I grew up in Inner Mongol, China, spent 4 yrs in Beijing for college, and now have studied in US for almost 2 yrs. My major is Engineering for both bachelor and master degree, but I always have a passion about words with insightful thoughts and the beauty of the minds amuses me.
I love reading and listening to these thoughts and sometimes I can come up with some in my writing or in conversations, but I have to say most of the time I only can repeat what I read or hear and admire those thoughts. It might be a sign that I am lack of the ability of critical thinking, and it also determines the preference of my reading sources and my writing style, which I will talk more later in the entry.
About the title:
'they' means two things: Tibet, and the problems in thinking patterns of Chinese.
1. I am very ignorant about Tibet, as most of Chinese people, at least the people around me. Since this March, Tibet has become such a hot issue that it is impossible not to think about it. I know the style of Chinese media so I doubt about them, but while I prefer the western media to find the truth I also know due to the ignorance and the bias, they can not be relied on.
It is difficult for me to build up the foundation for my own thoughts, and I have to say that deep in my heart I believe Chinese government doesn't mean to hurt Tibetan culture and people at all--the problems are the representation of the conflicts between tradition and economy. It is painful for me to have doubt about this belief and I am desperate to grab anything to prove it.
2. But later on, things became very complicated and multi-dimensional. The reaction of Chinese people to the riot in Tibet became minimal, and it is only the lowest stair for all the other reactions to misleading news from CNN, to boycott actions on Olympic, to the conflicts during Olympic torch relay and the related attitude towards certain people involved.
Those emotions and reactions are separate from the Tibet riot in my opinion, and the Tibet riot was just a blasting fuse that ignited the whole emotional package of Chinese people at this complex time, and there are certain familiar thinking patterns I have criticised for long time shown in this emotional exploration.
3. Concerned by the thinking patterns of Chinese people I am against, I am more concerned about the people around my age, which have been / will be the mainstream force for the critical period of China in the foreseeable future. Our understanding about the world will determine how the world understands China and our reaction to the world will determine how the world views China.
But first of all, I think our understanding about ourselves about a) the methods we use to judge, the foundations our judgements are based on and why we use these kinds of methods and foundations b) the reasons and causes behind our emotions and reactions c) the history of China and how we are unavoidably influenced by it.
Facing a world that is so different from China in many ways, it might be frustrating and painful to get along with it. But it is the only way to grow up. And the Tibet riot and related reactions make me feel it is such a urgent need to think through the points I just mentioned. Therefore, the title 'never feel they are so close' can be simply put as 'never feel the need to review the Chinese style thinking and reactions are so urgent'.
About my contribution to the blog:
From what I wrote above, it is obvious that I have a very different goal from Trent. I will give my thoughts about Tibet issue, serving the purpose of the blog, but since the Tibet issue is related to a far bigger picture to me, my focus will be from a Chinese perspective to analyze the reasons, state my concerns and come up with some suggestions (I wish I could) about the behavior of Chinese people and government.
About my sources and my writing style:
I will try to have the ability of critical thinking, which means I need to use many sources as the foundation for my reasoning. I believe in Trent's taste of news and I will try to cover as much as possible.
Besides my own comments and thoughts, I will translate and compile some Chinese articles, mainly from www.ftchinese.com, a branch of British
My writing will focus more on individual concerns and feelings but I will try my best to be objective.
No pain, no gain. I expect a journey in front to be painful, confusing, embarrassing and frustrating, but I believe a strong, stable, mature and tolerant China will be unavoidable in the future, and the more Chinese people are seriously thinking, the sooner that future will be.
1 comment:
Welcome to Tibet in Babylon ZT! Nice post. Hope to see more!
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