Comments on: Olympics Boycott

By: chunzhu

chunzhu — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:30:43 +0000

Huh… tell me about it. I haven’t had ‘ha gao’ or ’siu mai’ in forever…

By: resipsal

resipsal — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:21:17 +0000

I think you can sometimes get Hong Kong TV transmissions in some cities in Guangzhou. Damn, I miss Hong Kong now.

By: chunzhu

chunzhu — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:09:24 +0000

Hmm… I guess it depends on who you talk to. It’s hard to generalize what an entire country’s people knows. Maybe the Guangzhou students that I talked to, with their familial connections to Hong Kong and overseas, know more about the massacre than others.

By: resipsal

resipsal — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:55:06 +0000

I was born in china, lived there for 25 years. I went through the whole education system. In my history book Tiananmen was only mentioned in one sentence, and nobody died. In my younger cousin’s book, it never existed. When I talked about it with my classmates, they said the massacre footages are made up by CNN. When I chatted with my elder cousin online, he asked me if my “tankman” icon is from Tiananmen massacre. (Don’t you think it would be weird if a person, not someone from the future, asks you, pointing at the 9/11 photos that whether that’s 9/11? You probably would think that he’s a caveman.)
I think the key difference is that even though people don’t talk that much about 9/11, they don’t go to jail for talking about it. Well, 9/11 is not a good example. Let’s say Kent State University, 1970. Do you think you will be arrested if you go there memorizing the four dead students? Now try that on Tiananmen square. And try to find anyone who said that the footage of National Guard shooting at students is made up by CNN, or BBC, or some Hollywood filmmaker (please don’t tell me it’s Michael Bay) or whatever.

By: chunzhu

chunzhu — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:08:51 +0000

I think you underestimate the individuality as well as the patriotism of the Chinese people. They do not all believe what the government tells them, though living in such an environment does have its influences. Boycotting the Olympics just strengthens the government’s position that the west are enemies trying to do anything they can to sabatoge China’s development. How can it be a wakeup call when there are no foreigners in China, the western media is blacked out, and the people in an angry state for having their pride hurt are fed propraganda day in and out?

People have not forgotten the massacre. Is it brought up everyday? No, of course not. 9/11 happened just a few years ago, but the anger has faded. Does that mean it has been forgotten? I don’t think so.

I guess the main difference in our beliefs lie not in the fact that there is an essential need for change, but how it should be carried out.

Let’s say China is a criminal. Basically what you’re saying is that because of China’s crime, they should be removed from society. Now how long? For life? That’s not realistic. For… five years? What happens then? They’re released, angry, and spent a lot of time in the cell with their buddies North Korea and Sudan. Are they going to come out as a better country? Will they learn their lesson? I don’t know, but I think there’s some statistic that people who go to jail have a fairly high percentage of returning.

By: resipsal

resipsal — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:41:03 +0000

I don’t see how people generally can get hurt by a boycott. Making less money? Positive changes (if getting rich alone justifies it) only takes place in the cities. They makeup less than 10% of the nation’s population.
Instead that can be a wakeup call for them. Many people believe, like what the government taught them to believe, that any anti-china activity is only organized by an extremely small number of people. When the rest of the world is angry at you, you might want to think if you are really wrong.
But my bottomline is I just don’t see it appropriate to have the olympics in a city where a massacre took place less than 20 years ago, which was committed by the very government that up until now forbids people to even talk about it, let alone vindicates it. I doubt if anyone would think china should host the olympics right after 1989. But now it can. The only difference is not because the government has changed attitude; it’s only because it’s getting richer. Instead, most of the people have forgot about the massacre. I say they deserve a boycott. If they have to be hurt to wake up, then so be it.

By: chunzhu

chunzhu — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:29:16 +0000

I just don’t see how taking ourselves out of the picture would help these migrant workers and those who are oppressed. I am fully aware of who these people are and their plight is depressing, but I have seen more positive change in China with open minded foreigners interacting with their Chinese counterparts.

China must be changed by the Chinese. If democracy is brought about by foreigners, we will have the same situation as Iraq.

The consciousness of the Chinese people and their worldlyness has been increasing steadily since 1978. NGOs have opened up free migrant schools, help to inform the peasants about their property rights, and organize resistance against polluters. There is positive change taking place in Chinese society and a lot of foreigners have played a positive role in donating their time, money, as well as their own ideas.

The Olympics provide an opportunity for even greater interaction between different cultures.

Of course, with all that said, the government would benefit from the Olympics as well.

So I guess this is the choice: hurt both the government and the people or help both.

By: resipsal

resipsal — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:57:58 +0000

I have to admit that the stadiums in beijing are truly awesome. But one has to remember how many people were forced to move out of their homes for that. And few of them got adequate compensation.
And the very people who built them are among the lowest class in china: the migrant workers. They never get fair payment; they are also discriminated by most of the city residents. I doubt any of them would actually have the chance to stay in beijing during the games.
The government (if not the city residents too), treat them as a kind of liability. Beijing closed all the schools for migrant children, forcing them to get out of sight.
This olympics is just too costly for so many to serve only a few.
I would boycott the game just for the above reasons. Some people like bringing Tibet or Sudan as reasons. But I think look at the sufferings of some common chinese people is enough already.