-
ADD TIME NEWS
- MOBILE APPS
- NEWSLETTERS
The Dignity of the Torch: II
Here's another take on the issue by our colleague at the Beijing Bureau, Lin Yang:
With the overwhelming patriotic propaganda on the Olympic torch's "harmonious world tour" in the local press for the past month, I thought I could no longer be surprised by anything. But I was wrong. The torch's Seoul leg took Chinese nationalist sentiment to new heights. About 1000 Chinese students violently attacked anti-North Korea and pro-Tibet independence demonstrators, as well as the police. "At least one person was injured and taken to the hospital", according to Bloomberg news. A Youtube video can be found here.
Nationalism is too broad a topic to tackle, but I do have some thoughts on violence and the value of self-reflection.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu did give an explanation for the violence by the Chinese students in Seoul-"Tibetan separatist forces intended to sabotage the Olympic torch, which belongs to people around the world. But the Chinese students meant to be kind and friendly." "Some of them came out to protect the dignity of the torch, and their intent was good." I take it this means Ms. Jiang also acknowledges the violence took place at the relay, though in this case "good intentions" is all that matters.
Although what constitutes a good intention can be subjective, violence is violence, and physical violence is inexcusable. Ironically, it seems like violence has become the last resort for people to show their support for this international sports events that promotes peace and understanding. The Olympics has been surrounded by physical confrontation, cyber violence, hostile propaganda, and extremely abusive language. The Dalai Lama is not only a "splittist", but also a "wolf with a face of a human but a heart of a beast"; The parents of Grace Wang, the controversial Duke University student, had to flee their apartment -- where enraged patriots launched attacks with rocks and feces -- and live on the run; Carrefour stores in some cities were looted while people who dared to object to the boycott were physically assaulted; and one look at any Chinese internet BBS on the Olympics, western media, and Tibet will leave you amazed at the variety and level of obscenity. Is this any different than behavior by the anti-Beijing Olympic groups condemned by China?
Now let's talk about self-reflection. I guess the Beijing Olympics brought an unexpected shock to both the Chinese government and the Chinese people: it turns out that the world's impression of China is different from what we read in the Chinese media. China expects to be liked by people around the world, and anything short of that is unacceptable. I can understand the hurt and indignity when this belief is put to test and proves to be wishful thinking. But when the torch relay was met with resistance and disapproval in every country but North Korea, one might want to take a second and ask why, even if only out of curiosity.
There are several ready answers: Because western media with "ulterior motives" hold a deep bias against China; because the world feels threatened by a rising China and wants to make it difficult for her; because the separatists have their secret agendas; because the innocent people are deceived by lies about China. When Cafferty called the Chinese "thugs and goons", the world is made to witness the righteous rage of China, expressed in "thugs and goons" behavior. When most of the Chinese are only allowed access to state controlled news, western media are publicly condemned in official press and routinely harassed by angry Chinese for reporting biased stories; When Carrefour in China was made a scapegoat and suffered losses over a non-existent funding deal with the Dalai Lama, it was hailed as a victory.
To err is human, but you'd never know it from reading the Chinese side nowadays. We are demanding a lot of apologies, from CNN, from Cafferty, from the French, from the Japanese, from the EU council, from Nancy Pelosi, and we are also busy condemning all those who raise questions about the Olympics: media, politicians, Chinese "traitors" who refuse to join the ideological crusade, and the "splittists", who left Chinese students with no choice but to resort to violence.
Are you proud to be always on the right side?
-
1
Dalai Lama Dilemma.
By: Jordan C. Fan, Prophet of Environment.
While the Dalai Lama has received unprecedented attentions by ignorant Westerners, his theology is really too ordinary to even sweep across Chinese minds. In our mysterious Far East, people like Dalai Lama are everywhere and simply too numerous to be of any interest to anyone. This is true not just near the Himalayas but also in every town, village and house across China, India and Indochina. Although I am a Prophet or Grand Master of all clairvoyants, there are countless others with minor abilities to communicate with the spiritual world.
There are millions of people including other Buddhist monks in China who can tell the fortune of other individuals with extreme accuracy even up to the hour about when a person would die. Some people could, on a routine basis, communicate with the dead or evil spirits everyday. They could also pinpoint the exact locations with instructions from a ghosts to know exactly where they had hidden certain objects of importance. Others could conduct seances to summon spirits from another world who are truly present at the scenes. The Chinese “Hitting of the Not So Big Man” similar to voodoo could injure or even kill people hundreds if not thousands of miles away. Southeast Asian Goong Tauu could force some people's cheating love ones' miraculously return to homes from far away places or face fatal consequences. A lot of people can write thousands of pages of meaningful texts automatically without even opening up their eyes or use their minds. All these should serve as warnings to Americans and Europeans not to mess around with Asians or we will definitely strike back.
Those European and American Dalai Lama supporters are in fact teasing and laughing at the Tibetans and other Buddhists for not being allowed to conceive by drawing the world's attention on them. Such practices of abstinent are no strangers to Asian cultures. There were always thousands of eunuchs resided in Asian palaces through the centuries. All were not allowed to conceived for the security of those monarchies. Then there are always people who simply refuse to have sex. Americans have always joked about the baldness of Tibetans. Quite obviously, they should first laugh at Obama because even his name is bald! Obama supports Tibetans simply due to their common hair styles and to defeat China but use other reasons as excuses. Those foreigners are simply trying to be nasty in taking this opportunity to humiliate at Eastern culture. Such unethically foreign habits must be frowned upon and stopped by all Asians immediately.
People similar to the Tibetans can be found everywhere in the United States. First, there are special ancient religious tribes such as Jews, Shakers, Mormons, Amish, Mennonite and many more... There are also new denominations and cults. Many of them occupy exclusive area almost comparable to Tibet. I won't even dare to count those many numerous native Indian tribes and sub-tribes. There are also Cajuns and others groups living in the Louisiana Bayou and Florida Everglades. Many atrocities such as the massacre at Waco, Texas by the U. S. FBI, under the direction of Democrats, were examples of the American government's mistreatments of minorities, so why don't the Europeans criticize Americans? If I discussed such problems in Europe, it will take me an extra ten years and another ten thousand pages. I am not sure I will live that long?
Now we should discuss the issues of majorities, minorities, tribes and nomads living in China. Nomads, similar to gypsy, are foreigners who are passing through China and should not be counted as minorities but migrants or foreigners. There are in fact more than ten thousand majorities and minorities living in China. In addition to Han, Manchurian, Mongolian, Muslim and Tibetan who should really be considered as majorities not minorities because there are other tribes living in Sichuan and Yunnan who are truly minorities. In additional Hakka, Cantonese, South China Sea Islanders, Taiwanese and Shanghai people should also be counted as minorities which may also deserve some special and favorable treatments. In addition, there are always many people in different towns and villages who have very different cultural habits different from ordinary Chinese who wanted to counted as distinct people. The population of some of those people could even equal to the Tibetan population if not exceeded it. Many of those people entered this Chinese melting pot after the Tibetans.
Since the inception of the People's Republic, China have been treating Tibetans very well by investing hundreds of billions yuans into Tibet for Tibetan welfare. This is even more so than other majorities and minorities elsewhere.
No country should waste their time and resource tending to such mammoth and unimportant issues while the Environment is fast deteriorating.
Most Popular »
- Best of the Decade: Sci-Fi Movies
- Is Harry Reid Burning Out?
- How Will Obama Pay For Stimulus 2.1? (or 3.0, 3.1, whatever you want to call it)
- The Health Reform Abortion Wars, Part Deux
- War of the Supermen: Q&A With Matt Idelson
- Quinnipiac: Obama Gets Bump on Afghanistan
- Economists Growing More Wary of the Senate Health Bill
- How to Outsmart a Debt Collector
- Best of the Decade: Gadgets
- "How Will Dave Ever Make Fun of Sex Scandals Again?"
- The Truth Behind the Leaked Climate-Change E-Mails
- Tiger Woods Must Face His Fans' Moral Outrage
- Mexico Witness Protection: Corrupt Program, New Killings
- Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting
- Taiwan: World's Lowest Birthrate Could Affect Society
- Creating Jobs: Can Obama Government Boost Employment?
- How Strong Is the Evidence Against Amanda Knox?
- Humanure: Goodbye, Toilets. Hello, Extreme Composting
- Suspect Headley: Pakistani Terrorist Group Going Global?
- Study: Parents' Sex Talks with Kids Happening Too Late













RSS