Thoughts on the Zhuang Menghan [庄梦涵] – Emily King – Case! (14.2.2025)

Chinese men, women, and children have, in concerning numbers, been the victims of race-based crime when outside of China. Their distinctive culture and language (regardless of political view or path) is so diametrically opposed to anything that developed in the West, to be unfamiliar at best and alienating at worse. Chinese culture is also the oldest, continuous human culture the planet earth currently possesses (arguments can be made for Africa and India – but these lack the cohesive-strength evident within – and throughout – Chinese culture). Even the rampaging Christian missionaries of earlier centuries were stunned to find an advanced civilisation that was NOT Christian. As a continuous culture, China shines a light on the world and that is something the rest of us must come to terms with. Simply “disagreeing” with it serves no purpose. As a Sinotised Westerner, I can only admit that at least half of my core identity – I owe entirely to the Chinese people. This recognition has NOTHING to do with “agreeing” – which is an infantile assumption – there are plenty of things Chinese people do (and vice versa, I am sure) that I fully disagree with, but such is life.

Believe it or not, my PhD is in the study of “Spiritual Metaphysics”, or in other words, “Religious Studies” – but at a very advanced stage of understanding. As I am a non-religious person (in fact, I am a Chinese Buddhist), I possess no literal (or obvious) belief in a Judeo-Christian or Brahmanical deity. Although I criticise religion – and religious people – on a daily basis, I have nothing against a sincerely held belief in general. What concerns me is destructive religious ignorance manifest on the physical plane, be it psychological, emotional, and/or physical (cruelty, terrorism, and brutality, etc). Still, each to their own with regard to belief. I happen to believe that the act of meditation strengthens the intellectual capacity – and from this – the further development of material science emerges. Interacting with other people is a human necessity (outside of hermeticism and monasticism), and in this increasingly shrinking world, the ability to mix with people of other origins is a vital skill. Within the multicultural world, hardly a day goes by without the routine interaction with people of other origins. By and large, this is the reality of the secular world. We all strive to find our little space (oasis) within it.

When Mainland Chinese people arrive in the West, usually as students, or sometimes employees, they are usually shell-shocked at the very different culture they find – even if the people are kind and considerate. The fundamental dualism that has built the Judeo-Christian world is thoroughly alien to these people (I have even found this to be the case regarding the very small percentage of genuine Christians that exist in China). Whenever I have travelled around the world, as soon as I exit the aeroplane, I can immediately feel the different frequency of the culture I have entered. I know nothing and am at the mercy of the indigenous population until I can find my feet. When I return to England, as soon as I land, it is like a hand in a glove – I am familiar with everything and know how and what to do to achieve objectives and solve difficulties. Acculturation and acclimatisation are a matter of experience and familiarity. Even Chinese people born outside of China sometimes express an underlying sense of alienation within the culture their parents or ancestors migrated into.

We can all be vulnerable – like a fish out of water. When I was marching regularly through London between 2011-2019 (with Gee and the children – as they appeared) – we would occasionally be approached by a White middle-class Englishman, around 40-years old, with a young (and fawning) Chinese woman on his arm. Observing her body language and mannerism, and listening to her accent, it was obvious she was a Mainland Chinese person, probably a student. This White man (whom I later discovered on Twitter complaining about the Red Flag my family was carrying) was making all kinds of anti-China “racist” statements – equating his Eurocentric attitudes with legitimate political discourse. He condemned Socialism and stated the Chinese people were mass murderers who follow a backward culture. The Chinese woman on his arm, instead of acting shocked at her boyfriend’s behaviour, nodded passively in agreement with everything he said. There seemed to be no understanding about what he was saying – as if his anti-China racism had nothing to do with her. This situation gave the impression that this submissive Chinese woman was a willing “slave” of this “White” man. He completely dominated her, and used this domination of a Chinese woman to falsely believe he possessed power of all Chinese people in his immediate environment. After shouting racial abuse at my partner, this man then announced he was off to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to free Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong! The fawning Chinese woman on his arm said and did nothing whilst her boyfriend behaved in this manner toward another Chinese person.

Of course, I know nothing about the inner dynamics of the recent murder case involving Zhuang Menghan [庄梦涵] – Emily King – and the relationship she had with her “White” boyfriend. Her Chinese (female) friends stated that since meeting this White man, Emily King had started behaving in unfamiliar or outrageous ways. Are we seeing a similar pattern as described above? By the way, I have lived in and around the Chinese community for decades, and have seen this pattern many time s. Of course, it is not every relationship that is like this, but it does happen on a regular basis. Furthermore, as long as everyone is a consenting adult – according to the law – differences in age should not be seen as a particular or defining problem. The problem is White racism and how Chinese people – particularly women – attempt to navigate it. This reality might explain why certain elements of the Chinese-language media approached this murder story with the trajectory they did. It may be that the “White” boyfriend in this instance did nothing wrong – but we do not know at this point. Of course, the only murder suspect at the moment is an “Asian” man.