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I'd actually gone back to Angry Asian Man's blog for these links:
Chinese Student in US Caught in Confrontation - about a girl who basically stepped up in between pro-China and pro-Tibet protesters at a demonstration to discuss the situation civilly and is suffering a backlash as a result.
The next day, a photo appeared on an Internet forum for Chinese students with a photo of Ms. Wang and the words “traitor to your country” emblazoned in Chinese across her forehead. Ms. Wang’s Chinese name, identification number and contact information were posted, along with directions to her parents’ apartment in Qingdao, a Chinese port city.
Classy shit. The Eddingses were right: "A mob is only as clever as its stupidest member" (RoA). What, because she wants you to get talking to the other side, who, if you haven't noticed, are also part of the Asian community, it's fun and okay to brand her a traitor and spread what's generally private information?
Salted with ugly rumors and manipulated photographs, the story of the young woman who was said to have taken sides with Tibet spread through China’s most popular Web sites, at each stop generating hundreds or thousands of raging, derogatory posts, some even suggesting that Ms. Wang — a slight, rosy 20-year-old — be burned in oil. Someone posted a photo of what was purported to be a bucket of feces emptied on the doorstep of her parents, who had gone into hiding.
So much for trying to do the right thing, huh? It gets better.
“If you return to China, your dead corpse will be chopped into 10,000 pieces,” one person wrote in an e-mail message to Ms. Wang. “Call the human flesh search engines!” another threatened, using an Internet phrase that implies physical, as opposed to virtual, action.
Sorry? Did you want to paint an even more barbaric picture of China?
Ms. Wang speaks up for the majority of people though:
I thought I'd try to get the two groups together and initiate some dialogue, try to get everybody thinking from a broader perspective. That's what Lao Tzu, Sun Tzu and Confucius remind us to do. And I'd learned from my dad early on that disagreement is nothing to be afraid of. Unfortunately, there's a strong Chinese view nowadays that critical thinking and dissidence create problems, so everyone should just keep quiet and maintain harmony.
Sadly enough, this isn't just a Chinese view... Malaysians do it too, except that in Malaysia, this is a mindset imposed on us by politicians who favour shutting up dissenters...
The Chinese protesters thought that, being Chinese, I should be on their side. The participants on the Tibet side were mostly Americans, who really don't have a good understanding of how complex the situation is. Truthfully, both sides were being quite closed-minded and refusing to consider the other's perspective. I thought I could help try to turn a shouting match into an exchange of ideas. So I stood in the middle and urged both sides to come together in peace and mutual respect. I believe that they have a lot in common and many more similarities than differences.
But the Chinese protesters -- who were much more numerous, maybe 100 or more -- got increasingly emotional and vocal and wouldn't let the other side speak. They pushed the small Tibetan group of just a dozen or so up against the Duke Chapel doors, yelling "Liars, liars, liars!" This upset me. It was so aggressive, and all Chinese know the moral injunction: Junzi dongkou, bu dongshou (The wise person uses his tongue, not his fists).
Yes, because obviously if you're yellow-skinned, you stand with other yellow-skinned people. Because, you know, obviously the white devils DON'T UNDERSTAND A FUCKING THING.
What a lot of people don't know is that there were many on the Chinese side who supported me and were saying, "Let her talk." But they were drowned out by the loud minority who had really lost their cool.
When I was a child, I was told by so many people, don't raise your voice, don't talk loudly, because it's not polite.
All I'm seeing now is that if you let other people talk over you, chances are they're the ones who don't want to listen and the ones who SHOULDN'T be talking loudly for others.
Some people on the Chinese side started to insult me for speaking English and told me to speak Chinese only. But the Americans didn't understand Chinese. It's strange to me that some Chinese seem to feel as though not speaking English is expressing a kind of national pride. But language is a tool, a way of thinking and communicating.
No kiddin', Ms. Wang. I can't begin to express who much I feel like a freak when I admit to other Asians that I can't speak Chinese, especially when they give me this "OMGWTFU'RECHINESE" look.
The next morning, a storm was raging online. Photographs of me had been posted on the Internet with the words "Traitor to her country!" printed across my forehead. Then I saw something really alarming: Both my parents' citizen ID numbers had been posted. I was shocked, because this information could only have come from the Chinese police.
Let's limbo dance! How low can they go?
I saw detailed directions to my parents' home in China, accompanied by calls for people to go there and teach "this shameless dog" a lesson. It was then that I realized how serious this had become. My phone rang with callers making threats against my life. It was ironic: What I had tried so hard to prevent was precisely what had come to pass. And I was the target.
That's FUCKED UP.
Okay, let's say that again: THIS SHIT IS FUCKED UP.
This kind of shit makes me SO angry. I'm still really speechless even though these links are about a week old by now. I just don't know what to say beyond, "how dare they?" And frankly, I KNOW HOW THEY DARE. You know how? Numbers. Safety in numbers. OPPRESSION BY NUMBERS. The voices of many overrides the voice of ONE. The voice of the "community" beating down the voice of the individual. I'm in no way slagging community - I find community needful for identification. But I can't forgive the spirit of community spirit being abused in this way, being used to terrorize an individual, moreover an individual just trying to do the right thing. Was she so wrong? Is her call for understanding and community so evil? Is her need to open lines of dialogue that "shameless"?
I'm sure the Chinese nationals have their own side of the story, as do the Tibetans. But there really isn't a reason for such violent, aggressive behaviour, much less towards an individual who only wants to promote peace.
Chinese Student in US Caught in Confrontation - about a girl who basically stepped up in between pro-China and pro-Tibet protesters at a demonstration to discuss the situation civilly and is suffering a backlash as a result.
The next day, a photo appeared on an Internet forum for Chinese students with a photo of Ms. Wang and the words “traitor to your country” emblazoned in Chinese across her forehead. Ms. Wang’s Chinese name, identification number and contact information were posted, along with directions to her parents’ apartment in Qingdao, a Chinese port city.
Classy shit. The Eddingses were right: "A mob is only as clever as its stupidest member" (RoA). What, because she wants you to get talking to the other side, who, if you haven't noticed, are also part of the Asian community, it's fun and okay to brand her a traitor and spread what's generally private information?
Salted with ugly rumors and manipulated photographs, the story of the young woman who was said to have taken sides with Tibet spread through China’s most popular Web sites, at each stop generating hundreds or thousands of raging, derogatory posts, some even suggesting that Ms. Wang — a slight, rosy 20-year-old — be burned in oil. Someone posted a photo of what was purported to be a bucket of feces emptied on the doorstep of her parents, who had gone into hiding.
So much for trying to do the right thing, huh? It gets better.
“If you return to China, your dead corpse will be chopped into 10,000 pieces,” one person wrote in an e-mail message to Ms. Wang. “Call the human flesh search engines!” another threatened, using an Internet phrase that implies physical, as opposed to virtual, action.
Sorry? Did you want to paint an even more barbaric picture of China?
Ms. Wang speaks up for the majority of people though:
I thought I'd try to get the two groups together and initiate some dialogue, try to get everybody thinking from a broader perspective. That's what Lao Tzu, Sun Tzu and Confucius remind us to do. And I'd learned from my dad early on that disagreement is nothing to be afraid of. Unfortunately, there's a strong Chinese view nowadays that critical thinking and dissidence create problems, so everyone should just keep quiet and maintain harmony.
Sadly enough, this isn't just a Chinese view... Malaysians do it too, except that in Malaysia, this is a mindset imposed on us by politicians who favour shutting up dissenters...
The Chinese protesters thought that, being Chinese, I should be on their side. The participants on the Tibet side were mostly Americans, who really don't have a good understanding of how complex the situation is. Truthfully, both sides were being quite closed-minded and refusing to consider the other's perspective. I thought I could help try to turn a shouting match into an exchange of ideas. So I stood in the middle and urged both sides to come together in peace and mutual respect. I believe that they have a lot in common and many more similarities than differences.
But the Chinese protesters -- who were much more numerous, maybe 100 or more -- got increasingly emotional and vocal and wouldn't let the other side speak. They pushed the small Tibetan group of just a dozen or so up against the Duke Chapel doors, yelling "Liars, liars, liars!" This upset me. It was so aggressive, and all Chinese know the moral injunction: Junzi dongkou, bu dongshou (The wise person uses his tongue, not his fists).
Yes, because obviously if you're yellow-skinned, you stand with other yellow-skinned people. Because, you know, obviously the white devils DON'T UNDERSTAND A FUCKING THING.
What a lot of people don't know is that there were many on the Chinese side who supported me and were saying, "Let her talk." But they were drowned out by the loud minority who had really lost their cool.
When I was a child, I was told by so many people, don't raise your voice, don't talk loudly, because it's not polite.
All I'm seeing now is that if you let other people talk over you, chances are they're the ones who don't want to listen and the ones who SHOULDN'T be talking loudly for others.
Some people on the Chinese side started to insult me for speaking English and told me to speak Chinese only. But the Americans didn't understand Chinese. It's strange to me that some Chinese seem to feel as though not speaking English is expressing a kind of national pride. But language is a tool, a way of thinking and communicating.
No kiddin', Ms. Wang. I can't begin to express who much I feel like a freak when I admit to other Asians that I can't speak Chinese, especially when they give me this "OMGWTFU'RECHINESE" look.
The next morning, a storm was raging online. Photographs of me had been posted on the Internet with the words "Traitor to her country!" printed across my forehead. Then I saw something really alarming: Both my parents' citizen ID numbers had been posted. I was shocked, because this information could only have come from the Chinese police.
Let's limbo dance! How low can they go?
I saw detailed directions to my parents' home in China, accompanied by calls for people to go there and teach "this shameless dog" a lesson. It was then that I realized how serious this had become. My phone rang with callers making threats against my life. It was ironic: What I had tried so hard to prevent was precisely what had come to pass. And I was the target.
That's FUCKED UP.
Okay, let's say that again: THIS SHIT IS FUCKED UP.
This kind of shit makes me SO angry. I'm still really speechless even though these links are about a week old by now. I just don't know what to say beyond, "how dare they?" And frankly, I KNOW HOW THEY DARE. You know how? Numbers. Safety in numbers. OPPRESSION BY NUMBERS. The voices of many overrides the voice of ONE. The voice of the "community" beating down the voice of the individual. I'm in no way slagging community - I find community needful for identification. But I can't forgive the spirit of community spirit being abused in this way, being used to terrorize an individual, moreover an individual just trying to do the right thing. Was she so wrong? Is her call for understanding and community so evil? Is her need to open lines of dialogue that "shameless"?
I'm sure the Chinese nationals have their own side of the story, as do the Tibetans. But there really isn't a reason for such violent, aggressive behaviour, much less towards an individual who only wants to promote peace.