| Jianshuowang, 你好吗? 就是巨大荣誉,在您的网站发表意见! Your pictures are gorgeous here, true eye candy. I'm impressed with the photographic skill on display here-- the vantage points and the camera angles are very good work. I'm still a newbie amateur photographer so this is some inspiration for me! On the Tibet topic-- I work in the Public Relations field and in fact, as part of my company PR work, I've been to China myself and spoken with Chinese, Tibetans and quite a few other ethnicities. It's my job to to offer suggestions to institutions on how to improve their image, and I'm offering some ideas here because I feel that overall, China and the Chinese people are being very unfairly criticized in the West lately. In terms of my own views, I have some sympathy for both sides-- I like the Tibetans and their fascinating culture, and feel it offers something to the world. (And for what it's worth, most Tibetans I met in China had good relations with Chinese.) But at the same time, I have tremendous respect for Chinese people and your civilization, which is both ancient and quite advanced in modern terms-- and with the way the USA and Europe are both driving ourselves to bankruptcy with short-sighted economic and foreign policies, I wonder sometimes if China may be the best hope for world civilization in the future, and advances in things like medicine, space exploration, mathematics and culture. Above all, I'm just infuriated at many of my fellow Americans, Canadians, Australians and Europeans for attacking China in these torch protests and in the media. Honestly, most of us Americans, want to have good relations with China and work together with you for a better world, but a few loud, emotional, stupid protesters are polarizing opinion. The result is that Chinese people and Western people are made suspicious and mistrustful of each other. Please don't think the protesters represent the majority of people in the West-- most of us consider China a civilized and admirable society, a friend rather than an enemy and a country that has a lot of potential. In other words, most of us in the West just want to collaborate with Chinese and learn your language and culture, and here in the USA as well as in Europe, most Chinese and Western people have good relations with each other. My own fiancée is herself Malaysian Chinese (I am a white, Germanic-looking American myself) and I speak Mandarin Chinese, so perhaps this also gives me a more favorable opinion of Chinese culture. But honestly, I like to think that my opinions here are fair-minded and rational-- I can't stand emotional idiots who offend people and make a problem worse. Many of the "Free Tibet" protesters in London, Paris and San Francisco, who even attacked a Chinese Paralympian in a wheelchair, have needlessly generated tensions on this issue. Now, on to my own advice to you as a Public Relations professional. One of the guiding principles that people in the PR field use when offering advice to companies or governments, such as the Chinese government, is the so-called "neutral, reasonable, fair-minded observer standard." In other words, when there is a conflict of ideas-- say, between the Chinese government on the one hand, and critics of the Chinese government on the other hand-- what would a reasonable observer on the outside, without a bias in either direction, conclude is fair and just? This is a useful criterion, because it enables us in the PR field to discard criticisms of you that truly are stupid and unfair (such as the emotional vitriol of many of the Tibet protesters in London and San Francisco), while also offering suggestions for reasonable changes that can help your image. Some of these involve just presenting your side of the story, others involve some real changes that will help your image and, frankly, make things better within China. I'm not giving these suggestions merely for cynical PR reasons-- I really do believe that China is not being regarded in a fair way in the West, and I just want to encourage productive dialogue rather than all this antagonistic shouting and protesting in the West. And also-- this is very important-- for China to truly become a leading nation in technology, business and science, it's important to attract talented foreigners from Europe, North America, South America, Australia and the rest of Asia. Improving your image worldwide, and also making a few intelligent changes within, will help make China a much more attractive place. A. First of all, take a look at these 5 videos. (I'm giving two links to each video, in case any particular link is removed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhx8jf3uaOc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCDmWLWMvY8 Also, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDLfj8cKmc0 and http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ztb8_la-flamme-olympique-chahutee-a-pari_news Thirdly, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kzNWi5h8Hs and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twHzXN3kNTs Fourth, http://youtube.com/watch?v=9GEW2tXV4Vw and http://youtube.com/watch?v=n90aNKGGGXQ Fifth, http://youtube.com/watch?v=uSQnK5FcKas (just one copy of this one) The first video is the most important-- it shows an elderly, humble Tibetan man, in San Francisco, who is himself criticizing the "Free Tibet" protesters for their ignorance. He states what many of you have been saying-- that prior to 1950, most Tibetans lived effectively as slaves or indentured laborers under the lamas. And he says that Tibetans are actually better off within China-- that Tibetans have freedom of religion, are able to move throughout China, are free to work and not be enslaved, and are generally left alone. In my job, we this video would be "a public relations dream," because we have someone who is Tibetan himself, defending the Chinese nation and opposing the Tibetan activists and protesters. And again, using the "reasonable observer criterion," this man does China's image a lot of good. He shows what I and other more educated Westerners know ourselves-- that China may not be perfect in Tibet, but that you grant the Tibetans many freedoms and are reasonable toward them. The second and third videos are both designed to show the world that the Free Tibet protesters are not only emotional and unfair, but even arrogant and violent toward people that they disagree with, and even ignorant about Tibet itself. The second video shows the "Free Tibet" protesters in Paris, assaulting a Chinese girl in a wheelchair. She was protected by the French police who, fortunately, did their jobs well and fought off the arrogant protesters. But this shows how the Tibet protesters are hateful people themselves, and reduces their credibility. The third video does this even further-- it's an American reporter, in San Francisco, who simply asks the Tibet protesters to find Tibet on a map. Not a single one of them could do it. The value of the second video, from a PR perspective, is that a fair-minded observer sees many of the Tibet protesters as being far from the sympathetic individuals they claim, but asinine enough to assault a woman in a wheelchair. The third video puts the very credibility of the "Free Tibet" movement into doubt, since it shows that the Tibet protesters don't understand their own cause-- they're just "protesting for the sake of protesting." The fourth video may be the most valuable of all, as it shows the original riots-- not peaceful protests-- within Tibet, as filmed by an Australian tourist there. It puts the lie to the claims about peaceful protests reported in much of Western media, and shows that the "protests" were in fact violent riots, and that the police reacted proportionally. The fifth and final video is a "sting operation" that uncovers a number of deliberate lies perpetrated in Western media. I know you talked about this before in another post, but this video reveals the lies in detail. Again, this is all about PR. In your future torch runs and other events, behave with respect and restraint. But if torch-bearers are assaulted, and especially if the victim is someone in a wheelchair, this is deadly PR for anyone conducting a protest, and better PR for you. Make sure to catch anything like this on film. B. Second-- sound praising and respectful toward your opponents even if you reject their accusations or criticism. This is a classic scheme that we in the PR industry use for our corporate clients (as long as we genuinely feel they are worth defending), and it always makes you sound good. When someone criticizes China's record on human rights in areas such as a free press, for example, on remunerating land owners who lose their property-- don't angrily respond by saying that "these are internal matters" and brushing them off. Instead, say that "we understand the criticisms, and we in China are constantly trying to improve our nation and increase rights for our citizens. Please be patient and allow us to develop and evolve in a stable fashion." This kind of statement rebuffs the criticism, but at the same time, responds in a respectful way that wins you support among fair-minded people. Similarly, it is understandable why Beijing hesitates to speak with the Dalai Lama, since this would have political implications. Too often, the rejection sounds like an angry attack on the Dalai Lama, which looks bad in the media here. However, there is a way to reject negotiations with the Dalai Lama, while simultaneously sounding respectful and humane in the Western press. While saying that you cannot open formal talks with the Dalai Lama, you can still praise him as being "an honorable man who has made inspiring statements toward encouraging peace in the world. However, we are constantly working in China to provide a better life for all citizens, including Tibetans. We naturally respect the ideas of the Dalai Lama, but ultimately we must competently administer all of our provinces and meet the needs of Tibetans and other peoples, wherever they may be in our nation. We work hard to treat all peoples fairly, and the Dalai Lama can be assured that we will continue to treat the Tibetan people with respect." Again-- praise your opponents and sound respectful, even as you reject their criticisms on things like this. C. About some of China's policies themselves-- again, I'm using the "fair-minded, reasonable observer" criterion here. I realize that China must maintain social harmony with such a large population, and your internal business is ultimately your own. Here, I'm only trying to offer up ideas to not only give you good public relations, but make your country more attractive to the outside world. In the coming decades, a country's strength will depend largely on its ability to attract human capital and top talent from the outside world. The USA was undeveloped scientifically until after WWII-- we were then able to attract the top talent from Europe and win all these Nobel Prizes. To really be a true world superpower, China needs to provide policies that make it a more attractive place to talented foreigners. People have brought this up before, but the way that Internet sites are censored within China-- like the entire Wikipedia, and many technical sites that aren't even political-- this can be very frustration for foreigners doing business in China. Yes, we can use the proxy servers, but this just wastes time and resources. Especially as China becomes wealthier, I don't think you have anything to fear by opening up access to information. The Chinese people are very nationalistic (even my own fiancée who is ethnic Chinese but of course not born in China), and they're mature enough to absorb information and think intelligently about it. The same with intellectual property protection, which I know is a hot topic here. An old friend of mine, who is a chemical engineer and an inventor, had been working on processes to improve pharmaceuticals discovery in Chinese labs. But he ultimately left China in frustration, because he could not get patent protection for his innovations. Protecting and rewarding ideas is essential not just for increasing prosperity among Chinese themselves, but attracting talented foreigners there. Also, blocking Websites and lack of intellectual property protection is bad PR for China when it comes to attracting business in general. On the issue of political prisoners-- China could score a major public relations coup by releasing a large number of political prisoners in the next few weeks, then releasing more in the coming weeks to continue the good press flowing in. Whenever I've been in China, I've found it to be a mature, intelligent, often brilliant place. So I just understand the idea of having political prisoners, especially if the prisoners are people reporting things like environmental issues, or citizens upset about seizures of land. The political prisoners just make you look like bad guys to the rest of the world-- make you look bad to those neutral, "reasonable, fair-minded observers" that I mentioned before. I can understand why China would imprison violent separatists who've committed crimes, all countries do that-- but it just doesn't make sense to imprison dissidents who are bringing attention to important issues that need to be addressed. Again, China would get very positive public relations upon releasing political prisoners, and also make China seem more open to intelligent, attractive foreigners. Even a strong statement of basic, inalienable rights for individuals and groups, as we have in our own Constitution and its amendments, along with a recognition for ways to advance social harmony-- this isn't just a Western invention! China has a long tradition of respect for the individual and protection from an arbitrary authority, which is not something that many Westerners know recognize but most of us who have been to China can appreciate. As has been said here, there are many problems with US democracy, especially our broken, incompetent elections system and the way the process is ruined in the age of TV and big-money contributions. But our protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the right to habeas corpus, to speedy trials, Miranda rights and our legal system in general, the whole idea of checks and balances-- I know China has many of these things already, but what if China were to codify some of these reforms into a Chinese recognition of basic rights and guarantees of freedom? This would be great PR in the world media, and would again, make China attractive to talented outsiders. Others have brought up other things-- a freer press (which can be an asset), more attention to the environment, a more just compensation arrangement for individuals who feel they've lost their property, and so forth. Again, think not just about the good PR, but about how this makes China more attractive to top-notch, intelligent, creative people across the world. Also, the environment-- honestly, I have many friends who've wanted to live and work in China, but have been deterred due to poor air and water quality, and pollution. Reducing pollution and having a clean environment, once again-- fantastic PR and China will sound progressive, but you'll also be better able to attract and retain international talent. I also realize that China is a very advanced country in terms of working on clean "green" technologies, so I give you credit for that. D. I won't mention much about the demographic issue or ethnic diversity (with China's many minorities), looks like other people have done that, but I will say-- if anything I think your country deserves praise, and much better PR than you have been receiving in the West. There is some truth to the notion that, once regions like Tibet and Xinjiang do become Han majority (say, 80-90%), if anything, international tensions will become *less* and China's PR will improve. That's because once a region becomes integrated with a country, as people are saying demographically as well as culturally and economically, people tend to take it for granted. In the USA for example, Alaska, Hawaii and the US Southwest were considered "not part of the United States" until demographically they had a majority of Americans from elsewhere. Of course, as people are saying, now they are all changing demographically again... That being said, the Tibetan culture is distinctive, and I and many others admire it. And when I have been in China, most Tibetans I have met are happy within China and get along well with Chinese. (Most Tibetans are in big cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, for that matter!) In fact, China is gaining good PR by granting freedom of religion to the Tibetan people, letting them maintain their festivities even with intermarriage, and so forth. It's just that, the Tibetan culture flourishes among Tibetans in different places in China, not just in "Tibet" (as a geographical locale) itself. I actually like the way that China treats most of its minorities-- it's fair-minded, yet also guarantees political security. The Tibetans but also Uighurs, Hui and others are granted freedom of religion and the right to maintain their cultural background-- but they do this while dispersed throughout China. That way, as people are saying, individual ethnic minorities maintain their cultures, but they do so in a way **that is not linked to a particular location of land**, which reduces separatist tensions. Thus, Uighurs, Tibetans, Hui, Tajiks, Dongxiang and others protect their cultures and make them a strong part of China's identity but, since they are dispersed throughout the Chinese landmass and intermingle with Han Chinese, this lessens separatist dangers which could cause civil war. Thus, even when Tibet and Xinjiang have 80-90% Han majority, Tibetan and Uighur culture still survive and flourish, all throughout China-- which if anything is better for both Han, and the ethnic minorities. E. On the language issue-- I had to get a word in on this edgewise since everybody's talking about it on this blog. First of all, spreading Chinese language and culture-- and increasing dialogue between Chinese and other people-- extremely important for good Chinese PR. I guess this has been raised before, but spreading popular culture in general increases your favorability. Whenever I travel to far-away places on the globe, I can usually watch Spanish-language telenovelas from Latin America, high-quality and imaginative American TV shows such as Law and Order, Lost, Heroes, science fiction and the Discovery Channel, as well as Hindi-language "Bollywood" movies from India. I can listen to music from Latin America, France, Germany, Japan, the USA and Italy. The effect of this cultural diffusion, is that people throughout the world become familiar with the popular culture exported from countries like Latin American lands, Japan, the USA, Korea, India and France--produced in the original language of these countries and then dubbed or subtitled-- and we come to like those countries. When a nation's culture becomes more familiar, people in other countries tend to regard the people of that country as like ourselves. And when the programming, whether movies and TV shows or music, is creative and high quality, our admiration goes way up, naturally. Also, we come to see people in your country as "good guys", and this gives people a more gut-level respect of you. China, despite being such a large country with such a big population, doesn't see to have a big international popular culture yet. While there have been some exceptions, for the most part, Americans and Europeans don't see much in the way of Chinese films, quality TV shows, music or other exports. So China inevitably seems more "mysterious" to people in the West. My American and European friends tell me that when they've been in China and absorbed Chinese media-- and I'll admit, you all have some very creative people making intelligent, thought-provoking films, music, books and television-- they come to recognize that Chinese people are a lot like them, with the same ideas of justice and good behavior, if anything even better than we manage. As you become more familiar to us through your culture, in your own language (translated as needed), people in the West inevitably come to you respect you more. Obviously, many of us also have Chinese wives, girlfriends and fiancées, and this naturally brings us into the "Chinese sphere" more. But the point is-- the more that Chinese pop culture spreads throughout the world, and the more that Westerners interact with you, the better your overall PR. That's where languages come in, and I more or less agree with the consensus here-- too much emphasis on English-learning in Chinese schools, too little studying of other languages in school. For PR reasons alone, I'd advise dropping the English requirement in school-- although still recognizing English as a very important language and as a very popular choice for students-- and broaden foreign-language study, just as people are saying here. The world's international linguistic map has broadened in scale in the past 5 years, such that there are now about 5-6 world languages, at least, besides English. For anyone involved in public relations, language is one of the #1 issues we emphasize. The problem is that if not enough Chinese businesspeople, scientists and others have skills in big languages like Arabic (several dialects), Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Hindi, German, Portuguese, French and Korean. At an international business meeting I recently attended, there were representatives from many countries making deals and earning money there. The problem is that too many of the Chinese were good at English-- but not at other languages. In contrast, the Russians and the Polish businesspeople frequently knew German, French, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish and even Hindi (not a single person speaking all these languages of course, but each company had representatives who could speak these languages!). While the representatives from companies in India could communicate in Russian, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and German. As a result, the representatives from these companies were able to do better business and get more deals-- when the representatives addressed potential customers in their own languages, they did much better at selling their products, and making themselves look good. Chinese people are by far the most intelligent and diligent I've ever met, and if you communicate yourselves better to the world in general, your country's image-- which in fact is overall quite positive, in my opinion-- will continue to improve. Language is a part of that. So are the ways you respond to criticism, and so are some basic reforms. In any case, I and my fiancée look forward to living a good portion of the next few years in China. We've been in both Jiangxi in the south as well as Liaoning in the north, and we look forward to returning there. Your country really is beautiful, and your people warm, inviting, and very hospitable. I at the very least will do my personal best to spread that kind of good PR for you, and as always, I can't wait to once again be working in China with my wonderful fiancée. Best of luck to your nation for a great Olympics and success in general! |
My Experience of Culture and Religion in Tibet