[Marxism] Chinese Americans feel sting of Olympic protests

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Most people understand the protests to be anti-China, and not just 
expressing protest about Tibetan issues. Hostility toward China has 
multiple sources and conflates within it all sorts of contradictory 
elements. China's development as the fastest-growing economy in the 
world arouses fear in some and envy in others, particularly those 
competing with China, and losing money to China. 

Praba, a subscriber in Australia, sent this note:
Today there was a huge pro-PRC rally in Sydney.

THIS IS A VIDEO:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=248153&cl=7380117&ch=248154
&src=y7news
 
>From the looks of it with all the pro-communist, PRC flags, it was 
not at all the "against communism but pro-China" politics that the 
LA Times speaks about.
====================================================================

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tibet11apr11,1,4624272.story

>From the Los Angeles Times
Chinese Americans feel sting of Olympic protests
In communities such as the San Gabriel Valley, some have complained 
that demonstrations have gone beyond criticizing China's communist 
government and have an anti-Chinese sentiment.
By David Pierson
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

April 11, 2008

As the Olympic torch made its way through the streets of Paris,
London and San Francisco, tens of thousands protested China's
treatment of Tibet and the Dalai Lama.

But inside some Chinese American communities, notably the San Gabriel
Valley, the view of Tibet and its spiritual leader is far more
complex.

On Cat Chao's Mandarin-language talk show "Rush Hour" on KAZN-AM
(1300), most callers haven't been debating whose side to take but why
the Western media has been so biased against China in its reporting
of the riots that rocked Tibet earlier this month.

"They're pretty angry," Chao said. "People usually trust Western
media because they think it's balanced. Not anymore."

Others complained that the torch protests have gone beyond
criticizing the Chinese communist government and have a decidedly
anti-Chinese feeling. In recent days, some prominent Chinese
Americans who support greater ties with China have fought back.

"We're proud of the progress, but at the same time we're worried"
about human rights, said S. Alice Mong, director of the Committee of
100, an organization of leading Chinese Americans.

Two of the committee's members, actress Joan Chen and author Helen
Zia, recently wrote newspaper editorials warning that confrontation
with China would stymie progress and that support of the Olympics
would lead to more openness.

"The Chinese are a proud people. They want freedom and greater
rights, but they know they must fight for them from within," Chen
wrote in the Washington Post.

Of course, this backlash is far from universal. Some Chinese
Americans had fled the repressive region and support the outcry over
Chinese human rights issues. And the San Gabriel Valley's large Hong
Kong and Taiwanese populations are naturally wary of Beijing, a
feeling reinforced by events in Tibet.

Hurt feelings

But many Chinese Americans are struggling to balance their concerns
about the Chinese government with the nationalism they feel as their
homeland is the host of the Olympics for the first time.

"The Olympics were supposed to bring glory to the Chinese," said
Daniel Deng, a leading Chinese American defense attorney based in
Rosemead. "Now the focus is the Dalai Lama and Tibet. A lot of
Chinese are offended."

Deng, a native of China, said a popular analogy being used among
Chinese likened the protests to wearing funeral attire at a wedding.
"That's how people feel," he said. "This was supposed to be a great
thing to celebrate."

Chinese authorities have used deadly force to quell the riots and
arrested 2,300 in Tibet and neighboring provinces, according to the
exiled Tibetan government. Beijing said there have been 22 deaths,
although the Tibetan government said the toll is 154.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have condemned
China's response, and some nations have discussed a boycott of the
Games. Tibetan advocates have rallied across the globe, including in
Los Angeles, where hundreds protested outside the federal building on
Wilshire Boulevard.

In the United States, the Dalai Lama commands a loyal following,
including celebrities such as Richard Gere. The exiled Tibetan leader
is popularly viewed as a symbol of peace and spirituality.

Many new immigrants from China are more skeptical of him, coming from
a country that has demonized the 72-year-old monk and accused him of
engineering the recent unrest from behind the scenes.

Some recent immigrants say they had little idea there was so much
opposition to Beijing in Tibet. It was not widely discussed in a
country where media and public education stuck closely to the party
line. As such, Michelle Qi never questioned China's claim to Tibet.

"It's an accepted fact," said Qi, a 35-year-old secretary at a
Monterey Park travel agency who emigrated from northern China seven
years ago. "The Chinese government has given Tibet a lot of financial
support. But for Tibetans, the economy isn't the most important
thing, it's religion. It's hard to tell who's right or wrong."

For pro-Tibetans, the answer is clear. They say the Chinese
government is diluting their culture and stifling their religious
freedom, apparent during the days when authorities quashed riots in
China with force.

"Many Chinese don't support us," said Tenzin Sherap, a Tibetan monk
at the Land of Compassion Buddha center in West Covina. "They're 
used to listening and believing what the government says. Maybe some
Chinese have some concern inside, but they are afraid to join the
protest."

Sherap said sympathy for Tibet has grown in recent weeks. He has some
Chinese students, though most are from Taiwan. Non-Asians have been
stopping by the center asking for red, blue and yellow "Free Tibet"
bumper stickers and Tibetan flags, he said.

Patriotism surfaces

The local Chinese community's response to the opposition, in part,
indicates the growing ranks of local mainland Chinese immigrants in
the United States. But it also underscores a deepening sense of
nationalism as China increasingly becomes a presence in their lives.

"It's an old brand of nationalism that has been revived now that
China is a major player in the world," said Richard Baum, a professor
of political science at the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies.
"Everyone loves a winner. There's a huge diaspora that had no reason
to feel proud for the last 100 years. Most of them, I suspect,
identify with Beijing's coming-out party."

Chinese immigrants worldwide have supported China despite the fact
that many fled their homeland during its most repressive periods,
from the Cultural Revolution to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, to seek
better lives. (There are about 400,000 people in Los Angeles County
who are either Chinese or part Chinese, according to the U.S.
Census).

A sense of pride

Clay Dube, associate director of the USC U.S.-China Institute, said
memories of those dark days have fueled a sense of pride at seeing
China's improvements. The physical distance only heightens the
feeling.

"They say you're more Irish the farther you are from Ireland," Dube
said.

Sylvia Tian, a reporter for the World Journal, one of the largest
Chinese-language newspapers in the U.S., said many local Chinese have
reconciled their personal grievances with China's past. They're more
concerned now with not missing out on China's growing opportunities.

"A lot of people who participated in Tiananmen have already asked the
government if they can come back," said Tian, a Beijing native who
was a teenager during the crackdown. "Why? Because China is so
different from before. The economy is better and there's also freedom
to say and think things. The only thing you can't do is try to throw
away the Communist Party. Other than that, people can do anything
they want."

Even some Hong Kong Chinese, who only a decade ago were among
Beijing's leading skeptics, reflect China's official message that
Chinese investment in Tibet is improving a backward province.

"With so much economic growth, there's going to be some problems. 
But life is so much better for all. I don't see how Tibet can stand on
its own," said Stephen Chan, a San Gabriel Valley broker and property
manager who remembers watching with great anxiety when Britain signed
an agreement in 1984 to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.

But now Chan and his circle of friends from the former British colony
feel nothing but hope. They've been impressed by Hong Kong's soaring
fortunes since the hand-over. Tibet has been the hot topic in recent
days and there's been little disagreement that China is right, Chan
said.

"I've done a complete 180," he said. "I'm a big fan of China now.
Everything they do makes me proud to be Chinese."

david.pierson@xxxxxxxxxxx


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