Re: [Marxism] Chinese Americans feel sting of Olympic protests

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

>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."

I obviously don't support these goon squad attacks on torch-carrying 
athletes, but this swell of pride/nationalism among Chinese worldwide 
hardly strikes me as "progressive".

NY Times, April 13, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
China's Loyal Youth
By MATTHEW FORNEY

Beijing

MANY sympathetic Westerners view Chinese society along the lines of 
what they saw in the waning days of the Soviet Union: a repressive 
government backed by old hard-liners losing its grip to a new 
generation of well-educated, liberal-leaning sophisticates. As 
pleasant as this outlook may be, it's naïve. Educated young Chinese, 
far from being embarrassed or upset by their government's 
human-rights record, rank among the most patriotic, 
establishment-supporting people you'll meet.

As is clear to anyone who lives here, most young ethnic Chinese 
strongly support their government's suppression of the recent Tibetan 
uprising. One Chinese friend who has a degree from a European 
university described the conflict to me as "a clash between the 
commercial world and an old aboriginal society." She even praised her 
government for treating Tibetans better than New World settlers 
treated Native Americans.

It's a rare person in China who considers the desires of the Tibetans 
themselves. "Young Chinese have no sympathy for Tibet," a Beijing 
human-rights lawyer named Teng Biao told me. Mr. Teng ? a Han Chinese 
who has offered to defend Tibetan monks caught up in police dragnets 
? feels very alone these days. Most people in their 20s, he says, 
"believe the Dalai Lama is trying to split China."

Educated young people are usually the best positioned in society to 
bridge cultures, so it's important to examine the thinking of those 
in China. The most striking thing is that, almost without exception, 
they feel rightfully proud of their country's accomplishments in the 
three decades since economic reforms began. And their pride and 
patriotism often find expression in an unquestioning support of their 
government, especially regarding Tibet.

The most obvious explanation for this is the education system, which 
can accurately be described as indoctrination. Textbooks dwell on 
China's humiliations at the hands of foreign powers in the 19th 
century as if they took place yesterday, yet skim over the Cultural 
Revolution of the 1960s and '70s as if it were ancient history. 
Students learn the neat calculation that Chairman Mao's tyranny was 
"30 percent wrong," then the subject is declared closed. The uprising 
in Tibet in the late 1950s, and the invasion that quashed it, are 
discussed just long enough to lay blame on the "Dalai clique," a 
pejorative reference to the circle of advisers around Tibet's 
spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Then there's life experience ? or the lack of it ? that might 
otherwise help young Chinese to gain a perspective outside the 
government's viewpoint. Young urban Chinese study hard and that's 
pretty much it. Volunteer work, sports, church groups, debate teams, 
musical skills and other extracurricular activities don't factor into 
college admission, so few participate. And the government's control 
of society means there aren't many non-state-run groups to join 
anyway. Even the most basic American introduction to real life ? the 
summer job ? rarely exists for urban students in China.

Recent Chinese college graduates are an optimistic group. And why 
not? The economy has grown at a double-digit rate for as long as they 
can remember. Those who speak English are guaranteed good jobs. Their 
families own homes. They'll soon own one themselves, and probably a 
car too. A cellphone, an iPod, holidays ? no problem. Small wonder 
the Pew Research Center in Washington described the Chinese in 2005 
as "world leaders in optimism."

As for political repression, few young Chinese experience it. Most 
are too young to remember the Tiananmen massacre of 1989 and probably 
nobody has told them stories. China doesn't feel like a police state, 
and the people young Chinese read about who do suffer injustices tend 
to be poor ? those who lost homes to government-linked property 
developers without fair compensation or whose crops failed when 
state-supported factories polluted their fields.

Educated young Chinese are therefore the biggest beneficiaries of 
policies that have brought China more peace and prosperity than at 
any time in the past thousand years. They can't imagine why Tibetans 
would turn up their noses at rising incomes and the promise of a more 
prosperous future. The loss of a homeland just doesn't compute as a 
valid concern.

Of course, the nationalism of young Chinese may soften over time. As 
college graduates enter the work force and experience their country's 
corruption and inefficiency, they often grow more critical. It is 
received wisdom in China that people in their 40s are the most 
willing to challenge their government, and the Tibet crisis bears out 
that observation. Of the 29 ethnic-Chinese intellectuals who last 
month signed a widely publicized petition urging the government to 
show restraint in the crackdown, not one was under 30.

Barring major changes in China's education system or economy, 
Westerners are not going to find allies among the vast majority of 
Chinese on key issues like Tibet, Darfur and the environment for some 
time. If the debate over Tibet turns this summer's contests in 
Beijing into the Human Rights Games, as seems inevitable, Western 
ticket-holders expecting to find Chinese angry at their government 
will instead find Chinese angry at them.

Matthew Forney, a former Beijing bureau chief for Time, is writing a 
book about raising his family in China.


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