Reuters gives us this report of the torch’s visit to Shangri-La in Yunnan province, with responses both positive and negative from Tibetans in China:
Jun 11
Olympic torch arrives in Shangri-La
Written by: Buxi | Filed under:News | Tags:olympics, tibet
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106 Comments » newest
The Olympic torch has arrived in its first Tibetan Autonomous county, and will arrive in Lhasa later this month.
Jun 10
Beijing considering a Speaker’s Corner?
Written by: Buxi | Filed under:News | Tags:olympics, reform
13 Comments » newest
13 Comments » newest
A report out of Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper suggests that as a form of political liberalization, Beijing is considering the establishment of a “petitioner’s district” zone in Beijing, a free speech zone similar to London’s famous Hyde Park. The intent is to manage possible public dissent during the Beijing Olympics. The report (文章, translation below) only mentions an anonymous source in Beijing, so take it with a bucket of salt.
For those not familiar with the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, it is by tradition an area where anyone can speak publicly on any subject at any time, without requiring government permit or approval. Perhaps someone more familiar with British politics can fill us in on details; Wikipedia mentions a previous attempt to block an Iraq War protest?
Continue reading »
May 29
Kristof on Xinjiang: Terrorism and the Olympics
Written by: Buxi | Filed under:media | Tags:nytimes, olympics, xinjiang
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23 Comments » newest
Nick Kristof continues his quest in search of topics that should be “sensitive” to Chinese by heading to Xinjiang where he found little to write about. This follows earlier editorials on Tibet that we discussed here and here.
On his blog, he tries to incite commentary with these questions:
Especially for those of you in China, do you expect the Olympics to go smoothly? Do you worry about the terror threat from Xinjiang?
My response (submitted as a comment on his blog) is here:
May 28
Beijing’s sensitivity to people with disabilities received sensitively
Written by: DJ | Filed under:culture, media | Tags:language, media, olympics, political correctness
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17 Comments » newest
I was alerted by the China Hearsay to a story titled “Disabled groups outraged by Beijing snub,” at the Times. It reported the indignation expressed by some to an official guide for volunteers at the Beijing Olympic Games in August and the Paralympics in September.
“I’m stunned,” said Simone Aspis, a parliamentary campaigner at the UK Disabled People’s Council. “It’s not just the language but the perception that in 2008 we are considered a race apart. ”
So what is it in that guide that caused such negative reactions? One example offered in the news report is the following abbreviated quote lifted from the guide:
“Some physically disabled are isolated, unsocial, and introspective. They can be stubborn and controlling . . . defensive and have a strong sense of inferiority.”
[EDITED TO ADD A NOTE] I probably should have noted that the “…” in the quote above spans fully three pages in the guide and the separated parts are placed in completely different sections. Yet, the next quote listed in the report follows almost right after the “They can be stubborn and controlling” part.
Hmm, I must admit such writing, as reported, sounds inartful. (As an aside, I am a bit sensitive to inartful language nowadays.) It’s understandable that some may even find it insulting. Nevertheless, is there some contextual information that was lost in the reporting? I decided to read through the guide and see for myself. And the following is the full paragraph containing the offending quote.
Physically disabled people are often mentally healthy. They show no differences in sensation, reaction, memorization and thinking mechanism from other people, but they might have unusual personalities because of disfigurement and disability. For example, some physically disabled are isolated, unsocial, and introspective; they usually do not volunteer to contact people. They can be stubborn and controlling; they may be sensitive and struggle with trust issues. Sometimes they are overly protective of themselves, especially when they are called “crippled” or “paralyzed”. It is not acceptable for others to hurt their dignity, so volunteers should make extra efforts to assist with due respect.
May 21
“Shift from feudalism no easy leap”
Written by: Buxi | Filed under:News | Tags:olympics, tibet
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3 Comments » newest
Insightful editorial from the Sydney Morning Herald, discussing the issue of Tibet, China, and the Olympics.
The recent demonstrations in support of Tibetan independence have been a carefully co-ordinated boutique public relations operation rather than an outbreak of mass demonstrations.
Video records of demonstrations in Tibet show an ugly, racist side to the unrest as ethnic Tibetans (but not monks) kicked, beat and stabbed Han Chinese, along with the ransacking and looting of Han-owned businesses. The Government had no choice but to intervene with force.
China has a long history of civil war. For more than a millennium, it has lived under a sequence of dictatorships, absolute monarchies and uncompromising feudalism. To move so vast a culture so quickly has required the Government to retain a firm grip on the centrifugal forces that could tear the country asunder.
The idea that China can simply jump from ingrained feudalism to a plural democracy in a single generation cannot coexist with the real world.
It also includes details on past Olympic boycotts I wasn’t aware of.
Few Australians even know that the 1956 Games in Melbourne was boycotted by Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland over the Soviet invasion of Hungary, and by Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Cambodia over the occupation of the Suez Canal by Britain and France. In 1976, 21 African nations boycotted the Montreal Olympics because New Zealand had not been banned for playing rugby union against South Africa. In 1980 the United States and some allies boycotted the Moscow Games over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1984 the Soviet bloc boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in retaliation for the 1980 boycott.
None was effective. None achieved more than transient symbolism. To throw the 2008 Olympics into chaos over Tibet would thus be overkill, disproportionate and counterproductive, in support of a dubious moral argument.
May 08
Massive crowds swamp torch in Shenzhen
Written by: Buxi | Filed under:News | Tags:olympics
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2 Comments » newest
The torch has successfully completed the run in Shenzhen, although there are stories of difficulties navigating the crowds. The torch might have even been extinguished and transported via bus along part of the route… something similar to what happened in Paris, but for precisely the opposite reason. Reportedly 8 million people were on the streets for the torch.
Here are early pictures:
UPDATE: There were also unsubstantiated rumors that the torch had been extinguished by “Chinese protesters” near Shenzhen’s “Window to the World” park. We will just have to wait for the video evidence promised by the Asia Sentinel blog. The video is now up, and it does not come close to delivering on earlier promises. It shows only an enthusiastic crowd of Chinese chanting “Go China”, surrounding someone carrying an extinguished torch on the way to a bus; considering the setting, this someone had probably already completed his torch run.
This eye-witness on Tianya reports a very different scene.
May 08
Politics and the Beijing Olympics
Written by: Buxi | Filed under:Analysis, News | Tags:olympics, reform
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10 Comments » newest
The Christian Science Monitor has an article on the historical links between the Olympics and politics. It’s mostly a repetition of what other articles have said, but there are a few interesting quotes.
Similarities stop there, however, says Susan Brownell, a professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, currently in Beijing studying Chinese preparations for the Olympics. In the Olympic education campaign that the authorities have been running from primary school level to university, she says, “the Communist party is almost never mentioned, and nor is socialism.”
This is something most Chinese recognize. The government hasn’t made these games about the Communist party; only foreign activists have done that. From our point of view, we are looking to celebrate our country’s remarkable progress over the past 30 years. These Olympics are Beijing’s Olympics, the Chinese people’s Olympics… not the Communist Party’s Olympics.
This is also precisely why there such genuine grassroots anger and frustration from average Chinese that our Olympics have been threatened and abused by overseas activists.
May 08
Olympic torch on top of the world
Written by: Buxi | Filed under:News | Tags:olympics, torch
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9 Comments » newest
In a moment that made many Chinese proud, 21 Tibetan-Chinese, 8 Han-Chinese, and 1 Tujia-Chinese helped bring the 2008 Olympic Torch to top of the worlds’ highest peak.
The name of the peak in Tibetan is ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ (jo-mo glang-ma ri), which is often translated as “Great Mother” (literal translation as given in Chinese: “mother of Earth”). The first written recording of the peak comes from 1717, when a Beijing cartographer sent by the Qing Emperor Kangxi published it as part of an imperial map (皇舆全览图). The peak was marked on the map in the first half of the 18th century in Manchu and Hanyu as 朱母郎马阿林 (zhu mu lang ma a lin). The name of the peak in Chinese is now 珠穆朗玛峰 (zhu mu lang ma feng), transliterated into English as Mount Qomolangma.
British cartographers would first identify this peak nearly 150 years later, in 1847. But the name selected by the British Royal Geographical Society still dominates in the West today: Mount Everest, after British surveyor George Everest. Several years back, China encouraged the world to rename the peak’s name in English based on its original Tibetan name, but the Western world hasn’t followed. In English, they continue to refer to the mountain by the name of a Knight of the British Realm.
ADDED: AP wire report: “Tibetan woman holds Olympic flame atop Everest“
May 07
Olympic torch enjoying a smooth relay in China
Written by: Buxi | Filed under:News | Tags:olympics
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2 Comments » newest
This article is the positive (and in my opinion, non-political) message most Chinese would like the Olympics to represent. I can only hope that this sentiment wins out.
Crowds in Haikou were friendly to foreigners, showing little of the angry, anti-Western sentiments of recent weeks after protests in London, Paris and San Francisco that some Chinese saw as an attack against China and the Olympics.
“Welcome to China!” university students called out, some sporting face paint and tooting plastic horns as the convoy streamed by.
Others following the torch were celebrating that many in China have left the hard life behind after 30 years of free-market economic reforms.
In a dusty field outside the closing ceremony in Haikou, 64-year-old retiree Ren Anqing stood out from the young crowd in his old-style undershirt, shorts and sandals. “When I was young, I raised cows,” he said, smiling. “These kids? They have everything.”
Ren has a computer now so he can e-mail his son, who’s about to earn a doctorate after studies that included a year in Singapore — all unimaginable when his father was growing up.
“If I was young again in China? Wah!” Ren said, his smile getting wider. “That would be a great thing.”
And here’s a little French/Chinese Fraternité in Guangzhou:
More snapshots from the relay in Guangzhou, after the jump.
May 06
Written by Tang Buxi – May 5th, 2008
There were (at least) two significant protests on Sunday. Both involved Chinese people, and both were significant and interesting in their own ways. That’s where the similarities end.
If you get your news primarily from the New York Times and other Western media, here’s what you saw, and here’s what you missed.
May 03
Written by Tang Buxi, May 4nd, 2008
Caijing is one of the best news magazines in China today. Its primary emphasis is on financial and economic issues, but it also touches upon social and political commentary. Its closest analogues might be the British Economist, or the American Wall Street Journal. I plan on making translated versions of Caijing articles a regular addition to this blog.
A feature article in this month’s issue discusses the challenges and opportunities behind the Beijing Olympics. The by-line reads:
The opportunities and challenges of the Olympics were always two sides of the same coin. Despite external pressures and internal worries, it’s not necessary, nor is it possible, to modify the direction of our future progress.
奥运会的机遇和挑战原本就是一枚硬币的正反面，没必要、更不能因为外部的打压和内部的疑虑，而改变我们前进的方向.
May 03
Written by Tang Buxi, May 2nd, 2008
This past week, leaders of the American Jewish community called upon Jewish athletes and tourists around the world, as well as U.S. President George Bush, to boycott the Beijing Olympics (more, more). They claim their activism is motivated by the Chinese governments’ relationship with Muslim nations like Syria and Iran, as well as claims of Chinese-funded genocide in Darfur. This wasn’t just an abstract media statement; I’ve seen personal evidence of grass-roots efforts from local Jewish communities calling on American Jews to support this boycott with more direct political action.
In recent years, discussion of Jews and Judism has become something of a “third rail” in the Western world. It’s a highly controversial issue that makes intelligent discussion nearly impossible, and certainly very dangerous. Touch the issue from the wrong angle, and you risk (intellectual death). This is understandable. Few peoples in recent memory have legitimately faced the risk of “genocide”, the violent extermination of an entire people on the basis of race and religion. In even trivial remarks, we can imagine the echoes of dangerous anti-Semitic extremism.
However, this is an important topic that can’t be left aside. I’m going to make an effort to explain why the American Jewish community’s stance on this is wrong, and why their policy might ultimately prove counter-productive.
May 03
Written by Tang Buxi, May 2nd, 2008
The argument, as many have undoubtedly heard, is that China is essentially bank-rolling “genocide in Darfur” (see: American Jewish Groups Call For Olympics Boycott) . The term “genocide” itself is probably misused in this context, and it minimizes the true scale of the Nazi Germany Holocaust. There is undoubtedly a devastating civil war in Darfur, embroiling hundreds of thousands of civilians in tremendous misery. But it remains a very complicated issue, with numerous rebel movements (and not only the government) trying to disrupt the peace process by attacking peacekeepers.
May 03
Tang Buxi wrote this flyer the day before the Olympic Torch arrived in San Francisco.
Who are you?
We are human beings, first and foremost. Most of us are also ethnic Chinese; due to our personal ties and experiences in China, we more keenly understand why Beijing applied to host the Olympics, and why so many Chinese place significant weight on a successful Beijing Olympics.
Many of us are American citizens; most of us have lived, worked, and thrived in the United States for decades. We are your neighbors, your coworkers, your classmates, and your students. We are lawyers, engineers, housewives, grandmothers, and school-children.
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