Extracts from his private journal "The travel diaries of Albert Einstein " have been released. During his tour of Asia between 1922 -1923 he visited China and Japan. He didn’t seem to hold Chinese people in high opinion. Some quotes for those who don’t want to read the whole thing:
On China:
“Even those reduced to working like horses never give the impression of conscious suffering. A peculiar herd like nation…”
“I noticed how little difference there is between men and women; I don’t understand what kind of fatal attraction Chinese women possess which enthrals the corresponding men to such an extent that they are incapable of defending themselves against the formidable blessing of offspring.”
"It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.
He is pretty harsh towards Chinese people. Safe to say he wasn’t a fan.
On Japan:
“Pure souls as nowhere else among people. One has to love and admire this country”
Of course he was. Almost everyone was back then. Though you can interpret these things, if you really really want to, as him hating the culture and not the genes. He said similar things about Indians as well so it probably wasn’t an Asian thing and was more like backwards undeveloped vs kinda rich.
I’m not so sure it’s as black and white as that (no pun intended.) When he moved to America he became somewhat of an advocate for black and Jewish people. He described racism as “a disease of white people”. But after that I’m unable to find any more comments on his opinion of Chinese people.
It raises a tough question. Does disliking one ethnic group (Chinese) but advocating for another(African American) make you a racist? Perhaps he didn’t value Chinese people for reasons known only to himself. He didn’t intend to share those opinions publicly anyhow that’s for sure. If it was today he aired these opinions I’m sure Taiwanese and Chinese would raise uproar.
Probably because that was the extent of his opinion. If he’d been vocally racist (or anti-Chinese) I’m sure someone somewhere would have documented it.
There’s nothing in there that suggests he didn’t “value” Chinese people. On the contrary it suggests a certain amount of sympathy. He was merely observing that they were a beaten-down, compliant lot with no expectations in life other than being beaten-down. Which was perfectly true at the time. The author of Farmers of 40 Centuries (whose name escapes me at the moment) made almost identical observations, without malice, in a lot more detail.
China’s extreme weakness was one reason they were preyed upon by all and sundry (including, of course, the Japanese).
Well yes … but only because they would no longer be true.
Indeed. His comments are essentially about the level of development of the countries he visited. The comment about Chinese women isn’t particularly gallant in any era, but if he didn’t find them attractive what else could he write in a diary that he didn’t plan to make public?
His presumed fears about the “fecundity” of the Chinese could suggest a fear of ‘them’ out breeding ‘us’, but it’s a bit of a stretch.
well he was a white and wouldn’t have succeeded if he was black he also didn’t have any black assistants or friends and never ate African or Indian cuisine so at least we could say he wasn’t enamoured with no other than his own kind
