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| "Racist" Einstein formulating an early meme. |
Albert Einstein, the famous scientist who came up with the Theory of Relativity, is often held up as a paragon of "progressive virtue" and as a committed anti-racist. But recently published diaries reveal that the Nobel-prize- winning scientist actually had a deep loathing for other races, especially the Chinese.
Written on his travels in China between October 1922 and March 1923, the diaries contain many uncomplimentary thoughts on the Chinese, whom he describes as "filthy, obtuse people."
Elsewhere he notes that:
"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."
He also worries about the higher Chinese birth rate leading to the replacement of Europeans like himself:
"It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”
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| Left: Chinese man, Right: Chinese woman |
"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."
Another point that strikes the high-IQ physicist is what appears to be the relative sexlessness of Chinese 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."
Like Hitler, another famous racist of the same period, Einstein has a more favourable view of the Japanese.
"Japanese unostentatious, decent, altogether very appealing," he writes. "Pure souls as nowhere else among people. One has to love and admire this country."
