Einstein had funny opinions about Chinese

The London Guardian reports:

Einstein's travel diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia

Private journals kept by the scientist and humanitarian icon show prejudiced attitudes towards the people he met while travelling in Asia ...

The publication of Albert Einstein’s private diaries detailing his tour of Asia in the 1920s reveals the theoretical physicist and humanitarian icon’s racist attitudes to the people he met on his travels, particularly the Chinese.

Written between October 1922 and March 1923, the diaries see the scientist musing on his travels, science, philosophy and art. In China, the man who famously once described racism as “a disease of white people” describes the “industrious, filthy, obtuse people” he observes. He notes how the “Chinese don’t sit on benches while eating but squat like Europeans do when they relieve themselves out in the leafy woods. All this occurs quietly and demurely. Even the children are spiritless and look obtuse.” After earlier writing of the “abundance of offspring” and the “fecundity” of the Chinese, he goes on to say: “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”

... “even those reduced to working like horses never give the impression of conscious suffering. A peculiar herd-like nation [ … ] often more like automatons than people.” ... “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”.

Einstein identified as Jewish, not white. He was not religious in the usual sense of believing in God, praying, and attending religious services and customs, but he was very much Jewish in the sense of supporting Zionism, identifying with those of Jewish ancestry, promoting Communist causes, and politically attacking white people. His quote about racism being a disease of whites was in connection with Jewish Communist efforts to create racial animosity among white folks.

“Einstein’s diary entries on the biological origin of the alleged intellectual inferiority of the Japanese, Chinese, and Indians are definitely not understated and can be viewed as racist – in these instances, other peoples are portrayed as being biologically inferior, a clear hallmark of racism. The disquieting comment that the Chinese may ‘supplant all other races’ is also most revealing in this regard,” writes Rosenkranz.

“Here, Einstein perceives a foreign ‘race’ as a threat, which … is one of the characteristics of a racist ideology. Yet the remark that must strike the modern reader as most offensive is his feigning not to understand how Chinese men can find their women sufficiently attractive to have offspring with them. In light of these instances, we must conclude that Einstein did make quite a few racist and dehumanising comments in the diary, some of which were extremely unpleasant.”

Consider the idea that "Chinese supplant all other races." Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

Obviously it would be extremely racist and offensive to advocate Chinese people eradicating all other races. But then it should be less offensive to disagree with the idea.

Apparently you cannot have any opinion on demographic trends, without being called a racist.

Jews consider non-Jews to be biologically inferior. No news there. It would be surprising if he did consider Chinese people to be like himself.

Update: The London Guardian ran a followup with Chinese opinions:

Many were in strong support of the scientist: “This is called insulting China? That’s ridiculous. Did the Chinese in that era look dirty? When I see the photos from then, they look dirty, Einstein depicted the true state of that era.”

Others compared the scientists’s observations to that of Lu Xun, considered the father of modern Chinese literature, who was best known for his scathing satire of Chinese society in the early 20th century. “We praise Lu Xun because he pointed out our disadvantages. Why should we blame Einstein for this?”

Historical narratives promoted by the Chinese government often paint the days before China’s communist party took power in 1949 as chaotic.

And here is a Jewish opinion:

The ‘Jewish race’ is the smartest in the world and possesses the highest human capital, so Israelis ought to be skeptical about the current corruption probes into Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, a Likud party lawmaker has claimed.

“I can tell you something very basic,” MK Miki Zohar said, during a debate on Radio 103FM on Wednesday, as cited by the Times of Israel: “You can’t fool the Jews, no matter what the media writes. The public in Israel is a public that belongs to the Jewish race, and the entire Jewish race is the highest human capital, the smartest, the most comprehending.”