I received comments on my April 2 post about Tibet that – I believe- highlight an issue difficult to address in the international community:
“Living here in England, I find that many people seem to have closed themselves to really understanding what the Chinese perspective on the issue is.”
“It is a failure to see the other side which keeps the fire of hatred burning.”
- Cheshmgir
It’s important to understand both sides of an issue, whether or not you agree with either of them, otherwise even those with good intentions can forget compassion and become part of a faceless, animilistic mob.
So, in turn, here is additional perspective from someone who has lived in China:
“I would say, I am sort of a warhawk when it comes to the Chinese government, because I am from China,” said Wang Jimin, a teaching associate and political science student at UNC-Chapel Hill.
“I think the Chinese government is going through a learning curve,” Wang said. “On the one hand [the Chinese government] is very good at handling economic matters. On the other hand, due to a sort of historical indebtedness, it’s a little conservative in handling political issues. So I think it will change gradually, and we will see a positive side come out,” Wang said.
7 responses so far ↓
ks // April 3, 2008 at 8:44 pm |
Did Wang intend to say “learning curve?”
Very informative blog. You seem to know your subject well.
angelatchou // April 3, 2008 at 9:39 pm |
ks:
Ahh, it all makes sense now. Thank you for the comment and the catch!
cheshmgir // April 7, 2008 at 8:12 pm |
Wow I just came back to your blog. I am touched I inspired you with this posting!!
Interesting video. Yes minorities, not just in China but everywhere often suffer a sense of oppression. The degree of this opression though can vary country to country. And yes often the majority is not deliberately targeting the minority but it can be made to seem as if they are.
This sense of minority injustice is, I believe, kind of in-grained in human nature. All one needs is outsiders telling you that you are oppresed and everything just blows.
Imagine if you live in a house with say4 other people. You have a neighbour or someone outside who comes and comments “hey how come your room is smaller then the others” or “your house mates don’t talk with you right or feed you well.”
This is, in short, what global politics and foreign policy is like.
We are all humans.
angelatchou // April 8, 2008 at 7:49 am |
cheshmgir:
Thank you again for a kind and thoughtful comment.
I read an something this morning that I think you’d like:
Nick Kristof from the NYTimes:
“America and China get on each other’s nerves partly because they are so similar. Both are big, self-absorbed, and insular nations; both are entrepreneurial overachievers; both are infused with nationalism and yet tread clumsily on the nationalism of others — whether in Vietnam or Iraq, or Tibet and the Muslim region of Xinjiang.”
- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/opinion/03Kristof.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
cheshmgir // April 11, 2008 at 8:11 pm |
Thank you for the article which raises some insightful issues with regards to how best China can deal with Tibet and the Olympics.
What is becoming fast clear is that China is a rising superpower and this could have significant impact on the United State’s future capacity to act as sole global police man. Further China is significantly less interfering in other countries internal affairs.
The recent Human Rights Record of the US, which has become an annual thing, clearly demonstrates that China holds the potential to challenge US hagemony over the world. (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-03/13/content_6533800.htm)
Many people speaking out for Tibet in the West are doing it from a sincere belief in the welfare of
the people of Tibet. They do not realize the implications of what they are asking for.
Khampa123 // April 21, 2008 at 10:52 am |
This comment does not bring us anything further than Han-centric views on issues such as Tibet. It is completely misleading in the sense that it reduces the problem to mere difference in perspectives. I am a Tibetan, born and raised in Tibet, and I understand what it means to be practically powerless in deciding one’s own future as a people. Tibetans are fed up with the the government’s unreflected and genocidal real-politikk in Tibet. Now here is a ‘naive or inentionally naive’ guy, depicting the government policy as well-intentioned without any political agenda, and you can romanticizing your poems while Tibetan, as a people, is murdered by the Chinese government.
What a joke, ‘wait and see’? We have waited and seen for the last 50 years, and all we have seen is our brutal occupation, murder, masscre, destruction of our culture. Don’t try to divert from the real issue here!!!
A country occupied by China and destroy really tired of hearing this kind of story again and again.
angelatchou // April 21, 2008 at 4:17 pm |
Khampa123:
Thank you for your comment. Isn’t it incredible how the internet can link people?
Interestingly, this video post was a response to a comment that begged for a balanced view of the Tibetan issue.
People are dying and a country is suffering: this motivates people. But to have people blindly fight for a cause can be as detrimental as the original conflict. This is the reason why I posted the video and why the Wang Jimin, the man in the video, made these remarks. He was trying to offer some humanity into a situation that has become more or less inhumane.
I understand your anger, and I realize when these horrible ugly things are actually happening to you, they aren’t just stories they are life. So let me offer this website as encouragement that people, both Chinese and Tibetans, are striving to see the people in the politics:
http://www.machik.org/
The wonderful women in this non-profit organization are building schools in Chungba for children – teaching them Tibetan as well as Chinese – the support and progress they have made is breathtaking. In the end, after all, it is these children who will inherit the mess we have made.