yes, this American 2008 review made by “Uncle Jay” is completely biased and anti-Chinese and “forgets” to mention who won your Olympics, but then again…
… Uncle Jay helps little minds to understand big news stories. So it must be for you.
Tags: America, Beijing Olympics, China, foreign investment, image, media, Tibet, West
January 2, 2009 at 7:45 am
I am wondering: if the fengqings and fenqings in China were taught history Uncle Jay’s way, would they be less inclined to be so mad and angry?
Or if their parents had done the same with them as Ned and I have been doing with our puppy Sam – taking them out for a mental health walk every now and then – would they have grown up with a better sense of humour?
Heaven knows!
January 2, 2009 at 10:49 am
A fenqing disagrees with your idea that they have small minds:
http://www.changguohua.com/e/archives/48.html
January 3, 2009 at 9:56 am
[...] Fenqings Exercising their Freedom of Speech? By justrecently Related Justrecently Story: Dear Fenqings [...]
January 4, 2009 at 3:30 am
I’d thought Uncle Jay was as famous as Uncle Sam. He doesn’t seem to sing where the photos of tanks and bleeding protesters are taken. Or, as German media did, he conveniently took them in Nepal or Israel?
January 4, 2009 at 3:40 am
Talking about humor, I don’t think many Chinese people can easily understand the humorous things West-brought-up think humorous.
As for Obama, my idea is that:
He has a black user interface;
He was developed using white C+ language;
His underlying architecture is white; and
Except his skin and blood, nothing in him is black.
January 4, 2009 at 4:00 am
I’m very glad to play the role of a Chinese fenqing in our discussions. If anyone here wants to ask me questions, please don’t hesitate to do so.
January 4, 2009 at 5:13 am
To the professional fenqing Huolong:
I would not even attempt at harmonizing JR if I were you. You have no idea how incorrigible he is …
January 4, 2009 at 10:17 am
Sorry for delay – it might take 24 to 48 hours for me to react to comments until Wednesday night. As for Obama, he may be black or white as long as he catches mice and respects the constitution.
Some media certainly were ill-footed at the beginning of the riots in Tibet, but only people who aren’t used to think for themselves should feel deceived by that. Cool heads pointing the same flaws out without suggesting big anti-China schemes behind it would have been more effective (but then, also less funny).
I think that unreflected anger can be dangerous, but I’m still inclined to see the funny side of it and make the best of it.
Welcome to these threads, Huolong, and welcome back, C.A. My questions are in the pipeline.
January 5, 2009 at 12:40 am
JR, do you mean that as long as the ends are good (China is bad; China represses Tibetan people; China should be criticized), it does not matter whether the ways and means are bad (took photos in Nepal, passed Nepalese police off as Chinese police, edited photos to make biased points)?
I saw nothing funny about this way of media reporting on our Tibet.
What I know is that people in the West are brought up to believe Tibet was not and should not be part of China.
January 5, 2009 at 12:52 am
To C.A. Yeung:
Given the age, early 30s (me) and early 40s (JR), I don’t think we will be able to to harmonize each other.
January 5, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Huolong: I think that publishing pictures from Nepal to illustrate events in Tibet was a mistake, because it isn’t factual and because it costs the media credit. They should make sure that people working in their archives and those who put reports and pictures together should know the subject and avoid such mistakes. You can be pretty sure that they had put the wrong pictures in because of sluggishness, by chance because of a lack of familiarity with the issue, or because of organizational flaws. The authors don’t always choose the pictures for their article by themselves.
Obvious mistakes are bound to be pointed out, and that’s not in the interest of the publishers. First of all, they need to sell their stories, and they can’t do that if people doubt their professionalism.
What I think is funny is that the first accusation from Chinese readers was that these mismatches were intentional. Such mistakes aren’t only pointed out by Chinese readers, but also by local readers who are familiar with the issues – which makes the media looking bad.
I could also say it’s sad rather than funny that there are people who are too paranoid to see the likelihood of these causes and results – but I prefer to take things easy if I can’t do much about them. For an even-handed viewer, the likely origins of the Nepal-Tibet confusion should be obvious. As far as German commercial media with some prestige are concerned, no political slant will make them risk becoming their readers’ laughing stock.
One word about media bias in general: yes – media, just like people, are usually biased, and currently, I’d say German media – viewed from my position – are rather biased against China than in its favor. Then again, until some two years ago, I’d say they were biased in China’s favor. Issues like technological rip-offs were no issue at all (and I think it is important that they are an issue), and some German politicians would even avoid meeting the Dalai Lama. Btw – as long as the German medias’ bias favored your country, I didn’t hear Chinese people complain.
January 5, 2009 at 4:06 pm
JR, some Chinese do complain about West seeing China through rosy glasses. Sometimes the West (media) shower China with high praises and forget that China is a developing country though no regular one – with 1.3bn people divided into four jurisdictions (mainland, TW, HK, MC), four currencies (CNY, NT, HKD, pataca?), and four flags.
China is a continuum including parts that look like from devastated Africa to wealthy North America. When referring to China, it should be made clear which part of it is being referred to.
As for German media’s mistakes, unprofessionalism or not, Chinese viewers accuse it of intentionally misplacing the photos because they don’t trust German media, as part of the West mdia, which dominates the world opinions.
It seems to me (At least,) that the West media people follow some kind of sterotypes of China and when they write about China they just put together pieces to reinforce the stereotype. in the case of Tibetan riots, “China is bad, China invades Tibet, China represses Tibetan freedom”. To re-prove this, the media guys put together everything they find and it does matter if the photos are taken from a wrong place. To them, the argument is good, evidence is not a problem. Do they know the rioters are mobs who attack both Han and Tibetan Chinese? And, as for their blue-eyed boy the Dalai Lama, do they know that the Dalai Lama had been the biggest SLAVE OWNER in Tibet and RAN TIBET AS ANYTHING BUT Shangri-La until the new Chinese central government inforced the national laws in that region in the 1950s? Do they know that the Dalai Lama had historically been installed as a Tibetan ruler by China’s central government and He was, is and will be appointed by China’s central government?
January 5, 2009 at 7:41 pm
China, rosy Glasses
Yes, the fact that many parts of China are still way underdeveloped is often overlooked. However, that’s not where I think my country’s interests are at stake. A factory in the wrong place is bad, but doesn’t have to break the investor’s neck. But when it is about technological rip-off, that can pose a real threat, especially when it is a small or medium-sized company (most German companies aren’t big). A loss of technology in China spells global loss of that technology, and as long as this wasn’t a topic here, too many business people here took such risks too easy.
I see public interest at stake here because the development of technology takes R&D, and much of the training and education of engineers is paid for with tax money.
Tibet
It seems to me (At least,) that the West media people follow some kind of sterotypes of China and when they write about China they just put together pieces to reinforce the stereotype.
I agree that many media – both those with a good name and those with less credit – often work this way. By far not every story is well-researched. However, I disagree that high-end commercial media such as “Der Spiegel” have no problem with photos from the wrong place. It does actually do them harm. Besides, the stereotyping frequently affects German politicians in a way that I woudn’t consider justified either. Bad news sells – and if the readers and viewers want to have them, they shall have them. I don’t advocate censorship.
And although I agree with some of your views on Western media, I don’t think that this makes a line like “China represses Tibetan freedom” wrong. If Chinese rule was as good for the Tibetans as your media say, your government would have little to fear from the Dalai Lama, no matter if he tried to speak to them from Dharamsala or from Lhasa.
The “slave owner” argument doesn’t convince me either. If you want to better the lot of a nation by force, you could call president Bush a well-intentioned man for invading Iraq.
I won’t argue about the question if the Chinese central government has the prerogative of installing the Dalai Lamas – I only doubt that the central government plays a role in the Tibetan procedures of finding a Dalai Lama’s successor. Anyway, I see no chance for Tibetans to make choices against the will of the Chinese government anyway, and the movement of Chinese settlers into the territory would make a peaceful path to Tibetan independence unfeasible and undesirable, too.
That said, the Han population within Tibet isn’t something I can blame the Tibetans for – those migrations were permitted by Beijing. If Tibetans want to continue to pursue the idea of independence, I won’t speak out against that. Quebec had two popular votes about leaving Canada since the 1980s; Scotland may soon have one about leaving the United Kingdom, and Slovakia left the union with the Czech Republic in 1993. If the Bavarians decided to break away from Germany, I’d support their right to do so.
Chinese views of German media
I know that many Chinese viewers (most of them, I’d guess) consider the misplacing of the photos intentional. That’s OK with me. I referred to this perception to explain what I found funny in that context, and why I prefer to make fun of that, rather than deploring it. It is for every individual reader to come to his or her own conclusions.
January 6, 2009 at 3:20 am
China, rosy Glasses
Technology rip-off is not a topic here, so let’s leave it here. But I have a quick word for it: Chinese companies are learning lessons and will be better and respect the rules.
Tibet
The Dalai Lama speaks with action and not words that he wants independence. This is not a question of fear.
My “slave owner” argument is just to alert you to the fact what the Dalai Lama was. Talking about how Tibet has progressed socially and economically and politically since He left, T.A.R.’s ordinary residents have the right to say, not the Dalai Lama and his government in exile because the two do not represent the Tibetan people. In that case, the government of T.A.R. does. I say Bush is only interested in the crude oil his political sponsors can drill in Iraq, not the welfare of the Iraqi people.
Sorry I have misled you by calling the process “appoint”. The final choice of the Dalai Lama rests with Beijing, no matter who sits there. This shows who the real boss is. This has been the case for centuries.
Migration within our country is not forbidden by law here and needs no one’s permission. T.A.R. is a Chinese territory. And under the current administrative structure, its Tibetan tag doesn’t make it different from the rest of the mainland for that matter. That’s why my parents migrated from Sichuan to Heilongjiang in the late 1970s and why I migrated from Heilongjiang to Beijing in 2002.
I don’t know what the cases are in Canada, the UK, and Czech –Slovakia. In China, its territories cannot decide to go independent on their own. China’s urban areas are owned by the government and rural areas by the collectives. If the government and the collectives as a whole say no to independence, no such things happen. I think the issue of independence is another one that best displays the West’s hypocrisy. I doubt that its capitalists and the bosses of its politicians will be pleased to see their countries cut up.
Chinese media
Talking about journalists’ professionalism, China’s might rank among the worst trained ones. They do funny things every day.
January 7, 2009 at 3:43 pm
He doesn’t seem to sing where the photos of tanks and bleeding protesters are taken. Or, as German media did, he conveniently took them in Nepal or Israel?
I thought the ones taken at the site of the butchery did the job just fine.
January 8, 2009 at 1:06 am
I thought the evidence was evidence and could not be invented or transplated from another place. Your ends do not justify your means.