#also um pro tip dont search up t gcf r acism there are

[piosplayhouse]

Tgcf is racist?? I've only read the manhua so I'm SUPPPER leery of the desert arc but I donno if there's. More

Just starting this off by acknowledging that I read tgcf very casually and mostly late at night, so my memory isn't really 100% on all the details in the books. As well as this, I'm Southeast/East Asian and cannot really speak about these issues, so my goal with this is to uplift the knowledge and opinions of Central Asian and MENA users who have spoken out on this.

The Banyue arc (what you're referencing) is widely regarded as the most openly insensitive part of tgcf, made worse by the visual adaptations. I'm sure there have been several thinkpieces written on this by more qualified tgcf mains, but my personal favorite posts on the subject are by @/geges here. I'd highly recommend checking out their entire "racism in inner Asia" tag! They're very thoughtful and eloquent in their posts, and have opened my eyes to many issues I wasn't aware of before.

As for the rest of TGCF, there are no particular scenes that stand out to me as being as blatantly awful as the Banyue arc, but again I am woefully underqualified to speak on this subject, so if any of my followers would like to pitch in additional warnings, I'd really appreciate it. Something which geges mentions as well is the overlying sense of colorism/racism that is present throughout all of the mxtx novels, and C/Asian media as a whole-- the focus on pale skin as the peak beauty standard for the main characters, braids typical of Asian minority cultures being used for stereotypically violent characters, etc. Of course this isn't meant as an excuse for mxtx or other cmedia creators in any way, but I do feel that it's important to note that these issues are in no way exclusive to single books or creators, but representative of broader racist ideals in Asian cultures as a whole.

I think they summarize this point and the one I wanted to use to conclude incredibly well in this post:

It's ok to still enjoy things that you know have serious flaws, it's ok to not skin your media looking for any form of problematic content before you let yourself like it, so long as you are always open to educating yourself and assessing how you can reflect on and prevent perpetuating harmful messages. Acknowledging that something you hold dear can be difficult, and oftentimes it's easier to just disavow it entirely, but instead of turning away from the issues and swearing that you would never be susceptible to them, it's always beneficial to become critically informed on the subject in order to combat the ignorance that stereotypes and racism proliferate in.