Apr 23, 2008, 17:59
So, finally I am back to this.
thank you everyone for your thoughts and support on this!
Chris, I heard about Rudd's visit, and I definitely think there are countries out there, including Australia, who have more diplomatic sense than Germany and France are currently showing. Maybe the fact that Australia is closer to China and has many Chinese immigrants (or temporary residents?) playes a role in this.
NT, leaving is not an option right now. Except if I felt my life was in danger, I have a contract to fulfill here and actually see it as my responsibility to work through this with my students. They have no body else anywhere near or soon to potentially introduce them to something outside their mind frame.
china is certainly not too happy about people like me, but I am considerate, moderate, and they cannot afford more scandal than they already have. They make my life difficult enough through all the restrictions on the internet. Every other day my email does not work, leave alone news...
Zig, thank you so much for all you in depth thought!
I know it doesn't exaclty seem this way from this single writing, but in fact I make big effort to understand and sympathise with my students.
you know I am 25% Chinese myself. that is part of why I am so interested in the first place, but also shocked even the more. When I teach class, I try to carefully open their eyes for the world of air and mammals out there, but it is part of their pride, tremendously important in Chinese culture, to not let a glimpse of giving in shine through in our discussions.
As for media, I have to say that I still feel Germany is one of the most independant, liberal, enlightened and critical countries I have seen. No doubt we have stupid people enough in our society, add the ones that are not deliberately stupid but undereducated, but we do have a large section in our society of highly critical news readers and it is something we grow up to be.
Here is another thread of thought I wrote up after another class, thinking about why they get so terribly mad with the "West". It is simply that they are not used to a concept of a variety of media from which you have to gather your information.
"Right after I got back from my trip I had to teach class Monday morning.
In my first class a group of students had prepared a presentation about Tibet, and I braced for the worst.
Naturally they described the Dalai Lama as a separatist terrorist, constantly causing trouble to their nation. Two of the presenting students ended their presentations by projecting the Chinese flag on the wall, playing the Chinese National Hymn and asking their class mates to stand up and join them in chanting âTibet forever belongs to Chinaâ. They were applauded enthusiastically by the rest of the class.
For me, being German and of a generation that was still born to carry the guilt of our nation,
that did not go down well.
Interestingly, one of the students had said during his presentaion that he had intended to show a picture of the Dalai Lama, but he had not been able to find one on the internet! Well why would that be?
These things pull me right back into reality, after having a few days of a break from this emotional pressure. I have been trying to understand what I experience and to have sympathy with my students, who after all don't know better.
In Germany we have what we call the âPresselandschaftâ or media âlandscapeâ,
and, to stick with this metaphor, you have to walk it, hike and explore it,
filter data for trustworthy information, study authors to understand their background and motivation, to recognise and see through polarisation until you arrive at the point where you can form your own opinion.
We grew up with this understanding of media, at least the circles of people I move in did.
My Hefei students however have no such concept of media.
For them there is only one opinion, the public one.
Everything they get to read is preselected by their government,
and for them
Data equals Information equals Opinion equals the Truth!
They generally not only honour and revere their government, but they also genuinely embrace the concept of censorship. They see no use and no good in making all information available to everybody. In their understanding, media are a means of the government to communicate with the public and they read propaganda as the customised truth â still the truth.
Even the most enlightened among my students will seriously tell me that they have no reason for themselves to claim access to any other informion.
(To be honest, their lifes are potentially happier every day than ours tend to be, their world is one of growing economic strenght, and of a loving government taking good care of all their needs.)
On the background of this understanding, it is not surprising that they are apalled by what they hear from the âwesternâ media.
Again, they only get the bits from the western media that their government wants and allows them to see â which are the anti-China protests, violent interruptions of the torch bearing, manipulations of pictures from Tibet. And according to their understanding of media, what they see reflects the uniform opinion of all the people in all the countries in the west. So naturally they are scared and angered and feel their nation is under unfair attack by the west.
And on both sides there is a big lack of understanding,
while many people in Europe underestimate the significance of pride and loyalty in Chinese culture, where the worst shame that can fall on you is to lose face in front of others,
Chinese are not used to dealing with international critisism in a reasonable manner without overreacting.
thank you everyone for your thoughts and support on this!
Chris, I heard about Rudd's visit, and I definitely think there are countries out there, including Australia, who have more diplomatic sense than Germany and France are currently showing. Maybe the fact that Australia is closer to China and has many Chinese immigrants (or temporary residents?) playes a role in this.
NT, leaving is not an option right now. Except if I felt my life was in danger, I have a contract to fulfill here and actually see it as my responsibility to work through this with my students. They have no body else anywhere near or soon to potentially introduce them to something outside their mind frame.
china is certainly not too happy about people like me, but I am considerate, moderate, and they cannot afford more scandal than they already have. They make my life difficult enough through all the restrictions on the internet. Every other day my email does not work, leave alone news...
Zig, thank you so much for all you in depth thought!
I know it doesn't exaclty seem this way from this single writing, but in fact I make big effort to understand and sympathise with my students.
you know I am 25% Chinese myself. that is part of why I am so interested in the first place, but also shocked even the more. When I teach class, I try to carefully open their eyes for the world of air and mammals out there, but it is part of their pride, tremendously important in Chinese culture, to not let a glimpse of giving in shine through in our discussions.
As for media, I have to say that I still feel Germany is one of the most independant, liberal, enlightened and critical countries I have seen. No doubt we have stupid people enough in our society, add the ones that are not deliberately stupid but undereducated, but we do have a large section in our society of highly critical news readers and it is something we grow up to be.
Here is another thread of thought I wrote up after another class, thinking about why they get so terribly mad with the "West". It is simply that they are not used to a concept of a variety of media from which you have to gather your information.
"Right after I got back from my trip I had to teach class Monday morning.
In my first class a group of students had prepared a presentation about Tibet, and I braced for the worst.
Naturally they described the Dalai Lama as a separatist terrorist, constantly causing trouble to their nation. Two of the presenting students ended their presentations by projecting the Chinese flag on the wall, playing the Chinese National Hymn and asking their class mates to stand up and join them in chanting âTibet forever belongs to Chinaâ. They were applauded enthusiastically by the rest of the class.
For me, being German and of a generation that was still born to carry the guilt of our nation,
that did not go down well.
Interestingly, one of the students had said during his presentaion that he had intended to show a picture of the Dalai Lama, but he had not been able to find one on the internet! Well why would that be?
These things pull me right back into reality, after having a few days of a break from this emotional pressure. I have been trying to understand what I experience and to have sympathy with my students, who after all don't know better.
In Germany we have what we call the âPresselandschaftâ or media âlandscapeâ,
and, to stick with this metaphor, you have to walk it, hike and explore it,
filter data for trustworthy information, study authors to understand their background and motivation, to recognise and see through polarisation until you arrive at the point where you can form your own opinion.
We grew up with this understanding of media, at least the circles of people I move in did.
My Hefei students however have no such concept of media.
For them there is only one opinion, the public one.
Everything they get to read is preselected by their government,
and for them
Data equals Information equals Opinion equals the Truth!
They generally not only honour and revere their government, but they also genuinely embrace the concept of censorship. They see no use and no good in making all information available to everybody. In their understanding, media are a means of the government to communicate with the public and they read propaganda as the customised truth â still the truth.
Even the most enlightened among my students will seriously tell me that they have no reason for themselves to claim access to any other informion.
(To be honest, their lifes are potentially happier every day than ours tend to be, their world is one of growing economic strenght, and of a loving government taking good care of all their needs.)
On the background of this understanding, it is not surprising that they are apalled by what they hear from the âwesternâ media.
Again, they only get the bits from the western media that their government wants and allows them to see â which are the anti-China protests, violent interruptions of the torch bearing, manipulations of pictures from Tibet. And according to their understanding of media, what they see reflects the uniform opinion of all the people in all the countries in the west. So naturally they are scared and angered and feel their nation is under unfair attack by the west.
And on both sides there is a big lack of understanding,
while many people in Europe underestimate the significance of pride and loyalty in Chinese culture, where the worst shame that can fall on you is to lose face in front of others,
Chinese are not used to dealing with international critisism in a reasonable manner without overreacting.