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No pictures in this writing: My class today.
#1

Dear Shuttertalkers,

Surely you must all be aware that China is preparing to host the Olympic Games this summer, and it
will also not have escaped your attention entirely, that there are issues in Chinese policy these days,
that have stirred up emotion internationally.

I have lived in China for almost a year and a half, I see the enthusiasm brought forward by most everyone for the Olympics, in which they see a great opportunity for their beloved country to show the world what they can accomplish.

But I also see a lot of other aspects, including the regulations on reporting inside and out of this country,
I experience for myself the restrictions on usage of the internet, and the polarised education of the current generation of adolencents. ..

NT, you are travelling here right now,
I don't know how much you can and do experience in terms of politics.

Today I want to share an episode from the class room with you. Even though this is not a photo story,
I believe it is very important, and it deeply moves me!

Greetings, Uli



Today's class:


I regularly have groups of students in my English class give presentations to their classmates to practise their English, they are allowed to chose any topic they want.
Today one of the groups in my classes decided, in view of the current events, to change their talk's topic from The Olympic Mascots to Current Events in Tibet.
Naturally I appreciate their initiative.
But as the five students took their turns to each deliver their presentation, I also have to say that at moments I felt my heart was choking or freezing, I was even scared of my students.

Chinese students learn from childhood on, that Tibet has been an integral part of China ever since the Yuan Dynasty around 1300 a.d.
In my class they presented material from Chinese media recording some of the events during the riots in Lhasa, depicting Tibetans as a babarian people slaughtering Han Chinese police. No one mentioned any cause or reason Tibetans would have to riot in the first place. And obviously I cannot assume they have any information on the victims amont Tibetans or would talk about it.
One of my students then presented several examples of manipulated pictures shown in Western media, citing the New York Times, Washingtong Post, BBC, German N-TV and also the Bild Zeitung. Several of them have recently been found to have used pictures from Nepal instead of Tibet, in other cases pictures were deliberately cropped to convey a certain notion of the events in Tibet.
However, there was no mention of manipulation in Chinese media in his talk, neither did any of my students mention the fact that international journalists were banned from Tibet within days after the outbreak of riots in Lhasa.
As a matter of fact, and I have already written about this last year, many of my students approve of governmental control over media, they have repeatedly told me that it is not neccessary and in fact not healthy for a nation if everybody has access to the whole truth. They support the role of the media as a tool to keep the people in good, loyal spirits, and actually assume that this is the role played by media all over the world.

Of course I have to assume that it was not mere coincidence that the students who participated in class discussion today were ones promoting the line of governmental propaganda, while others remeined silent throughout the whole period, sometimes it is hard to know what they really think.

I was trying to keep the discussion along the line of illegitimacy of manipulation in the media, anywhere in the world. The third speaker was launching an appeal to his class for loyalty to the country, literally saying
„I hate people who don't love our country“ when referring to Tibetans.

Finally I want to record for you the speach one of my students delivered to class, I am copying from his notes in front of me and was witness to his speach just over an hour ago (con permisso, I correct language mistakes in his notes):

„I am the last speaker of our group.
Last term, right here, I said Europe lost the spirit of Knight. At that time, I was not sure whether I was rigth or not. But, today I feel sad to say that Europe indeed has lost the spirit of Knight.
Todaz I will talk about three things:
the Rule, the Power, and the End.

In the international policy rule, what is the most important thing?
Religion? No.
Virtue? No.
History? No.
Justice? No.

Why? Because Power can change them. So Power ist the most important rule.
And our country, China, has the strongest power. Our army is strong and giant.
Our economy is the 3rd strongest in the world. Our policy is advanced and efficient.
Today, no country can defeat us, no matter in war, in economy or in policy.
But there are some countries like Germany, France, England and America trying to use the Tibet problem to hurt us. But they don't use their power to face us. Instead they try to help Dalai.
They try to make the Tibet problem more serious. They try to tell a lie to the world.
They use the most despicalbe way to vilify our country. But face our power, face the truth, these acts are in vain.

At last, the End. That's the easiest thing I guess. They will lose, no matter Dalai or these despicable countries. All acts they perform are proven to be a joke, a stupid joke. All acts they perform, prove that they have lost the spirit, the Glorious spirit. And as I said before. All their acts will be in vain.“


Now imagine my situation.
I did try to keep my composure and stear the discussion in a less violent direction. The students who did speak up thought have relatively strong views and they will not be easily deterred from believing what they have heard and learned for 20 years. Certainly that cannot be my task either.
The word „hate“ was flying back and forth through the country and all I could do was at least offer linguistic alternatives to them.

Coincidentally, in my second class of the day, the presenting group had prepared to talk about „Minorities in China“.
The discussion was much less heated in this class, but it was not entirely avoidable that the issue of Tibet came up.

My students grow up to say „China has 56 minorities and they live together like sisters and brothers“. They also learn that „The Chinese government since the 1950s has lent a hand to built a new Tibet“.
An apparently separatist movement from Xin Jiang, called „East Turkistan Movement“ was mentioned in one sentence with the „Dalai Group“, both branded as „terrorist groups“, pursuing the „ridiculous“ aim of independance from the Republic of China.



It is not easy for me to be in the position I am an these days. While I read all the attempts in Chinese media to paint the world in shades of pink and pacify the people, only letting through the most enthusiastic news about preparations for the Olympics and depicting Tibetans as separatist minorities, no more than a nuisance on the side, I also follow some of the foreign media, in which, naturally, a different image of the situation is conveyed.
With restrictions on reporting and using internet sources being as they are, who wants to tell the truth???

I feel very sad for this country that should be given and should take its opportunity to play a role on an international stage. But I cannot conceal that part of me is equally scared of the prospect of China gaining more and more power in internatinal politics. I see my students and how they are manipulated (sorry to use this word) in their thinking, and they are the rising generation of people to take power in this country!
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#2

Really, really heartfelt and engaging uli.
I'm going to have a few re-reads, a few thinks and make a suitable reply...phew...

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#3

Thank you Zig, thanks for reading.

I guess there is a few to many words for a forum of people who are used to looking at pictures mainly,
I just threw it out here because I was so shocked and needed to let steam of.

BTW, I notice that Australia is remaining realatively quiet in the media, and it is also normally
not thrown in the group of "western countries" by Chinese...
Does anybody know what Australias official policy is?

Uli
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#4

Thanks for sharing Uli. I suppose it's difficult if you've been brought up to believe one thing all your life.

By the way, I found an interesitng article regarding boycotting the olympics...
http://avpress.com/n/10/0410_s15.hts
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#5

Wheels within wheels, plans within plans. Over the past few years in the UK has emerged an issue-ridden, politically-correct, cynical yet cowardly breed. We have thrown away God, family, boundaries, self-respect, keen to whine when our "rights" are taken away, yet quite unwilling to stand up and take responsibility for the consequences of our actions. Politicians generally are only unafraid to open their mouths after public opinion has spoken for them in advance.
It's diificult in our modern climate to see just what people really think or feel, as they are always looking over their shoulder to see who would sue them for having an opinion...and indeed people generally sit in the safest place, which is one the fence.
True, we'll whine about human rights, freedom of speech and political freedom too, particularly when our media only feeds us enough dumbed-down, polarised, black-and-white issues.
China is a tough one: we are keen not offend the Chinese of course, as they are a powerful nation. By this, we mean that we are able to sell a great deal of "Englishness" to China, and we are able to make use of outsourcing and cheap , reverse-engineered products from her. We have to be seen to condemn China's "behaviour" towards Tibet(though not too stridently of course), whilst being keen to point out that we can hate the sin yet still love the sinner.
Our very own Gordon Brown, who is lauded internationally yet loathed within the UK, said it all by what he didn't say: he turned up to see the torch, all smiles, and yet was keen to have just the right amount of distance, so he was careful not to actually touch it.
There is clearly a vast difference between the way nations use their media:
In the UK, our media has been allowed to have free reign and a huge amount of emotional power: what they say, politicians are careful not to disagree with. It's as though "reality tv" culture is the real power, as no-one likes being badly spoken of. Such is the fear generated by this phenomenon, that our whole country is led by a media whose tone is at home with slander, cynicism and seeking out the worst in people. We are inward-looking and negative, as we've allowed our media to firstly reflect, then dictate reality.
This last tenet is important, as it seems global truth: if the media SAYS it is so, then the populace believe it must BE so, and so it is...and policy is shaped around this too. Result= the way society is structured and outworked is as a direct result of media control. Remember Lord of the Flies? It was Piggy, that symbol of shaky and disempowered morality, who imbued the conch-shell with the human "right" to speak and be listened to. Thing is, there's no such thing as "Human rights", is there. It is a contruct. What "right" does a pot have, once it's made, not to be broken up and remade into another one? Similarly, as created beings, who decided that we are to have rights? It would be NICE to go through life perfectly stable in terms of nation, identity, physical and emotional safety, but things that threaten this are ever only a flypaper-width away. True, occupation of Tibet and its incarceration IS a "bad thing", in terms of morality and freedom...unless of course you are a representative of the power that occupies.
And it has to be said: loyalty, happiness, obedience are things that were once dear to us in the UK: family, work, education were enabled to seek excellence with generous dollops of these. Nowadays, these words have dark, perjorative overtones, as they are so very absent from language. And if they are not spoken, reality is not created. Words have power to create, absence of words means that the very things the words represent will disappear. The more China is pricked by the goads of international disapproval, the more justified she will feel to keep making a point of the necessity of power, control, obedience, loyaalty and the rest. There is no moral conflict here, if one is in the camp of the powerful, as this is the way that power works, and the way that history is made and written. History is written, and reality made, by those who "have the conch", who have the power to control words, language and media; history is recorded by the victors whenever there is conflict. It's just the way it is, the human worldly default(that happens historically when a nation throws God away, as it goes)
When I lived in Kuwait, we teachers had to spend much time on imported text books before the term started. The reason? To tear out any reference to word "Israel". And what did we do? Well, we bore it: we were serving the power that employed us, only obeying orders you might say. It was the same thing that ensured we couldn't eat a bacon sandwich whilst there. When in Rome, and all that...which is the position you seem to be in, Uli. Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and all.
Fascinating stuff here.
I'm afraid it's far too late at night for me to have embarked on writing this: I'm re-reading it and it doesn't make as much sense now...I hope some of the points are clear enough though. Best of!

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#6

Zig, thank you for your late night effusion.

I used to think that I grew up in a very liberal country where everyone was allowed and many seemed very keen to
express their opinion. I cannot honestly say that I have experienced serious restriction of flow of information when I was "young" (I seem to remember protesting in the streets seemed to be like a hobby when we were students...).

Recently I have heard of different impressions from people who live in Germany now, but
I still believe the variety of our media is broad and there will always be a channel or the other to publicise what you need to say. Germany's medial landcape is certainly different from the one of the States, and in my impression even different from what I saw when I lived in the UK, but nothing could be remotely compared to what I see here.

Germany is certainly particular due to its recent history, no excuses allowed. that is most likely the reason why Germans have a hard time feeling leave alone expressing any kind of loyalty,
but in the case of China you are not talking about an abstract emotion but very distinct cases of political prisoners, people excluded from participation in the very Olympic Games because of their "revolutionary" background..... and a case of brainwashing among the young generation.
As opposed to us, they don't have a choice of what to believe, there is only one story in this whole big country (yet not quite true, there are more than one, but you would have to look much harder than we do and no one is there to teach them to look.... ))

My problem here is that I feel I will not move a grain however hard I try. When we marched as students we had a goal and each time we felt we got a step closer, here I feel like every time I hear my students talk I am a step further from where I would like to see them. I can't precisely describe what it feels like to hit this wall all the time, except that I can tell you it does make me literally feel nausea.

A not to the side, ST is one of the webpages I can still relatively easily access. Everything else, my blog first, then one email after the other is slowing down or being disconnected. China recently established an internet police so all traffic is now even more strictly controlled. No access to anything like wikipedia,
no access to any pages about Tibet whatsoever......

Part of me will be happy when I get to leave here, although I love the country. But on the background of my impressions here I will keep watching China's development curiously, and I can only hope for the country that it can find a way to solve internal problems and establish its rank in international politics in a PEACEFUL way, before either the people inside decide they have had enough, or, equally likely in my opinion, someone outside decides so.

thanks again for reading,

Uli
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#7

Uli, I can certainly imagine that you're in a tough position. Your story is perhaps more detailed and more personal than most that I've heard, but matches everything that I've heard about the media and information in China.

Your story has made me reflect on events and issues closer to home. I'm thinking that this thread is ready for a photo:

[Image: 275452179_Eahir-L.jpg]

I don't watch TV, rarely listen to the radio, and only occasionally check the website for the local paper. I used to need to be "connected" to world events, but I've discovered that the world can get along without my informed opinions and that I'm happier and less stressed this way. It's been years since I read an entire newspaper; perhaps this makes me more likely to be shocked by what I see and hear.

Last fall I took a road trip with my brother, and he's a CNN junkie. For almost two weeks we were staying in hotels across America, and CNN was always on. In restaurants and truck stops everywhere it was more CNN and occasionally Fox News. I absolutely could not believe what I was watching. The News Network (their words, not mine) that was recently calling mothers who lost children in the World Trade Center attacks "unpatriotic" for not thinking that invading a foreign country was a great idea was now talking about the difficulty the government was having in "selling" the war it had worked so hard to create. Fox News was even more vindictive and virulent, but at least they have a kind of integrity in that they make no pretense of being fair or balanced.

But the real lesson for me was the recurring idea that fish don't see water.

People aren't aware of their media environment because it's all they know, and I include myself in this. It's only when I'm immersed in a different culture that I see its flaws, but it doesn't make me any better at seeing those in my own. And it's not even that those cultures are particularly different; the Canadian government instigated the American extra-judicial kidnapping, detention, and Syrian torture of Maher Arar. I'm trying to return to some awareness of world events, and I have to say that none of what I've been learning has been encouraging. And ultimately I know that I'm still only learning one side of the story.

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#8

thank you mat!!

I have to get back to this later, going to class now.

Uli
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#9

I completely agree with you, Matthew. The so-called "news" media is about as objective as a used-car salesman. They're basically all tabloids now, more concerned with the popular or sensationalist stories rather than actual news. What's even worse is that the news media is almost entirely dominated by far-left political beliefs. A recent example from Australia is Melbourne's The Age newspaper practically forbidding its reporters to write any articles proclaiming global warming due to manmade carbon emissions as anything less than God-given fact.

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#10

So you are a teacher, Zig?

(sorry to have so little to contribute to such an important post...)
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#11

The day you posted this topic we talked a lot about this at home. G knows a lot more about China history than I do. He explained me thing I didn't know. Somehow we don't study much about China history at school or at least not as much as we study European. This doesn't give me the chance to give an intelligent opinion about the actual problem between those countries, since this problem as far as I understand has already deep roots in their own history.

In addition to that I am not too keen on reading or watching the news.

About manipulated media..... I think we, that know about photography and know how easy a picture can be manipulated, have our doubts about the truthfulness of a picture in the news. I had still the idea that videos were a bit more out of manipulation, but after watching G that from a still picture of a seagull made it fly and pasted it in a video and looked so real, and it was just after one hour tutorial... well, what can one expect about videos in the news now?... And the thing here is that manipulation can come from both sides.
Who to belive then?

I acknowledge and appreciate very much your bravery of living in this country, and not only living but also participating and going out and take pictures. This is something that I seriously find extraordinary. I am sure this experience will make you grown enormously as a human been.

Take care of yourself.
We want to have you back in Germany safe and sound... Wink

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.
Paul Cezanne
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#12

manipulation of information in the media? yes. everywhere. for the sake of money, what else.
But you haven't seen the extend to which is happens here I think, and not just for money, but for the "greater aim" of the people.

Sorry, I am going travelling very early in the morning tomorrow and have to get to bed, I will get back to this properly when I get back.

Greetings to all of you!!

Uli
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#13

The fact that this thread is being knitted together as it is by our contributions, I find fascinating. I get the strong sense(though with no substance on which to base my feeling) that you(uli) have a yearning need to safely externalise what is going on within you, as irresistable force meets immovable object in terms of cultural "meetings". I wonder if we live in a world wherein, if people's thoughts are unchanged, there can ever be "synthesis" of cultures.
Matthew's comment on "fish not seeing water" is spot on, I feel....
Thinking along the lines of the fish: I'm sure they'd be in stunned disbelief if they were told that outside their world exists one that must surely be mythical and impossible: ceatures that live in in air rather than die in it, whose seemingly useless appendages actually work well for moving about in their environment.
I also think it takes removal from one's culture and its media, to gain a more "objective" awareness of its mechanics...yet if one doesn't work at some kind of acceptance(I'm not sure what I mean here), one can become quite a misanthrope.
Do you know, uli, I wonder if it might be beneficial to "accept the things one cannot change" here: I'm wondering too that there may be many benefitrs in some way "becoming as Chinese as one can" for the time you are there? It doesn't mean the fish stops being a fish but might enable even some window of empathy onto a set of life-values that initially seem so much the inverse of one's own.
Maybe we should give ourselves break here in another way. Everything we do, every event, changes significance or meaning depending on how it is treated afterwards. Even the act of observation seems to change both the observer and the observed(the Prime Directive and all that, for Star Trek fans!)
Similarly, China is in a process. She's in a process of learning to interact and trust in a global way: now, if it were not for the Olympic Games, our awareness of Tibet would not be uppermost in our minds. But now it is, it could well be a chance for change.
All change comes from crisis, I think it was said. The fact that China is now finding herself the object of scrutiny, is an unanticipated thing for her. Naturally if she's now being challenged on something she had no problem with before, she'd firstly become defensive. It's only going to be by dialogue, surely, that she starts to even see that there may be need for change...and slowly, slowly, this can happen.
Change happens. It's what the world does; if there's anything constant, it's that things do change. Of course, there are certain prerequisites for this: recognition of need, freedom to do so. We'd be shooting ourselves in the foot if we denied her the freedom to make changes.
And ourselves..or uli? What's the wise saying? " accept the things we cannot change, change the things we can..and grant us wisdom to know the difference". If I could practise that which i preach, I suppose my life would be easier too!
Yes Toad, I was originally a teacher "by trade", having a degree in English and Religious Studies and teaching for years, though I have also taught French, History and Music at what you'd call "high school", I think, well: 11-16 yr-olds generally. I packed it in(or, it packed me in) some 8 years ago; I miss it but don't miss the all the things that stopped me being efficient: league tables, standardised tests and "parents' rights" and the fact that it's so fear-ridden, one is not actually allowed to educate as much as inculcate...the same sort of thing as we've been discussing on this thread really. I taught in Kuwait for a while: not too pleasant..the worse thing was observing the changes on decent English people once they had a bit of power in their hands. If there'd been a Sudetenland, they would have annexed it. Mind you, one did become aware of just how skewed the British media was, when one was not under its thrall.

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#14

Sometimes I think that if World War 2 happened today, the media would be on the Axis' side.

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#15

I have studied the last hundred years or so of Chinese history and it does not surprise me in the least to hear what you say Uli.

By the way - Kevin Rudd (Australia's Prime Minister) was recently in China and raised Tibet at a speaking engagement with local students. He speaks Mandarin and so the whole speech was without need of translation for the students. It was interesting to see them struggle with the concept that something was indeed wrong in Tibet.

Canon stuff.
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#16

Well spoken Uli. A terrible dilemma for you. To stay or go. If the money is good then bite your lip.
If my holiday had not been booked and paid for, I may have changed it to south america.
But as it had then I suppose I am as much in the wrong as the chinese are. By going on holiday there I am supporting them.
There is a great deal wrong in our world today and in the past also.
Religious beliefs cause great controversy, and yet I am thankful that I was born in a (so called civillised country).
Suppose we/you had been born in a cave in afghanistan or siberia.
Everybody is brainwashed from birth either by the state or your parents, peers, etc. and until you can sort out right and wrong yourself, you have to agree with what you have been taught. But right and wrong is what someone else tells us is right or wrong. Maybe we are all animals after all.
How do we know for example, that red is infact red, and not blue. Because it is taught to us from birth.
But is it? Is the sky actually green ? Who knows.

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#17

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 „Tibet forever belongs to China“. 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 „Presselandschaft“ or media „landscape“,
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 – 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 „western“ media.

Again, they only get the bits from the western media that their government wants and allows them to see – 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.
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