Olympics Controversy - Misunderstanding China - Part I: Why It’s Easy For Americans to Hate China
Disclaimer: “I am here to bridge the gap. Not to hate. Not to love. Not to be biased. Only honesty.”
After seeing and hearing many of the critical comments made from so many Americans on newspapers, blogs, forums, TV, venting their frustrations on China’s policy-making, human rights issues, security issues. I’ve decided to step into the limelight and give my two cents on this critical issue currently circulating the media worldwide.
I’m willing to make a bet that many of these critical comments about China are coming from sources that haven’t lived in China for an extensive amount of time; people who don’t really know China. I believe some people just love to hate because I’ve encountered a good number of these bitter souls, but there’s a difference between someone who hates with no foundation behind their arguments and someone who actually knows why they are hating something. Here is my formula: Hate = misunderstanding + ignorance + arrogance, Arrogance = Not wanting to understand (due to fear/insecurity in most cases). Most of us probably read a biased article somewhere in a magazine about China’s workers working for $20/month and automatically scream “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe this injustice! How can this be? We’ve got to do something about that!”
I know people who hated China so much that they went over to China to collect evidence to strengthen their arguments (now that’s some serious hating). However, most of them came back here with a better understanding and appreciation for China as a culture. I respect these people and applaud their efforts in attempting to at least understand the subject they are arguing against. That is what we refer to in sports as respecting your opponent.
My advice to all those have negative views about China: “Go to China, live there for 6 months, don’t be a shut in and close your mind. Open your mind and really experience the culture, and then come back and tell me you still hate it.” That’s the very first step. I’ve encountered some of the brightest expats in the world who now reside in China, and we’ve gotten into conversations about China and different perspectives, and every conversations always ends with “best damn decision I made in my life to come here, mate (lots of Aussies).” Before you criticize something, don’t do it because you have been biased by secondary materials and sources that have influenced you in a negative way; go out there and get to know it yourself before you judge!
First and foremost, I want to make this clear: the purpose of this post is to help each other understand and accept different cultures so that we may all live in harmony. First, I want to mention that China has made great strides in the past ten years to be more globally receptive to become more international-friendly, and yet I feel we Americans unfairly expect China to make a 360 degree turn within days. It’s almost like telling a 3,000 year old Big Mac Lifetime Honoree to turn vegan within a week. It’s not fair for us to expect a culture with such a rich history to change and conform to our ideals because we think they ought to; especially when we think it’s for their own good.
The popular Chinese opinion regarding the main flaw of America is that we are arrogant, stubborn bullies that think the world should operate our way because we are almighty and everyone else is weak and small. Do we Americans agree with that? Let’s be truthful here (please do not let your patriotic feelings blind your logic and reasoning because it will make for a weaker argument), it’s my firm belief that a lot of things (media, propaganda, racism) can blind us from understanding other people’s beliefs and cause us to block out the legitimate arguments they may espouse; it’s called cognitive dissonance. If you saw any of the debates from the recent Presidential Election, you’d have a pretty good idea of what that looks like. Let’s ask ourselves, “Are we really a stubborn, arrogant nation that doesn’t want to understand and blocks out everything we don’t believe in? Or is that just a misconception?” Don’t get me wrong, I love America and am proud to be a citizen of this wonderful country where we can speak our mind and not fear persecution. But being in China for two years have helped me understand where the Chinese people are coming from, and that understanding has changed my perspective about a country I had previous biased notions about before actually living and breathing here for two years.
Here is a quote I found interesting:
“When we have too much security, you blame us for oppressing people.
When we don’t have enough security, you blame us for being a dangerous place to be…
What do you want from us?”
I want everyone to read that statement and absorb it.
Please watch this interview with Chinese veteran blogger Wang Jian Shuo to better understand what we need to do as human beings to help this world.
Quote of the Day:
“Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes.” Elvis Presley
37 Responses to “Olympics Controversy - Misunderstanding China - Part I: Why It’s Easy For Americans to Hate China”
That’s an awful lot of rhetoric to make a very small point, which seems to be some kind of anti-American prejudice: you wrote to post to increase world harmony by stating, apparently as an American, that Americans are unfair, if not arrogant and stubborn. Very nice. That’s what we need in this world - more prejudice.
I’m an American who has been living in China with my family for 3 and a half years. We love the people of China. They are sweet, beautiful, kind, and intelligent. I long to see them free. I wish they could freely go to an officially sanctioned protest zone and complain about the local officials who are brutalizing and robbing them. But they can’t. When they test this trap they quickly become victims of the ones they trusted.
Cut the crap, Feng! The abuses are real, not rhetorical cultural differences. Officials are really stealing money from school projects, resulting in the deaths of 1000’s of children, but when a teacher takes photos of those schools, they throw him into a labor camp. There are real stories of real human rights abuses that we stubborn, arrogant, unfair Americans are concerned about for the sake of the beautiful people of China.
The truth is clear to those of us who have compassion for the more than a billion people who don’t belong to the party: they live in fear of their own rulers - for good reason. The choice isn’t harmony or disharmony, it’s harmony or prison.
Your twisty words mean one thing: I don’t know who you are, but I assume you are now eating off the the state’s table. I see your allegiance.
But my words don’t mean much either. One day a billion people will get fed up with their forced silence, exclusion from justice, and economic repression (the hukou system). They will rise up, irregardless of what you or I say. It’s inevitable. History repeats itself.
“They will rise up, irregardless of what you or I say. It’s inevitable. History repeats itself.”
That’s a bit cocksure and, well, arrogant of you to say…not unlike people claiming that “American civilization is doomed to crumble just as all great empires of the past have. It’s inevitable. History repeats itself.”
History only repeats itself in retrospection. Please avoid damning others to fate.
What Westerners don’t seem to understand - and this is coming from a background rooted in both the East and the West - is that freedom and happiness may be basic human rights in the West, but they have never been thought of as such in China.
Cruelty and oppression and absolute governmental power are part of China’s rich heritage and culture. It’s a culture that thinks nothing of sacrificing millions of lives for the good of the whole.
Without understanding the history underlying the current oppression in China, Westerners will never be fully able to appreciate what makes China so great. It’s the traditional disregard for what Americans call “human rights.” But if people would open their eyes a little wider, they would see that the Chinese way of life is valid in its own right.
It’s like a bee hive with thousands of worker bees and one queen bee. The raison d’etre of the worker bees is the survival of the queen bee and hence the continuation of the species.
The individual has no place in Chinese society, save for the sole purpose of the survival of the species and for the benefit of their social superiors. That’s what Confucianism, the philosophy which is at the heart of Chinese culture, is all about. Confucianism is about blind loyalty to your social superiors because those superiors were determined by the gods. Blind loyalty to the state(king), to your social superiors and your elders. In other words, you have to be willing to throw away your life for the benefit of the state.
This way of life is as valid as the Western way of life. Who says that all humans have inalienable rights? Westerners. And then they try to force their values,which I might add are based on Christianity which is despised in China, onto everyone else thinking that it’s some universal truth.
But if Americans have the respect for other cultures as they claim to do, they would leave the Chinese alone.
Both Americans and the Chinese seem to harbor a sense of superiority about their culture. But at least the Chinese don’t go around telling everyone how to act. They realize that their way of life is anachronistic, and they don’t try to force it onto everyone else. On the other hand, Americans go around “policing the world” for their half-brained president - Whose idiocy probably brought on the recent downturn in the global economy - thinking they’re all that.
But even worse is that Americans seem to think that they understand everything. That they understand China and its problems and they want to save the poor people of China.
Try telling that to the millions of Indians that you “saved” from their ignorance through Christianity and small pox infected blankets.
Just my 2 cents…
Disclaimer - The above post DOES NOT REPRESENT MY VIEWS
I am only trying to point out the fallacies that can be found in both sides of the argument
Seems to me that too much security is oppressive and too little is dangerous..why we should view decrying both extremes as unreasonable is beyond me. See this link for a response to the poem “What do you want from us.” http://www.anti-cnn.com/forum/en/thread-1515-1-4.html
It is undoubtedly true that people in North American have a difficult time understanding China…but then again, here’s a quick thought experiment: try picking any point of contention between China and the rest of the world, and seek an explanation from Chinese media sources, or better yet, from a Chinese gov’t. office. Example: Chinese officials explained away the recent uproar over the Opening Ceremony by claiming that using one girl’s voice and another’s face was “in the national interest.”
Rather than decrying the fact that the average joe in N. America (or Australia) has a tendency to “misunderstand China,” it might be helpful to take a look at the quality of explanation he is getting.
LoL, this is what I get for responding to James before reading all the comments in his post. Now I look like an idiot for reposting the same thing you posted. For the record, you’re absolutely right, there’s nothing wrong with decrying both extremes.
I also agree that the Chinese sometimes have a difficult time communicating themselves in a way that Westerners can understand. A greater mutual understanding requires both sides to, well, actually understand each other. Too often, many on the Chinese side simply demand that the other side understand them. Too often, they also give the impression that “understanding them” must result in agreeing, condoning, or excusing them.
Then again, this sort of mentality can be found in any culture and country. It just seems more abundant in China. Might have something to do with all the people there, you know, that “billion” of people who “live in fear of their own rulers.”
Just my luck, I read a post by Raj over at The Peking Duck that gives an example of the Chinese “you should try to understand us but we do not care to understand you” mentality we have seen so much of lately.
CONGRATS TO CHINA FOR DOING WELL IN THE MOST FAKE OLYMPICS EVER. THIS IS THE MOST BIASED OLYMPICS IVE EVER WITNESSED. GOOD THING THAT PHELPS DOMINATED SO THEY HAD NO CHANCE TO JACK HIM OF HIS GOLD. COMMUNIST SUCK AND WE ALL KNOW THIS. HOPEFULLY CHINA ENJOYS THIS WHILE IT LASTS BECUASE THE GLORY WILL BE GONE SOON. GOOD LUCK IN THE WINTER OLYMPICS. I BET YOU WONT FAIR AS WELL. NOT BECAUSE YOU DONT HOST THE OLYMPICS…… HA HA. OH YEA THATS RIGHT. THAT IS THE REASON YOU WON’T DO SHIT. JUST GIVE IT UP. FREE TIBET. OR DO THEM A FAVOR AND LET THEM JOIN USA.
I think the point both commenters are missing is that this post is directed at Americans and other Westerners, who DO have a tendency to misunderstand China. Blaming that on the Chinese government is a little ridiculous. There are mountains upon mountains of literature about China available in the West, but most of the Americans opposed to China have never read any of it, nor have they ever been to China, nor do they generally know any Chinese people. (In my experience…but I’m an American who majored in Chinese, so my experience talking with other Americans about China is pretty damn extensive).
The bottom line, as I see it, is if Americans REALLY want to change China, the first step is to make connections to the people and try to understand the culture, not criticize the government. Why?
1) The government is not going to change its policies because a bunch of Americans are mad on the internet.
2) Chinese people are unlikely to seriously consider your opinion of what’s best for China if you don’t know a damn thing about China.
3) If you don’t know a damn thing about China, you probably couldn’t offer any practical suggestions for positive change anyway.
4) As any idiot can see, foreign criticism of the government here tends to result in MORE internal popular support for the government, not less.
Complaining about something you know nothing about is arrogant and useless, and sitting around whining and waiting for the Chinese people to rise up is perhaps less arrogant, but just as useless. Learn the history, learn the language, learn the culture, meet the people. Then criticize, if you think it’s going to help.
The biggest problem I have with Western China critics is that many of them willfully ignore what actual Chinese people want from their government.
Excellent comment.
A lot of foreigners mistake projecting themselves onto the Chinese as being empathetic with the Chinese. Unfortunately, transposing your own values and concerns onto the Chinese does not accurately represent what that Chinese person actually values and is concerned about.
“The bottom line, as I see it, is if Americans REALLY want to change China, the first step is to make connections to the people and try to understand the culture, not criticize the government. Why?”
Am I missing something here? What business does America have in changing China? I think this is the core of the animosity against US intervention in international affairs. In the case of international relationships, meeting the people and trying to understand them is core, but why must the US feel it is their duty to intervene. Why should it be the US that casts the first stone?
Well, sun zoo said “if” and “REALLY,” right?
It is natural for people to try to change and control the world around them using whatever means (including influence) they have. Americans wanting to change China to fit their own conception of what life “should be” is merely an extension of that inevitable and unavoidable social dynamic. It is a bit tiring to hear the cliche rebuttal “what business is it for so and so to change so and so.” Just accept that it is going to happen and worry more about how it can be done in the most productive and peaceful manner to all sides involved FOR the benefit of all sides involved.
@sun zoo - Absolutely
I was deeply saddened when I the author said that he knew ” people who hated China so much that they went over to China to collect evidence to strengthen their arguments”. Why? It reminded me that I too have known those sort of people, but unfortunately, many of them were hardly dissuaded by visiting China. Someone determined to hate won’t let anything like a little shaded reality stand in their way.
6 month, or 16 months, it won’t do most any good. The most blindly critical and racist - I won’t mince words, “yellow fear” is at the heart of this - people I met in China were foreigners who’d been there for 1 year+ and yet harbored a deep loathing for all things Chinese, save perhaps for a few tasty dishes and a token Chinese.
There is a lesson there for all developing countries… even that term is funny, “developing countries”. 5000 years of culture and now China is developing?
Okay, come on now, you know what “developing countries” means and you know “5000 years of Chinese culture” is irrelevant to its meaning. Don’t play stupid.
I’ve been in China several years and I’ve found that China, like every country, has its share of haters, and prejudice etc. It also has its share of nice people. It’s no different from the US in this regard. The difference is that in the US and much of the rest of the world, people can say and publish what they want. In China people can’t say or publish what they want and the gov’t controls what gets through. The only place you can get even an inkling of what Chinese think is in the Chinese chat rooms where hating foreigners is allowed. And its there that you can read some incredible racist hatemongering. No, the Americans and other waiguoren don’t have a monopoly on arrogance, hatefulness, or bias.
Actually, a lot of incredibly ignorant, racist, biased, and prejudiced stuff gets said and published in China…
Been in China more than 10 years and have seen just as much arrogance, and idiocy and general lack of knowledge about the outside world as I have back in the US. Actually more, due to the fact that my hometown is quite small.
If you tell people to go and see, what happens if they go (without purpose) to a place that shows the ugly side of China and they talk about it!? Oh, well that one doesn’t count. Only the people who come and see and are absolutely positive about their experience count, I’m sure.
If you’re a fat man laugh at your own fatness, that way nobody will laugh at you anymore. China takes itself way too seriously and wants everyone else who is not Chinese to follow that same path.
Watch when the foreigners start to be treated like the locals and see how many say “best choice I ever made in my life to come to China, mate”.
Lame post. Just as there are good reasons to like China, there are also perfectly good reasons to dislike it. Moreover, it is patently NOT necessary to spend years of one’s life in China in order to understand it well enough to offer a qualified opinion either way. I don’t have to swim with a great white shark or jab myself in the eye with a fork to know that I wouldn’t enjoy either one. Likewise, one doesn’t have to move to China to know that the pollution, over-crowding, failure to enforce intellectual property rights laws, and jailing of political dissidents are all bad. The same goes for many of China’s better points.
Fighting the good fight against ignorance is admirable but a waste of time. In any case, China has more ignorant people than anyplace else - perhaps you should start there.
Living in China for years and loving it, that’s why I care to criticize what I dislike.
In my more than 3 years living in China I’ve personally met only one treacherous person - an American Chinese who thought that I needed them so badly that they could treat me like a slave. Other than that, I’ve met thousands of kind, sweet people who like me (my ancestors came from Germany) and like Americans. In fact, I’ve helped hundreds of student to go to American universities. The people of China are like people everywhere, as far as I know. But they are oppressed by a restrictive system that short-changes them in every aspect of life and constantly threatens to beat or jail them if they do or say the politically incorrect thing.
The last post is right on - the are many ignorant people in this populous country where ignorance is the best tool for controlling the masses. You want to help? Come on over and be a teacher. These delightful people will love you for it.
Uh, James, I actually wrote that “My friends, what do you want from us”-esque comment entirely in satire. I think the sentiment of frustration in that piece is entirely understandable, worthy of reflection, but largely fallacious and intellectually dishonest.
Here is an anti-CNN post that shares some–though not all–of my reactions to that piece.
Kai and James,
I have read the article and all these comments. I have to say that your arguments are weaker than your opponents. As myself is Chinese and unquestionably love our motherland, I have stayed at US for about 10 years. So I think I can quite objective tell what is really going in this debate.
(1) First of all, I want to share one thing—-if something is indeed beautiful, it does not need to take long time to catch it.
We humans are actually common on observing the true beauty. Certainly there are cultural difference. But by the first impression, we often can immediately sense either the thing is pretty or it is disgusting. Be honest, if something in nature (not those academic hard problems such as E=MC2) that is beauty but you have to take years to sense, there is already intrinsic problem in this event whatsoever.
Now when you say that western people have to been at China for quite a while in order to know how gracious, how kind, how humble, and how beautiful China is, I would say that China must already do not belong to these words.
Don’t assume most of the western people are prejudice or they want to misunderstand China. Actually few of them do. As the first commenter said, they just simply compare what they might receive in China to what they are receiving in their own nations. In their own nation, they are be free of questioning publicly to the president or any leader of the nation, let it alone the mayors or governors. Can a regular Chinese have this right and not being abused afterward? Generally, if you are honest, you have to admit that a regular Chinese does not have this right.
(2) Second, I would like to share is that one should change himself to get reputation instead of asking for others to compromise to him. In the other words, if China blames that the people from other nations do not understand it, the nation needs to first think of changing itself instead of asking for others to change.
Well, I know many Chinese are proud of the history, and so do I. But it is not the time for being proud. It is the time to figure out problems and improve oneself.
The more you learn history, the more you can know that the so-called “pride of our nation” is so shallow in comparing to the great contribution made by the entire mankind. Certainly, China has great history and wonderful invention that had greatly impacted the world. But how many Chinese have really studied what the rest of the world has contributed to the entire human society? The glory of ancient Egypt, the glory of Greece, the glory of Rome, the glory of Great Britain. The people in these nations they have contributed to the human civilization at least no less than Chinese have done. If we add them together, it is definitely more than Chinese have done. So, how should Chinese be the only one who are proud of its history? These western people they should at least be proud as the Chinese. Therefore, it is a shame to question their judgment on what is right or wrong. Believe it, they are at least as smart and integrity as Chinese to know what is wrong and what is right. If many of them think China is not that good, then it is China who needs to think of itself what’s wrong instead of complaining others’ prejudice.
(3) At last, Kai, according to the quote of your words in the article.
“When we have too much security, you blame us for oppressing people.
When we don’t have enough security, you blame us for being a dangerous place to be…
What do you want from us?”
This is a clever writing. But consciously or not, you have misused the two varied meanings of “security” in your statement.
The first “security” actually refers to the freedom of normal people, while the second “security” is about the maintenance of public safety. If they are actually two different things, how can you compare them in this direct way?
I do not want to say that you are intentionally mislead the readers. What I want to address that it is a typical example of misconception in the mind of many Chinese people rather than a misconception in the mind of western people.
If China really wants to be a truly great nation that everybody in the world agrees, the nation must primarily try to improve itself and do not blame the others. Respect can only be earned by improve oneself rather than asking others to be you.
Yihong
Yihong, I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood me just as James has. If you read another comment of mine here, you’ll notice that I actually largely agree with you. I wrote the statement you refer to entirely as satire and unfortunately, James thought I was being serious and actually used it for his post. He misunderstood my meaning and now it appears that you’ve misunderstood what my true position is. Thank you for your comments but if you’ve seen my writing here and elsewhere on the internet (like GVO), you’ll know that we think more similar than different.
Wow! What a useless post. Everyone knows (even Chinese themselves) that China sucks….in all the important ways. Freedom of expression is what make us human….there is none in China.
They are also cheats, liars, and harbor many diseases…they live like pigs.
Best thing that can happen is the whole world gets together and decides to bombard the helll out of China. That’s the best thing that can happen…..kill all the swine within a month….alll day/night 24/7 bombardment!!!!
I’ve lived in the U.S. for 12 years and if one has to criticize using Chinese value system and lens: Americans are very self-centered and individualistic, non-family oriented (compared to Chinese culture), very practical and economics driven (MARKET SHARE, MARKET SHARE!), wipe out any good taste and small businesses with Starbucks and McDonalds, have no respect for the elderly and are rude to parents, treat dogs better than they treat human beings, overeat resources from the rest of the world (who’s under 200 lbs?), use other people’s oil besides its own and then attack others, Walmart sells a product for $99 but pay China manufacturers $5 and then complain about human rights (modern slavery and hypocrisy), most consumers spend before they even have the money and are in serious credit card debt etc. etc.
So here’s a mirror to those who are trying to impose one country’s value system onto others.
The truth of the matter is there are goods and bads to ANY country.
One cannot say ALL Americans are this way or ALL Chinese are another way.
This is so generalized that its meaningless. Can you say that ALL DOGS
are good and ALL CATS are not?
It amazes me that in the 21st Century and with “globalization” that people can make comments as such. More and more people now are multi-cultural: they’ve lived in multiple countries and learnt multiple languages to appreciate the goods and bads of each culture. How many Americans can speak more than English? Average Europeans can speak 3 languages. Comments from expats who lives in China but only hangs out with expats nor speak Chinese don’t count. Its just like Chinese going to live in the U.S., speak no single word of English and live in China town ONLY, what do they know about American culture?
I appreciated U.S. for its once multi-culturalism being a big melting pot
when I lived there, and am shocked to see such comments online.
When has America become so singular in thinking?
after 911, any countries outside is painted as an enemy by the media.
thanks to Bush.
How ironic that you say this:
“One cannot say ALL Americans are this way or ALL Chinese are another way.”
…and then immediately say this:
“When has America become so singular in thinking?”
By the way, not all cats are bad but, like women, all cats are evil.
It’s rather ironic, the complaint “you don’t understand”, coming from a culture where empathy with the situation of others is not an important cultural trait.
ry self-centered and individualistic, non-family oriented (compared to Chinese culture),
Even your criticisms are unreflective cultural sterotypes. If crap like this were written about Chinese, everyone would be up in arms: racists, colonialists, you don’t understand China!
Try standing on a street corner, watching drivers park, standing in line, counting charitable donations, and so on, in the two countries. In which country is The Other cared for better?
You ask people to get beyond stereotypes, but your own thinking is a farrago of them.
BTW, I live in Taiwan, under your missiles and under your threat of annexation. Please remove them, and I’ll like you better.
Michael
I want to bust up a very ugly -DANGEROUS- problem, communist mind trickery, specially on the internet.
How do you think communist party gets people to pay for the bullets that killed their family members? How do they get dissidents to convert to commiethink in those brainwashing camps? How do they get the bulk of the nation to agree with commie propaganda?
These are horrible topics, but, I can see the black magic spreading and I want to share what I think in case it can help.
The main issue is the 50 cent gang (people who make money saying crap to defend the CCP online and probably in personal relations, certainly the Canadian Spy research department has found over 1,000 spies in Canada doing this type of communist united front work. These people have to spew some party line things and they get their cash like that and others will fall for it.
Heres a load of crap to watch out for, don’t let the 50 cent gang make you think you are wrong to be critical and moral, they will try very hard to do that.
Associations: democracy=chaos, Falun Gong=boxer rebellion, critical viewpoint=intentional interference with China’s success/jealousy, free expression=too much freedom, calling the air polluted=unpatriotic, China=communist party, Chinese people=victims of international bias,
Moral relativism, immorality: no sense of right and wrong, two wrongs make a right, moral criticism is seen as attack and the person totally misses the moral point of the criticism, no sense of wanting to rectify any moral shortcoming but instead clinging to saving face, moral criticism=thinking you are so great and showoff
Deflection of criticisms: criticism equals negative, criticism equals hatred, criticism equals not minding ones own business, criticism equals a plot to bring down China’s reputation for some reason, criticism equals political struggling and combat, acting like poor babies (instead of addressing issues they might call it racism, bias, right wing, anti-China to try to get you to subside and let them have their way).
The myth of change: China is changing so much everyday, China needs time to change, we are so free, China has really improved… A the same time they use ‘China is a developing country’ as an excuse for things like air pollution
Stay out of internal affairs: They do not know that the CCP meddles everyday with the affairs of many countries, they do not consider that the situation of human rights is not just ‘political’ but humanitarian, they don’t seem to consider the people under persecution as people, but as mere parts in the machine that is China,
strange group motivation: Many Chinese have a secret dream, a collective goal, many Chinese have a beautiful dream that is created from within the fake reality created under the CCP, thinking that criticism of the party is criticism of Chinese people and collective defensiveness, group thinking that people and countries do not wish China success, frustration that people think they are brainwashed, powerless to change things and therefore using the excuse that time is needed for change,
you have to go to China to know about China: WOuldn’t the opposite be true since China is run by a totalitarian information system? Do you have to go to the sun to know that it’s hot? Can you investigate organ harvesting and crimes against dissident thought in China? You want to know if China is free, go and hold up a banner to express your sense of justice, see how long you will still be in China. Foreigners are just lucky that they will get sent out of the country and not tortured like Chinese.
you don’t understand China: explain it then. SOme would want people to ‘understand’ it the way the propaganda dept. would put it, they would have use look at only the positive sides and ignore the brutal horrors just so some people who commit atrocities can save face, evade justice and carry on raping the nation. What should we understand, that Chinese people are perfect, that you really have no flaws and that human rights is not a concept shared by Chinese people, that torture is actually good to do to INNOCENT dissidents, that moral relativism is cool???
Well this could go on and on, I’m sure that the Code of Propaganda Brainwashing has a lot more moves than I have described.
I’d also like to point out that there is another set of bullcrap like this that applies to suck up countries, media and corporations with regard to China co. ie ex: Media will say they are ‘objective’ but what they really mean is that they are AMORAL, like the IOC, they say the Olympics is a big success because it is functioning well physically and they pretend that life is just a material function. All journalists who are AMORAL under the banner of being objective are big losers I think, and I say that objectively, morally.
Dear god, carryanne has infiltrated CNR…
Please…PLEASE…promise me you won’t bring over your Chinese counterparts…
If the west want to keep hating us, then let it be. This situation has been the same for decades. Though Chinese have been making efforts trying to make ourselves understood by the west. I don’t see that is going to happen in the foreseeable future. We are used to the bias, but don’t expect us to accept those self-justified bias. Happy to read expat’s blogs with these rarely seen posts. At least, there is still hope for understanding, right?
Hang (and everyone).
Believe it or not, setting aside the odd crazy person, the West does not hate China. It may criticize China, it might not understand China, but that is different than hate. The international media criticize all sorts of things — Iraq war, African famine, U.S. politics — even in their own country. It’s not like China’s the only country in the world that is criticized (though it sometimes acts that way).
I am HK Chinese and lived in American for 13 years. Yes, Americans seemed odd to us — and they kept asking us if we were Japanese! The average American is not very aware of foreign issues, and probably suddenly only became aware of many of some Chinese issues in the lead-up to the Olympics. Similarly, the average Chinese was probably not very aware of the evil monster called the “Western media” until Mainland press started going on about CNN, Jack Cafferty, etc.
As for making China “more understandable” — well, there is a problem with state controlled media. The NYT did a hilarious article of foreign journalists getting frustrated at a Beijing press conference where they only got boring “official lines.”
In terms of PR, media and journalism, China has grown alot, but probably has far to go to join its international counterparts.
Hold on Joyce! There is a big difference between criticism and bias. I have no objection to criticism that is justified (e.g. the criticism of Beijing’s air quality). Also, it’s not the mainland press started going on about CNN, the big mouth Jack Cafferty, etc, it’s the mass ordinary Chinese people started to fight against biased reports. Internet is a good thing, isn’t it? Yes, China has its own problems. Most Chinese know the problems with Chinese media. I had been a faithful believer in Western media since 1990. After extensive travelling in China and overseas living experience, I realized that just like Chinese media, western media also lies A LOT. Although I still read, watch, hear western media, I no longer consider western media as credible sources (especially when it come to China) as I used to do. I think that partly explains why so many overseas Chinese, including those who protested in Tiananmen Square in 1989, would like to stand out to protest against biased Western media.
Joyce, how much do you know about China actually? I don’t think people in HK understand that much about China at all even the mainland and HK is just border of separation, let alone the west.
I don’t have to say much here as this will drag on forever with no real understanding. Explain it? It is easier to explain Sun than human beings. Can you explain a certain weird behavior of your neighbors, your associates at work or your friends, or, shall I say, your family members? Language casts the way you think, so as the environment of where you live in. The way it does works here doesn’t necessarily work well for your home, and vice versa. Don’t tell a swimmer how to swim better when you are landing your butt on the spectator’s seat…
By the way, I am a HK Chinese who lived in the US for 22 years and now I work and live in Beijing.
Agreed, no living in china required for an opinion, but I’ve lived in China for over a year. Regarding original post:
I love it, and that’s why I live here, but let’s be serious… living in vs. “understanding” another culture is obvious. no need for internet posts for that nonsense “revelation”. We can all “understand” why german citizens fell under the sway of a fascist government… so what??! but does that mean china is so horrible? no, of course not, and I don’t suggest that at all. Point being: read, live, or learn, and you understand; but nothing will change the fact that China is a third world country and they have many things to learn about basic society that westerners take for granted. 1) pushing an older person to get on a bus. 2) holding your baby on the threshold of a respected restaurant to pee on the floor (WITH A RESTROOM AVAILABLE INSIDE!!) 3) winning the olympic games with gold medals, but stopping coverage when your WINNING COUNTRY isn’t getting a gold medal [this is poor sportsmanship on the worst level, which I am aware of after watching the olympics both on local china television and "illegal" foreign satellite...that's right, I only witnessed many 'non-chinese' gold winning events on non-chinese television.]
Okay, I love it here, I like china. But it ain’t perfect, and neither is my country. But don’t put a stupid post about “americans ‘hating’ china” out of ignorance for not coming to china. Whoever wrote the original post is an idiot, or hasn’t been to china. You love it, and you are also frustrated…. that’s life.
oh…为什么没有中文啊哈？
(I just thought I should add that since some posts claim expats don’t learn chinese…bullshit, expats do, and many of us love foreign countries and all of the fun involved)
Protest? r u kidding? I have nothing to complain as a CHinese citizen by seeing the great improvement in China.