Something to Learn From Australia

No matter if you listen to Radio Australia or to other media, one can apparently say that the Olympic torch relay in Canberra has been a success. Of course, a bit of chaos around the demonstrations is normal, but when it is the Olympics, some basic order should always be maintained.

Australia respects every person’s freedoms. Han Chinese and Tibetans both held demonstrations around the torch relay, and the police only made sure that they wouldn’t run into each other. In this respect, Europe should learn from Australia.

Another thing to learn from Australia is that Australian police did not allow the Chinese “guards” to run next to the torch. That’s a matter of self-respect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_7360000/newsid_7364100/7364194.stm
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/chinese/articles/s2227080.htm

What are “Bilateral Efforts”?

Some of my friends are religious. One is Christian (orthodox), another is Muslim. I´m not religious myself, but I know that religion isn´t just an opinion, but also an important part of many peoples´ personality. So, before I criticise religion I should think about what I am criticising.

To criticise an individual´s religion is no good. (Also, criticising people for not being religious is not clever.) To criticise religion´s influence on history and politics should be no problem. When there is freedom of speech, I should still think about if what I want to say is appropriate or not. But if politics and religion are mixed, it becomes complicated to decide what is appropriate and what is not.

I think that when patriotism and politics is mixed, we must respect each other, but we can criticise each others´ choices, measures, and opinions.

Yesterday, Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman of China´s foreign ministry, answered a journalist´s question about the Olympic torch relay incident in Paris. She said that to be friends, it takes the efforts of both sides. That´s for sure.
She also said that "The Chinese cannot accept France promising to value China-France ties on one hand, while often witnessing occurrence of things incomprehensible and unacceptable for Chinese people." She hoped that "the French side can listen to the voice of the Chinese people about the treatment of recent occurences, take an objective, impartial position and respect the facts, to distinguish between right and wrong, and – like the majority of countries – understand and support the just position of the Chinese government and its current measures. "

I found these lines strange. Of course, we should all think about the events and experiences of the past few days. But that isn´t only the task of French or Western people. If Chinese people don´t think about the feelings and situations of their Tibetan compatriots, they can certainly not understand these "things incomprehensible and unacceptable". If they don´t understand that other countries often have political systems different from China, a lot of things will certainly remain "not understandable".

The mutual efforts demanded by the spokeswoman should also include China´s efforts.

姜瑜：法方应… »
China urges France… »

The Monks´ Rollercoaster

I remember that poster [Update: original link defunct – try this one]. I´ve seen it in a small shop on Bremen Railway Station many times. Three monks on a rollercoaster, it seems to be fun. Many Overseas Chinese in Bremen have criticised the poster. They say, it doesn´t respect the dignity of the monks and other compatriots in China´s West.
OK, OK. I´m just joking. They didn´t mind people making fun of the monks.
They criticised Coca-Cola because that company was supporting some autonomous territory´s… umm… no further talk.

The more likely story is here。

中文 »

Update [Nov 1, 2009]: A picture of the “offensive” poster can still be found on Asian Offbeat.

Chinese people criticise German media

 

A colleague teaches elementary and high school students. His impression is that the high school students only blame the Han Chinese on the ground in T1b3t. My colleague asked them if they know how the situation was when violence started. They didn’t know. But they felt that it was certainly the Han who started using violence. Very likely, German media are the reason for their views.

 

But I think that the way some Chinese protest in Munich criticise the media is pretty ugly. They say that German television and other media not only made mistakes or distorted the news. They also say that German media muzzle their voices.<br>

They then remind Germans that “It is already proven in history that a biased media will not only threaten others, but also harm the Germans themselves ultimately. “

 

I think they are all adults, and it is their choice. Of course, they have the right to criticise German media from Munich. They also have the right to remind us Germans of a particularly shameful era in our history. But if their remarks are about the German Nazi era, I think they are behaving quite badly.  

 

中文 »

The Politicised Olympics

I´m German, part of my work is teaching. I´m teaching English, Accounting, Economics, and Chinese for beginners. Most students are grown-ups, and a few are at elementary school.
My main motivation for starting this blog is the Beijing Olympics 2008. To be honest, I mostly like soccer and table tennis.
When I was a child, I wasn´t interested in the Olympics. Now, I´m still not interested. When I was a child, I really liked watching television, but when my family people watched the Olympics, I left the room voluntarily.
I never thought that I could become interested in the Olympics. But that is because of the politicisation of the Games. I know that generally speaking, this politicisation is nothing welcome. I have no opinion now if it is good or bad. While writing this blog, I can think about it.

Hello world!

I´m German. On just recently, I want to write in English what I´m writing in Chinese over there.
I write every post in Chinese first, because my English is better than my Chinese skills. Translating from English to Chinese would be harder than the other way round.