Sorry sedem but in China many things aren't fair.

To the best of my knowledge there aren't any discrimination laws (and if there are they certainly aren't enforced), and the attitude of the general population is very much against 'black' skin tones. I know of some, otherwise, very liberal Chinese people who screw their noses up when talk turns to those of a 'darker skin tone.

This attitude of the general population reinforces the discrimination by the employers as they 'know' they won't get the paying students if they employ 'black' teachers, (or many other professions for that matter).

I am NOT saying it is right, (heck I believe it is absolutely reprehensible) but it is a fact, and one I fear, that will take many years to be corrected, if ever.

  Yeh, i've see this many times and I feel bad for you on it Sedem, it's a shame and a disgrace upon the Chinese nation. For some utterly rediculous reason most Chinese seem to equate the English language with white skin, but I will say this; coming from a country where I have observed racism in terms of a hate crime, I do not recognize it in this light here, it is more a lack of recognition of worth in the field of education, which may be an ignorance caused by recognizing Africa's economic struggle, the difficulties that that will cause in education in Africa, and then projecting an assumed language deficit by way of following this equation onto anyone with dark skin, regardless of where they come from, their education or their abilities. This assumption is made by the general populace and acted on by the employers, who don't really care who is holding the class, as long as they can get students sitting in the class. It stinks and sheds a very bad light upon the Chinese people.

dude, im black and from london, i have simmilar problems, they always ask  to send a copy of your passport before they can give you an interview, its really silly they even have the same problems with chinese born and raised abroad, if they see a chinese person looking for a job as a teacher they will not believe that they can speak good english, and its also to do with parents if they see a white face they are more likely  to send their kids to that school, they have yet to understand that people relocate or travel.

when i meet people their first thought is im from america, second guess is africa.

lots of people seem to be puzzled when i tell them i live london

This is a country where people have fixed ideas and perceptions.

Oh Americans all love hamburgers, the British are all gentlemen and the French are all romantic.

Parents, who will be paying money to send their children to these schools to learn English want to get the most out of their money so when they think of what a western English speaker looks like, who fits the suit? The tall white guy with the blue eyes speaking the perfect royal tongue.

With such a high level of ignorance you can hardly even call this racist. Their simply keeping a supremacist idea and absolutely not allowing anything to challenge it.

oh yes let me go to a country where they actively discriminate against there own and they will not discriminate against me .....

you will find a job as a native english speaker you will just have to work extra hard for it. and it might not be in beijing or shanghai. and you know what you will be paid more than a chinese english teacher, not based on ability or skill but based on the fact you are a foreigner.

will you post complaining about benefiting from discrimination??????????

listen people, if you want to benefit from discrimination you cant complain about being discriminated against.

I have University Diploma in Applied Language Studies + TEFL certificate + 2 years' experience in teaching..question is do I qualify for z visa? secondly what would be the best move; apply while I am still here at home, get job then come over to China? Or come to China, pay for accommodation for the month and start looking for work while I am there? When I do my research I keep coming across negative feedback with regards to African English teachers whether they be more than qualified, is this fact or myth, is it that much harder for an African English teacher to land a job today in China? If so what are the other alternatives considering my qualifications, I read that Japan, Taiwan and south Korea require Bachelor's degree before they can issue work visa no two ways about it. What about Thailand, Indonesia or Phillipines how is TEFL there? I would very much appreciate response to my questions because sometimes I start to feel like I'm barking up the wrong tree by considering to move to China. I was looking forward to learning Mandarin Chinese and Chinese calligraphy, visiting the great wall of China and Tiananmen square

am planning to write a book about Chinese and foreigners understanding and interaction, the challenges and difficulties that foreigners face while residing in china and how these can be corrected, but i don't know if the school will approve it as am afraid I may state some negative Chinese habits and they may not like it.

sedem (and everyone else who cries about discrimination in china) think of your home countries, does your home country import workers for certain fields and pay them 3-4 times more than the average citizen working in that same field. and base it solely on the fact that they carry a passport from a certain country? would you want your home country doing that in the field where you work? we have something precious and privileged. you are going to come across a lot of discrimination but you know what the opportunities are still there. my school has 1 teacher from africa, and he is the best teacher at our school (the students make that very clear, every year) . stop whining and complaining, stop relying on recruiters, have realistic expectations (if you have an accent dont even bother), track down the schools yourself,  send out your complete information and docs with the first email. 

you mentioned you finished school so your problem maybe with lack of experience, go to the boondocks for 2 years liaoning, jilin, inner mongolia, ningxia, gansu etc). 

Here's the thing: life isn't going to be fair, but that has never stopped anyone from doing anything. All it has done is divide people into two groups: those who are stubborn enough to never let go of what they want for themselves & those who are lazy enough to do so.

I have dozens of black African friends. Out of the lot, only 3 of us got teaching jobs. 2 of us are native-speakers. I'm the only one with a neutral accent. Why is that? Between the 3 of us, racked up about 5 months of job searching between us, about 6 hours of phone calls, a few dozen hours learning how to teach from YouTube, reading books and watching online lectures, sent out about a thousand applications, read literally a few thousand ads and even then:

- I only got 5 interviews, to fail those first 4 miserably and ace thus land work on the 5th. Been teaching for about 5 weeks now.

- My friend got only 3 interviews, to land work on the 3rd. She's been teaching for 5 months now. (Mad props to you, if you reading this Ellen.)

- My other friend got about 9 interviews/offers, rejected 6 of them and had his choice of 3. He's been teaching for about 2 months now.

I can say that about 70% of all those figures are mine. Not only that, I was the only one who had to pay money to get a professional picture taken to put in my CV. The dozens of friends I spoke of? They sent out at most 12 applications, got 3 interviews out of those 12 with agents (and no idea of the trap that is) and no call backs... and they whine about discrimination.

Suck it up, do the legwork and do everything in your power to get damn good at it. The only way Chinese will learn that our skin color and nationality doesn't detract from our competence is if you have students clamoring about how good you are and have the results to show for it.

The Chinese are racist I'm afraid.   Or rather, they have no concept or racism, they think its fine to hate you because of where your from or the colour of you skin.  It's hard being white here sometimes and I know what some Chinese think of blacks, so I know it must be hard for you.  Good luck man.

Welcome to China.
Do you like your racism served cold and raw? Or oblivious with a touch of ignorance?
Oh sorry you're black. Could you sit somewhere else so as not to upset the aesthetic nature of the area.
i.e. China is not exactly the world leader in social ethics.
Welcome to the china butt-hurt club. I'm black too. Just learn to live with it. Adapt and ignore it. If you persist, you'll manage to find the job you seek. It's just not as easy as it is for White people. But hey, nothing good comes easy.
 

Screw China. Every colour can find work teaching in Vietnam. I know Nigerian, Korean, Dutch, Russian, Filipino people who all work without discrimination in ESL here.

Do you really have to ask?  This country is overflowing with racists. Next question?

I run a Chinese school in a western country and the parents asked if the teachers were Chinese. That's no different to this situation.

But wait, it's not racist then because it's a hook nosed albino asking, am I right?

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." MLK      People in China are a healthy mix of both for many reasons.  It may be harder for you but with perseverance you will be fine and eventually find the right people that will respect you based on the content of your character...and your credentials....even in China.

As everyone knows, visa regulations for citizens of countries on the African have become more stringent.  In the end, it will demand upon supply-and-demand.  Forgo the bigger cities -- forgo Guangdong Province, Beijing, etc., etc, it won't happen in those places.  As I have said before, try the hinterlands.

persistence and perseverance are the basic keys to success, ignore the ignorant and seek your way, you will definitively find a way out and shame them, good luck.

The Chinese like the Koreans are very racist. That is just a FACT!