After moving to Shanghai for her new job, Hua began to learn the hard way about not fitting in with the Han Chinese majority. On her first day at work she wore a pretty outfit trimmed in red. As she walked into the office, a co-worker muttered, “That Subei outfit is so ugly.” The color red is traditionally worn by Subei women. And the Subei people are looked down on and scorned by the dominant Han Chinese culture. Joshua Project says that “Subei swine” is a terrible insult in Shanghai.
Outsiders will not recognize the Subei as being different from the majority population, but locals know. They have a distinct accent and dialect. For a hundred years they have congregated en masse in Shanghai. Although they have largely blended in, they still face discrimination. They are treated as dirty and stupid. As the Joshua Project quotes, “The only reason they’re dirty is because they’re poor, and they’re poor because they are uneducated, and they are uneducated because they are discriminated against.”
Shanghai has a relatively large Christian witness, but the Subei people have yet to be significantly affected by the followers of Jesus.