Image by Noel in the Bahamas via FlickrOne of the good things happening in the fallout of the events in Tibet and now the relay of the Olympic torch is that many discussions flourish between the overload of nationalistic anger at the internet in China. It shows the very diverse character of the online life, much different from most traditional media.Racial relations are in terms of numbers a fairly small problem in China, compared to the former Soviet Union and the United States, because the number of minorities is fairly tiny, compared to the Han majority. Still, managing those relations has been problematic at best, and in a translation by China Digital Times Zhuang blogger Mengsha, describes some of those features:
But if I have to look for more reasons in other areas, I gradually realized that the government and some Han people think of it as charity to give ethnic minorities “favors,” and that these minorities should stay in their place after being given such “favors.” They should not misbehave, or be so different [from Han]. But the problem is, the cultural and religious traditions of minority groups have far deeper historical roots than the government. You cannot expect a little “favor” could change that.Part of the European heritage is the believe, or rather ideology, that deep down, all people are equal, although some are more equal than others, as "Animal Farm" illustrated. "Alle Menschen werden Brueder" is one of the European motto's that has never been very much applauded by my Chinese friends.
Making a difference is so important in daily life in China as I have seen it, as people use any criterium to define how different they are from other. Their birthplace, their age, their function in the government, gender, wether they wear glasses or not, write with their left hand and, yes indeed, what race they belong to. That does not make Chinese into racists, they would be racists if they would not make a difference between people according to race.
That does not make life easier if you are a Tibetan living in Shanghai and seen on a personal level, as Mengsha describes from her own experience, as a security risk. But changing that deep-rooted feeling might be a real challenge.
3 comments:
europeans think all people are created equal? are you forgetting colonialism? from the belgium to the dutch to the british to the spanish to the french to the italians europeans all have heritages of oppressing and abusing indigenous peoples. han views of tibetans could be mapped very closely to colonial dutch views of indonesians or colonial british views of chinese in hong kong for example.
Well, yes, they think that and since it is indeed not always according to their behavior I would call it a believe or ideology. When you do not behave according to that ideology, you can be challenged. Much harder when you do not share that ideology.
I think it is right and proper to compare civilizations of the same development stage. Comparing the colonial times of Europe with 21 century China is definitely the right attitude to understand how they are just the same. European countries in the 16 and 17th centuries only believe and respect power, especially military and economic power, and that led to colonialism. That's the way we should look at China too, and not criticize China too much because of it.
Post a Comment