The problem with Chinese TV (Patreon)

There is a problem with being a foreigner on Chinese TV, a problem that I have so far managed to avoid (and hope to continue to avoid). Firstly it's an honour to think that anyone would be interested enough to want me to appear on TV so please don't take this post as me being big headed or self important, quite the opposite, I'm extremely humbled and lucky to have gotten as much press coverage as I have here in China. I've been on Chinese TV four times and in the local newspapers more than 20 times in the past for various reasons, but mostly because of my videos.

I have however on numerous occasion been contacted by the big CCTV4 channel (which runs a series about foreigners living in China) and also been invited to go on one or two game shows. This is where I've constantly had to politely decline and I'd like to tell you why.

Foreigners are seen as a curiosity here in mainland China, and almost always when they appear on TV they are mocked and made fun of in one way or another, the local people find it funny how foreigners struggle at pronouncing Mandarin and even when someone who speaks Chinese incredibly well makes a small grammar or tonal mistake, the editors will replay the mistake in three quick successions accompanied by animations of sweat drops or slow mo or enlarged heads or some such which is then followed by canned laughter, it's demeaning and not fun at all, they also relish in the reactions some foreigners have to eating certain Chinese foods and dealing with certain customs, which once again is very evidently ingrained in the Chinese culture as very often after being asked "how long have you been in China" I reply "ten years" the next question is "can you eat our Chinese food yet? Are you used to our Chinese food yet?" which is rather silly as I've been here for 10 years and if I wasn't used to eating the local food yet... well then I probably shouldn't be here :)

This is very reminiscent of how in the west we often make fun of Chinese accents "yes I want some flied lice" or some such, I'm not interested in trying to change anyone's behaviour or world view, but I refuse to take part

in any sort of

forum that I find degrading, I have  

no interest in being paraded around on stage and made to  sing a Chinese song so that the audience can point fingers and say "Look how well (or badly) the foreigner can sing our songs", also Chinese TV shows and interviews never pay the participants at all, so basically I don't want to  be made fun of  because I'm not doing comedy. I will be making a video about this phenomenon in the near future with some example footage.

Thank you all for continuing to support me, it is you, my subscribers  that motivate me to make more videos, not fame or any other nonsense.

Stay Awesome!

- SerpentZA