black/african american

[aafrophone]

How would one say "black person" or "African-American" in Chinese? My guess was 黑美國人 but for some reason that seems wrong to me. What is the correct way to say it?

-阿福羅風

Edited July 19, 2008 at 01:43 AM by imron
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[trevelyan]

I would go with mei3guo2 hei1ren2.

[aafrophone]

Well, I'm not talking about the nationality, I'm talking about the race.

[studentyoung]

How would one say "black person" or "African-American" in Chinese? My guess was 黑美國人 but for some reason that seems wrong to me. What is the correct way to say it?

Well, I'm not talking about the nationality, I'm talking about the race.

Are you talking about 非裔美国人 (Chinese American is 华裔美国人) / 美国黑人?

Cheers!

[y00nsk]

well korean-american is 韩裔美国人，so can u just say 非裔美国人 for African-American?

[Hofmann]

Then is an African-Chinese called 非裔中國人?

[lilongyue]

You aren't going to find much understanding of hyphenated Americans in China. It's really best to just call yourself a 美国人 and be done with it. But, the general way Chinese refer to "black people," without distinguishing between nationality, is 黑人, which literally means "black person." There is much more awareness about people born in China, but raised abroad (华侨), or children of 华侨, which are called 华裔, than for people born in America, but of such-and-such descent.

If you aren't in China yet, but are coming, you may find that over time the "African" side of being "African-American" will tend to be less important than the "American" side. At least this has been the case for many of my friends. There are many African-Africans in China, and as friends of mine have discovered, in their eyes you are American, end of story. They won't necessarily feel any kinship with you because of your ancestors' ethnic heritage. So, if I were you I'd just call yourself a mei3guo2ren2 (美国人).

[roddy]

Moved some discussion to Other Cultures and Languages - please folks, keep on topic.