indians are actually various ethnicities but someone of Chinese or European background really sticks out and I actually found that the show / comments by most people on YouTube show that Indians overall actually have a kind, tolerant and welcoming attitude. I actually find that way that shows in the US/UK/Canada try to be overly politically correct and act that they see no race is not very convincing and just fake, it’s OK to admit someone is a different race, just as long as people are not mean or rude about it. It’s just a novelty, if more people from various backgrounds existed in India, it wouldn’t such a ‘special’ case and then they wouldn’t mention it. I’m very happy to see that everyone is accepted as an Indian and he certainly should be since his famly has been in India for so many generations.
okay back up defenders of all things indian…
i think the point is that the judges (who are famous upper-crust indian artists, and who should be somewhat intelligent and global in their thinking) are inaccurate in saying that he’s “from china” as if he just got off a train in bombay and headed for the indian idol offices. i understand that india does not have the same multicultural history of the US, but if an individual person claims to be something – in this case, an indian – then who are we to disagree and defend ignorant attitudes? meiyan was born and raised in karnataka and speaks fluent hindi…and even though the judges may not be malicious in pointing out how different he is, they are ignorant…
this isn’t about indian people being “welcoming and warm,” it’s about a few judges and a TV show which keep overriding an individual’s view of himself and his identity…meiyan is there reprsenting himself, not china…
yeah, it’s just indian idol…i know. but ignorance with a smile is still ignorance…go meiyan!
-a “chinese indian”
i’d love to make some intelligent statement here about racism but all i can think is that he’s so sweet and his voice is lovely …
wow, hes really good!
how unfortunate about the racism issue, but i think he will do good.
I don’t think it is hard out there for Meiyang – unless you want to bring it out by skewed questions. Has anyone watched interviewing tactics by journalists? They see what they want to see, and hear what they want to hear.
With more practice, Indians will get better in being politically correct (so horrifying an image). We are more direct and free with our expressions. Pretentious smiles, ‘how are you doing’, or the even more specific ‘how are you doing, today?’ does not come naturally. (Once I responded with a detailed description of ‘how i am doing today’ for a good five minutes, and asking her a few questions as well. The smile went off, as I violated her expectations – that I will also respond with a ‘good. thank you’ without even bothering AN IOTA about each other’s well being.
There is no hatred or condescension here. The yellow is in the jaundiced eye of the observer.
[In your another post on skin color matters, I had tried to explain that skin color is not really important as physical attractiveness. But I am digressing.]
Much respect to two people who did not molest hindi. Javed Akhtar and Meiyang Chang.
I don’t usually watch such reality shows, but I watched this one, and must say I really liked Chang’s audition and performances. He has it in him to go to the very top, and I wish him all the best. It’s embarrassing to see the condescending attitude of the judges, especially Anu Malik’s idiotic comment, “Did you come from China?”. Just for that, I want Chang to win Indian Idol 🙂 Why don’t people get the fact that he’s as Indian as the rest of us?
Very interesting. I suppose a person of Chinese ethnicity in India would stick out more than a person of Indian ancestry in the US, so it’s par for the course that Sanjaya’s Indian origins were never an issue, but Meiyang’s Chinese origins are. That said, I think it’s really a reflection of two things: (a) the lack of racial diversity in India (in contrast to linguistic diversity) and (b) the lack of informed/mature discussion on race in India.
I’m reminded of that earlier discussion on SM about Jaime Alter, and how he isn’t really perceived as Indian, even though he clearly is.
OT, but I really got a kick out of this (paraphrased) exchange:
Judge: Are you really from China? Meiyang: I’m Indian.
Go Meiyang!
naiverealist,
i understand why you would want to deny any wrongdoing on the part of an indian, i’ve met thousands of ppl like you. i know exactly how people like you think, and what your motivations are. i have sized up all of your insecurities like a samurai psychologist. people like you have a very high tolerance for stupidity and stupid people. you are an open book.
Xian
bytewords #2, you get it! Very true.
Meiyang is great!! Really good voice.
True and he speaks better Hindi than the other “Indian” contestants. I think he is going to end up in the top 5.
On a side note, quality of singing is far better on Indian Idol than on American Idol.
aw, he’s so cute and he sings! I liked his voice, now I will have to go watch the rest of the show…
Pleasant voice. A bit like Udit Narayan.
8 sounds like cranky Om Prakash from Chupke Chupke, but Hinglish grates on my nerves. Akhtar and Chang managed to keep it relatively angrezee-free.
ha ha ha. Thank you, samurai psychologist.
Does anyone know (off-hand) the % of the Indian population that is of Chinese descent? I wouldn’t be surprised if it is comparable to the % of people of desi origin in the U.S. Let’s not be too quick to jump to the conclusion that the judges are justified in being ignorant because we assume that folks like Meiyang are rare.
All that said, I like him! I like this season of II better than the first season, also 🙂 Seems like they’re doing a better job of hitting their groove.
ok, just to make some points here since the RSS jai jai bharat mahal types are fob’bing at the mouth again
-it’s quite easy to say something is “politically correct” – oh NO political correctness run amok! we straightforward indians should NEVER be criticized for saying stupid shit to minorities in india! we are an earnest, earthy bunch who sing songs of monsoons with gusto! FRIENDS, there is a BIIIIIIG ass difference between “political correctness” and “politness” – india has not learned the first, which naiveroti or whatever fears like the apocalypse (let us all sing JANA GANA MANA instead!). basically, it’s RUDE to keep insisting someone is something that they insist they are not. that is all. this does not affect the national character of jai jai bharat mahal, nor does it prevent the ambanis from giving bonus checks to their 600 servants.
-runa @ comment number 1 – no, you’re wrong. just b/c some fools in india treat a chinese-indian like a total outside doesn’t make it wrong for indians in the US to complain about racism. what kind of comparison is that? “indians in india are racist, so we in america have no right to complain when ppl are racist towards us”
aapka overreaction is a hateration.
-YO soy hakka hindustani
Unlike in the US, entertainment industry (especially Music,Television and Films) in India is dominated by minorities. Non-Indians like Udit Narayan and Adnan Sami are huge stars in India. Meiyang ( or somebody like him) has a better chance of making it big in entertainment industry in India than in the US.
OSN NSO #18:
i don’t know why i am responding to your comments. I insist that i am not brown, FOB, macaca, roti or any of your own projections of yourself. I hope you will follow your own standards, and will not obliquely refer to me by those words in future. It seems you have confounded many different categories, and lumped them into one bracket – our national anthem, RSS, Bharat, ambanis, jai jai, and singing songs. Everything is related to everything – if you believe it all started with the big bang – but then, where is the kitchen sink?
I think you are confused.
But then what do I know? I do not see any need to continue this conversation – not only because I have some other things to do – but because I am terrified that I will not be able to argue with you and your intelligence already knows what I will say. Bye.
And unlike on American Idol, the contestants on Indian Idol show extraordinary respect to the judges… In fact, in the second season, one kid was really hauled over the coals for dissing the judges, and he was completely contrite. It’s hard to imagine anyone getting in a few digs, however justified they may be.
i understand that india does not have the same multicultural history of the US,
the lack of racial diversity in India (in contrast to linguistic diversity) and (
huh???? brownland has a lack of cultural and racial diversity???? i’m sorry, i’m bengali, and i have aunts that look chinese. one of the old regulars here (saurav) told me how bengalis stereotypicall have “chinky eyes.” there are white skinned punjabis and black-skinned tamils.
p.s. yes, browns (from lahor to madras) have more genetically and cuturally than groups outside. but there is a LOT of variation in.
yeah, my point exactly. kind of sucks to keep being mislabeled as something you’re not. i could easily say to you, “calm down, you hindu extremist fundamentalist psycho! you’re being SOOOOO politically correct!” when in fact all i was doing was disregarding how you see yourself and saying it for you.
just because i have differently shaped eyes than you, does that not mean my heart does not cry out for jai gauri maa? chinese indians, indo-chinese…we are not just some alternative culinary choice for indians out on the town!
i am indian. meiyang is indian. it is rude, not “PC,” to expect people to refer to us otherwise. talk about conflation and confusion!
sare jahan se achcha meiyang chang humara humara
-my dil goes hakka noodle for un-PC indians!
razib???? i meant to say that india does not have the same history of state-sponsored insistence on multicultural tolerance/acceptance and diversity appreciation that america does. via, you know, public schools, PBS, benneton ads. didn’t mean to say that india lacks genetic variability. so sorry???? but that doesn’t mean it’s not embarassing when reasonably educated and hopefully well traveled celebrities like anu malik et al continue to have orgasms over the fact that meiyang chang is chinese-indian. express surprise once, okay, but stop foaming at the mouth after you learn that he’s a third-generation indian!
i have no idea what this means. we have more genetically than groups outside???? pls. explain what you really meant
Fortunately India has not yet been over-burdened with political correctness. People are still innocent and can say what they mean sincerely from the heart without it being misconstrued as offensive all the time.
you know, i’m sorry for turning this into a “chinese-indians have a voice too!” thread, but comments like this piss me off. for one, it’s usually “mainstream” indians who are saying things like this – those who are in a comfortable majority wherever they may reside in bharat. basically, those people whose “indianness” is rarely questioned.
but growing up chinese in pune was not a lot of fun. oh, there were many nice people, but there were also a lot of rotten eggs who made my school days horrible. “hey chini girl! dekho uski aankhen!” (hey chink, look at those eyes!) better yet was when those lovely, sincere and oh-so-innocent (i prefer to call them idiots) mothers would refer to me as the “chapt” child in front of my parents, who just stared silently at the ground. (for those who are unaware, “chapt” is basically a mainstream way for some indians to refer to chinese people – it means “flat-nosed”) anytime anyone disagreed with me the first thing they would point out is that i am chinese, and then add some derogatory words. not just kids. my dad was treated worse, especially when talks of india vs. china would come up, they would whisper as if my dad was selling secrets to chairman mao himself. he was an auto technician.
that is why i am glad i am now in america. oh, i miss india a lot, but at least here the indians are more charmed about my heritage rather than disgusted. people “get” that i can be chinese and indian at the same time, especially when i break out in the mother tongue.
anyway my point is that your heavy sighs of relief that india is not SO PC is not a comfort for me. not that i expect you to care. in the end, you all make india look backwards with your sincere, innocent and oh-so-frank stupidity.
I’m giving the Indos the benefit of the doubt. For almost a decade I struggled with their name calling and other forms of harrassment but having taken a break from that country/culture, looking back I’m tempted to say, “it wasn’t all that bad, they just didn’t know any better”, “it was done out of innocence/ignorance”, etc.
Maybe I’m being too kind?
Did no one ever think that you could be from the northeast?
My mother easily passes too, her ancestors are from khulna and barishal.
They use “chinky” for the Northeast people too.
i don’t know.
no…they weren’t confused as to my origins, they were just simply attacking me and making fun of my eyes. but yes, some people did initially think i was from nepal or assam. when i told them my family is from china the coversation would either go sour or pleasant.
anyway i’m not a curmudgeon or depressed by life. i mean, in college her i am still “the chinese girl who does bhangra well” but it’s a different type of treatment. indians here take a shorter time understanding that i am chinese-indian and don’t have such issues with it. those in india often do. that is why i am anti-FOB and pro-ABCD even though i am a FOB!
Dipanjan,
Rest assured, OSN is no chinese girl. She is creating a ruckus for nothing, and is trying to instigate me. Really, I had to see this to know how confused people can be. But she has a history of making mountains out of molehills (ref: posts on Holi, skin color etc.). I hope many others reading this thread can get the drift.
Uff, I think I have been drawn into some made up crisis situation. now, somebody please come to her rescue, or ban me. I am loving this. Get the popcorn.
19 indianoguy, while it is true that there is a significant minority representation in India’s entertainment industry, Meiyang does not conform to the image most people have of a ‘typical Indian’. So, while India generally accepts minorities in the entertainment field, I wonder whether Meiyang would be as easily accepted as say Udit Narayan or somebody. Still, I think he has it in him to go a long way.
32: Maybe my Firefox search function is screwed, but I couldn’t find OSN’s comments in the posts you link to…
This Meiyang Chang is gorgeous! He certainly speaks and sings in Hindi much better than I ever could. He’s a third gen Desi! I don’t think the judges were being harsh or discriminatory, though–in fact they just seemed pleased that he is Indian, and just found out more about how he came to be so fluent, as it is pretty unusual. Maybe there is xenophobia about Chinese people i India, but I don;t think it’s systematic. Simon Cowell, who is not American, was much more discriminatory towards Sanjaya, not to mention plain rude, even by his standards. Even if his language (Simon’s) was pc, he set off a real furor of hate for Sanjaya by leading with his bad attitude and when things were going a bit too well for Sanjaya anyway, he and the other producers just set the dial to country where they knew Sanjaya couldn’t make it, refused him his blues song, all on purpose to eliminate him I’m sure, then realized their mistake and backpedaled.
I hate the name Indian Idol– sucks!
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can you say “cognitive dissonance”?
Well, I think there are two issues at hand when it comes to shoddy treatment of people who are not perceived as mainstream Indian. When people use terms like Chinky and Kallu, a lot of times they just use it without realizing that it could be offensive to the people they are referring too. This comes from a lack of a melting pot kind of culture that we see here. Thus this lack of exposure to non brown people results in a form of ignorance of things PC and people don’t realize the offense in the terms they use. The other is plain racism which (as I have also previously mentioned) is quite prevalent in India when the opportunity so presents itself – seen a lot more in colleges and places where there is a sizable foreign and/or non brown population. As also, OSNs comments here show (I will give her the benefit of doubt since the links from Naive don’t seem to have any postings from her, or maybe it really is a firefox search issue) . This again stems from the fact that there is not enough awareness about xenophobia and thus the base human nature of discriminating against people different from us comes out unbridled. And while I don’t offer this as a justification of such things, it does give me hope that as the number of people outside of the mainstream increases in India (as we enter more and more into the global economy) we as a nation will become more exposed to such issues and gradually become more accepting. I would say OSN that what you have experienced is indeed unfair, but if you talked about this and raised awareness to the issue without being bitter, you probably will have a better chance of getting people to listen and understanding the importance of these issues.
First, excellent post Naina! I thought the same thing about Meiyang and the judges when that conversation happened…and then again…and again!! It’s definitely not cool for the judges who ARE well-traveled and should really be required to be global in their outlook. Nor is it fair for the rest, for the judges to be continually besotted with his “exoticness”, wth!! He’s Indian. His ancestors were Chinese. Can we get to his singing now for its quality alone???
But Shodan, I completely agree with you on his Hindi skills. Enough with the spoken-language illiteracy!! And Javed Sa’ab is a treat to listen to if you enjoy dealing with Hindi-Urdu or Hindustani. He truly is an artist of language. He brings a level of finesse to the discussion that is hard to imagine without his presence.
In the show’s intro the co-host introduced him in Hindi as somone whose surname is Chinese, but has Indian heart, blood, and ‘Jazbaad’. (this basically means he is Indian).
If an Indian guy went on Chinese Idol and they by saying he has an Indian last name but your heart, blood and attitude are Chinese, I wouldn’t find that offensive as all.
Anu Malik’s first language isn’t English and kinda came of sounding like an idiot while trying to say something philosophical. Leaving that aside he seems to genuinely like Meiyang’s singing, so I guess his main fault is that he is unaccustomed to speaking proper PC english.
Meiyang probably had far more than his share of rude comments growing up, the people on Indian Idol are actually trying to be nice.
I wonder what the fuss is all about. Growing up in Calcutta I was well aware of the huge chinese-indian population there. In fact we have a Chinatown as well, which serves delicious Indianised Chinese food and is massively popular with the Kolkata population. Anyone been there ?
He has an accent in Hindi.
Its also rather comical to see a bunch of visible minorities lamenting about PCness in the US society.
43 “He has an accent in Hindi.”
You are so right. He is from Dhanbad in Bihar. That’s the accent of a Bihari attempting to speak “good” Hindi. I am a Bihari, too. I can do a Delhi accent pretty well because that used to be my home a long time ago, but my all-guards-down Hindi is pure Bihari.
The Chinese settled in the Eastern part of India, mainly Bengal and Bihar. Interestingly, most of them were either shoemakers or dentists if not restaurant owners. Dentistry in India in the early part of the 20th century did not require any education. Painkillers and a set of pliers were all you needed to set up your practice. Somehow dentistry in the Chinese community has been handed down from one generation to the next. I know several third-generation Chinese-Indian dentists who, of course, are all college trained.
India has always been politically correct on national forums such as television. Every two-bit “neta” starts his speech with the ingratiating opener, “hindu-muslim-sikh-isai.” This episode of Indian Idol was not typical. Shan would not have made the rookie mistake this host did.
42 “Anyone been there ?”
Oh yeah. Many times.
By the way, the Indian music shows are getting a lot of NRI contestants. Check our Mouli Dave from Houston on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, specially her rendition of Maiya, Maiya from Guru. It’s on Youtube.
He has a wonderful talent and voice. He must be the next winner of Indian Idol!
there are white skinned punjabis and black-skinned tamils.
razib:
I know that you’re more of an expert on race, genotype, etc., but what I really meant was that I don’t think of white skinned punjabis and dark-skinned tamils as being of different races (although I admit ignorance on that score)…or maybe it’s just a case of some “racial” types being more common in India than others. Again, I don’t know the actual breakdown of numbers.
I saw this clip from link on Manish’s blog couple of weeks back, and I must admit that I was moved. I am a fan of Meiyang Chang from that point on. He is Desi just like Tom Alter’s kid is Desi and that makes Des great and that makes me feel good. Go Meiyang !!!
And Naina, when the host said that his surname is Chinese he doesnt mean it in a way that he is Chinese and not Indian, but in a way that we call someone Gujarati or Bihari or Tamil or Kashmiri. The host just tried to assign him to an ethnic group, IMO.
i think this has much to do with the culture of learning music in india – mata pita guru devo. the difference between a teacher and a guru is vast, and anybody who has learned desi classical singing or dance knows how deferential you are supposed to be to your guru. by contrast, there is decidedly less deference in an academic setting.
well, he is from kolkata. but seriously, his hindi is good – and quite shudh, going by his diction. many people in bombay would not only have a worse accent, but they would be mixing in a lot more slang or english words. also, the accent was not obvious when he sang, which is often the case with most singers. i might have to start watching indian idol now – it’s really rare to see such a talented and likeable contestant on these types of shows.
great post, naina!
I think so too. By “chinese” I dont think they mean the nationality. They refer to the Mongoloid race. No other insinuation.
OSN: its more likely you belong to the group “dissers of all things indian” than the possibility that the people who pointed this view are “defenders of all things indian”.
Oh, that’s cute. And it’s so persuasive, I will immediately cease posting and Naina will pick up the slack.
Each of us posts what our schedules will allow. Earlier this year, I went on an unintended hiatus for a few months. Right now, several of us are away and I am the only “full-time” mutineer in the bunker, so you won’t be getting your wish anytime soon. Beyond that, bloggers are like DJs…they hate when people bump the table in order to request something.
For years, Abhi was the “main” blogger here and when he posted at the exact same rate I currently am, he didn’t have to put up with nearly as much negativity. I guess familiarity breeds selective contempt.
Amazing!! Thanks, Floridian. Mouli is going to go places. Lovely voice and range.