Monday, April 21, 2008

China Will Have Its Cake


boy o boy, those chinese teamsters have got it going. They sneakily c3nsor the local media so that chinese folk understand full well how "the wolf in sheep's clothing" was masterminding the t1bet pro-tests and how people in the western world and the da lai cliquers were trying to humiliate the chinese people by stomping on the olympic torch!

So the gov3rnm1nt media starts attacking western media as being "biased" and anti-China, and the Chinese people got all infuriated over it. The chinese gov't eagerly fanned the flames. They hype a sappy pop song which criticizes CNN's anti-China bias. (i was gonna link it, but the song really sux). They turn the woman pictured above into a cult hero: the weak fighting for peace and unity against a violent western mob. And that shit works. Chinese nationalism surged.

Only prob is that the fervor may have carried on too far. 'Cause now chinese people are rallying outside of French businesses, schools and embassy to say "Yo frenchies, you think yr so damn hot and righteous? We'll teach you to humiliate our olive branch offerings! HYAAAAH!!!" And then they go start their own rallies.

Ok.

Now the funny thing is that the chinese govern mint is now sins-o-ring any emails about rallies and prot3sts for fear that the many infuriated chinese people will continue to stage prot3sts as the olympics arrive. i guess you can't blame 'em for wanting to have their cake and eat it too. But you can laugh.

Also, i hung out w/ a friend on Sunday and she asked me what i thought of the all the protests etcetera. We had a great discussion whereupon i reminded myself why prot3sts are crucial, if not for their ability to create direct impact, then for their ability to create community.

I was also reminded that for all of China's old-fashioned stubborn-ness, this is a country built upon a closed door policy of centuries. So it's really wild to consider how much change has taken place here in the last 50 years. There's no doubt China's not as modern-thinking as it likes to think it is, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

i guess it's also fair to argue that human rights issues should all be ended asap, but maybe unrealistic to expect it to happen, uh, now.

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