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China and Africa
Xu Jinglei on the meaning of "fei"Posted by Maya Alexandri on Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 1:33 PM
 Xu Jinglei at Clifton first beach, Cape Town Maya Alexandri is currently traveling as part of actress / director / blogger Xu Jinglei’s entourage in South Africa, and will file reports about the trip for the next week. At Cape Point, in Cape Town, the cold Atlantic Ocean meets the warm Indian Ocean. Your correspondent has been told of people dipping a toe in on the Atlantic side, deciding it’s too cold, and driving for ten minutes to find a beach lapped by the warm Indian Ocean waves. Our team didn’t drive the extra ten minutes, and the side we on which we dipped our toes was decidedly freezing. Clifton first beach, where we spent today, is located in an attractive bay, rich with marine life, such as bamboo-like sea kelp and periwinkles. Table Mountain rises in the background, affording beach-goers frequent sightings of the tandem para-sailers leaping off it. Because of the water temperature, sunbathing offered more of an attraction than swimming, and the group that gathered at dinner was well-tanned. It was an unusual experience for some on our team, to judge from the response of one member: she expressed astonishment at the dark shade of a passer-by's tan, until Xu Jinglei explained, “That’s a black person.” However unusual, getting tan would seem to be one experience that Xu, at least, associates with Africa. During dinner, the conversation turned to the question of what the “Fei” in “Feizhou” (Chinese for “Africa”) means. A team member expressed concern that fei (非) was a negative word, contrasting “Fei” — meaning “no,” or even “evil” — with the “mei” in “Meiguo” (“America”) — which means “beautiful.” Various arguments were advanced to assuage this worry. A couple of people pointed out that “feichang” means “very,” and your correspondent speculated that the “Fei” might be a reference to the probability that the African continent was unknown to or isolated from the Chinese-speakers who coined the term. Agreeing, Xu said that, when she hears “Feizhou,” she thinks of sunshine and black people — no negative connotations. Prior to this conversation, she said, she’d never considered that “Feizhou” might contain a negative implication. “But now that you mention it,” she laughed, “I’ll think about it.” |
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Comments on Xu Jinglei on the meaning of "fei"
These reports about Xu Jinglei are very strange - star worship perhaps?
Feichang means "very"? That's grasping at straws. It only means "very" because fei negates chang. So feichang supports the argument that fei is negative.
If one has a problem with Feizhou, then what he is going to say about Yazhou/Asia? After all "Ya" could mean "seconary" and "inferior".
Xu said that, when she hears “Feizhou,” she thinks of sunshine and black people — no negative connotations.
Funny, I know plenty of Chinese who unfortunately feel the exact opposite re: "sunshine and black people".
are you getting paid to post about this tour?
Anonymous:
No. Anything we post because of money is clearly marked as sponsored content or, like banner ads, clearly separated from the content.
I always think "fei" doesn't mean anything but a transliteration of a"fri"ca. Same pronouciation, isn't it?
WONDERFUL TRIP!
呵呵。。。。。。
Hi ! Thanks for your article.
I like the way you try to find new explainations to this "Feizhou" word.;0) Actually that shows how the Chinese view of Africa has changed since now you are taking care - and, in a way, "have to" care - of us Africans while these past decades you, as many other countries in the world, were just ignoring or insulting us. Yeah! I like the idea that things are now changing for the better.
But to be honest, I really think that this world has to be changed because the more African people will get to know chinese words, the more they'll get upset and will start to think that Chinese people are worst that Western people - and actually that's what western countries want us to think in order to stop the growing influence of China in our continent. So, to ensure our future relations start well, why not change this name for somthing more friendly and respectful. Besides, this will also help Chineses people meeting African folks since they won't have to pretend this condescending connotation doesn't exist.
I always thought from hearing "fei" that Africa was named as the queen country and it is supposed to be the place of the original humans so I always thought that was a cool name second to the one for England. I was also surprised that Dark Continent referred to unknown rather than to skin color when referring to Africa even though I heard that term for the first twenty plus years of my life. We should just eat the label of racism and let Africans decide for themselves on an individual basis if individual Chinese are worth being friends with.