Is the West impossible to please?
An interesting conversation unfolded on Meg’s blog post about China Visa problems. Commenter CnInDC offered a well-argued explanation of the root cause of work visa limitations in both countries.
But one thing he (or she) shared helped me understand the feelings that some Chinese people must have:
I agree that the current visa “crackdown” was caused by security concerns about the Olympics. If you watch news in China you’ve probably already noticed that the China’s domestic Olympic propaganda has been dramatically toned down from wanting a most successful Olympic to a merely safe one. The reality is there, that a most successful Olympic is already beyond our reach. The people they wanted to impress the most, the western media and the general public from the western countries, are impossible to please. So they go for the next best one, that at least it’s safe, no ugly scenes (or at least not a major one), and the Chinese can enjoy the party all by themselves. I’ve heard this before from the Chinese people around me and think it may have a point: “大不了办成全运会”, or, “At least we can turn this into a national sports event”.
Photos from my visit to see the Good Luck Games in May:


It reminded me of this poem entitled “My Friends, What Do You Want From Us” I saw earlier in April on China Digital Times (also on China Herald) from cbc forums via C’est la vie blog:
What do you want from us?
When we were called “sick man of Asia”, we were called peril.
When we billed to be the next superpower, we’re called the threatWhen we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open markets.
when we embrace free trade, you blame us for taking away your jobs.when we’re falling apart, you marched in your troops and wanted your fair share.
when we’re putting the broken pieces together, “Free Tibet” you screamed! “it was invasion.”So we tried communism, you hated us for being communist.
So we embraced capitalism, you hate us for being capitalist,Then we have a billion people, you said we’re destroying the planet.
Then we limit our numbers, you said it was human rights abuses.When we were poor, you think we’re dogs,
When we loan you cash, you blamed us for your debts.When we build our industries, you called us polluters.
When we sell you goods, you blamed us for global warming,
When we buy oil, you called that exploitation and genocide.When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you wanted rule s of laws for us.
When we uphold law and order against violence, you called that violation of human rights.When we were silent, you said you want us to have free speech.
When we were silent no more, you say we were brainwashed.Why do you hate us so much? We asked. “No”. You answered, “we don’t hate you”.
We don’t hate you either Bud, do you understand us?? “of course we do”, you said, “We have CNN, BBC, and CBC”.But why, we still feel, your western people are not happy with us.
What do you really want from us??
My friend, What do you really want from us??
There is plenty of angry rhetoric from people who take extremist political positions on China on the China Digital Times post. There is also some extremely thoughtful points there too. Please read that comment thread first before posting some extreme rant (either highly critical of China or highly defensive against perceived criticism of China) that has already been said over there.
I propose we just take the time to try to understand the feeling expressed in the poem above and figure out how we can all take this feeling into account in our behavior with each other.
(Why am I posting this? I figured this poem would be hard to find in the future and wanted to just capture it on the blog where I know I could find it)


As a pseudo-geek, my RSS Reader includes a subscription to the almighty
Therein lies the complex rationalizations for the necessity of the Chinese central government to control the Chinese people, whether it means 












