Classy.I'll start by saying that I'd rather this not be a political blog. The market is way over-saturated, because in the "Web 2.0" age everybody has a friggin' opinion, but there is something that I can't help but have pretty strong feelings about.
More prefacing: having lived in the U.S. for the past 12 years, I feel--for most intents and purposes--like I can more legitimately identify as an American rather than Chinese. Moreover, as a part of that, I'm still in the process of reconciling what I feel to be excessive emphasis on conformity in Chinese culture with an excessive lack of guidance in American individualism, so basically the following may feel a little tinged with hypocrisy at times.
That being said, I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the political situation now surrounding the Summer Olympics and the torch relay. While there are voices remaining that appeal to good reason and argue for the separation of it from the political sphere, it seems that increasing numbers of people are caving in to the temptation of latching their grievances to a prominent event, and attempt to overrun it and turn it into a pulpit of their own.
What's more perturbing is the racial dimension to the controversy that is coming across in the stories and photographs from the news media. By and large, Chinese expatriate communities are the only ones seen publicly supporting China and going against the protesters' hijacking of the torch relay. On the other hand, and what's being given more extensive and visibly more positive coverage, are the previously unheard-of Tibetan exile communities all over the globe, and their (larely non-Asian) backers in Britain, Paris, Hollywood, and most recently, America's Presidential Idol, Barack Obama. [and yes, I do realize that just by writing this I'm reinforcing the politicized dimension of the situation.]
Forget human rights, self-determination, and all the other buzzwords being thrown about left and right. Even the most superficial bit of research will reveal to you that successive generations of Chinese empires have ruled Tibet, largely without dispute. The civil strife and fragmentation of China's own political sovereignty between 1911 and the 1950's, from Sun Yat-Sen's revolution that overthrew the Qing, to the warlord period, to the Japanese invasion, enabled the question of Tibetan autonomy. In other words, that is the only reason why this debate even exists. Yes, what happened in 1950-51 was heavy-handed, but all it did was restore a claim that predated the communist regime; it was not the sort of Hitlerite red blitzkrieg that self-righteous Western activists now imagine and portray it to be. Until this can be addressed, there can be no legitimacy to the West's involvement in these ongoing events; in fact, it is not even entitled to an opinion on the matter.
It should be obvious by now that the current administration--whose own record on this is perhaps the most questioned and disputed in recent memory--couldn't care less about the values they say is at stake. What's even more frustrating than the non-acknowledgement of historical facts is the rhetoric of values to cover up for the power game being played. Given the adversarial (to varying degrees) framework that has existed between China and the West for centuries, it only makes sense that this moment of international scrutiny would be capitalized on to embarrass and discredit the reemergence of a (very former) world power. The activists on the ground level are perhaps only aware of this at a subconscious level; regardless, this is the true cause that they're really helping.
On another note, it should be said that China's PR handling is just plain awful. Human-rights rhetoric has haunted it for at least two decades at this point, and the government still doesn't have the slightest resemblance of a clue how to handle it properly. Just as it was starting to put Tiananmen behind it, civil unrest re-emerges, and it resorts to the same damn shit that made it a pariah in the early '90s, cracking down left and right and countering allegations against it with ridiculous claims involving Tibetan suicide squads and vilifying the Dalai Lama--just about the most peaceable and compromise-minded leader in existence. You're not going to get anywhere with that. Goodbye, international respect, hello again, pariahhood and alienation, long time no see. Good f'ing job.It may not happen soon, but it needs to; China is in desperate need of a slicker, savvier, and better-dressed generation of political leadership if it is going to truly achieve the "peaceful rise" that Hu has droned about time and time again.
[This means, of course, the fengqing, or the current generation of young, radical Chinese nationalists, also scattered the world over, needs to not lose their shit and lash out in violence, or they will give themselves about as much legitimacy as the...other young radical community that I will avoid the trouble of assigning a label to.]
Well, at the very least, rather than succumbing completely to the irrational mass opinion and giving their own athletes a big "f*ck-you" by withdrawing participation as a whole, Western leaders currently limit themselves to the mere gesture of not attending the opening ceremony. So now they just thumb their nose at not only to the controversial Chinese regime but to the thousands who have worked to make Beijing a suitable place for the world's premier athletic competition. Very virtuous. Ask yourself whether things are really going to turn around for the Tibetans and Darfur if Gordon Brown, Nicholas Sarkozy, and George W doesn't show up to the pre-party. Come on, seriously?
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