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More Discussion on Tibet Wangjianshuo, wow, it looks like your previous two posts on this subject elicited a lot of ideas, but it does seem like it's mostly constructive criticism to make China stronger and more successful, and I do hope that Chinese authorities listen to it, and don't censor it. While there were a couple hate-filled racists who just seem to detest everything about China (such as elaine, you should be ashamed of yourself), seems like most of the people who posted in your last couple threads were calling attention to problems, whose solution will greatly help China as a nation-- thinks like increasing creative thinking, productive debate and press freedoms, stopping with the political prisoners (which just makes you look bad to the outside world, and also represses constructive ideas to solve problems like the property seizures), relaxing the one child policy restrictions and so on. In other words, China ought to undertake these reforms not as a way of capitulating to the West, but because these reforms will make China much stronger as a nation. I couldn't agree more, and I'll tell you why-- I'm an Indian-American, and we always pride ourselves on our community's remarkable degree of success in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, wherever we immigrate to. We become doctors, engineers, scientists and other leaders and professionals. Yet when I was in graduate school, all of us agreed, almost unanimously, that the hardest-working, most successful, most creative and remarkable students and scientists, were the young Chinese there. They were amazing people and they consistently had the best qualities of anybody working in the labs and hospitals-- extremely hard-working, but also innovative, efficient and successful, while also being pleasant and friendly to people. Which made us wonder why, if China has so many brilliant and talented people like this, like someone else said-- why isn't China just dominating the Nobel Prizes every year, writing great literature, making great discoveries, putting out great and fascinating films that the world wants to see (like Hollywood does), producing music that's popular throughout the world (as e.g. Latin American and USA music currently are), doing great art, finding cures for diseases, hosting universities like Harvard that everybody in the world wants to learn Chinese for and attend, putting an astronaut on Mars, finding out new physics and chemistry? By any measure, you all should have the world's most incredible civilization now. Another way of putting this-- China has a level of human capital that's stratospheric, way higher than any nation I could imagine. If you would just unleash the creative energies and ideas of your own people in China, and stop bottling them up so much, stop shutting them in with so much conformity, I swear, China will rule the world tomorrow. Now, just to introduce some caution and understanding into my own remarks-- I was a history minor in college, so I understand the caution of the Chinese government. The British and French, in particular, were reprehensible in their actions with the Opium Wars, with all that corruption and greed, the way that they forced opium onto the Chinese people, burned down your summer palace in that war crime in the 1850's or so. Therefore to the extent that the British and French are upset at the way China has evolved, they have only themselves to blame. As someone of Tamil heritage (in India), I'm fully with you on this-- while nobody ever colonized China, about half of India was under the British gun, which was much worse than the Nazis, with 45 million people in India alone slaughtered by the British after we rebelled in the mid-1850's, and the British destroyed our farms while forbidding us to trade for even basic food crops! A large portion of my family was wiped out by the British. Britain's Lord Lytton in India, is worse than Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin combined. Which makes me all the more pleased whenever I read about how the Afghans for example defeated the British during that same period, and how the British were humiliated and defeated by the Irish, in Israel, Aden, Egypt, even humiliated by the Chinese in the Sino-UN conflict from the Korean War. The British were deservedly punished. Which is a long way of sayin'-- I'm with you, I understand China's caution and mistrust, because we in India had the same thing. The Western colonialists acted arrogantly and brutally toward both our nations, though you were ultimately more successful at defeating them-- and I'm with you today as well, I laugh at the hypocrisy of brutal colonial nations like Britain and France trying to act as though they're morally better than you, these countries who are still practicing colonialism along with the USA, Canada and Australia in Iraq and Afghanistan (and all of them getting their butts kicked in the process by both the Iraqis and the Afghans). We in India also harbor much of that same mistrust toward the West. But... while it's fine to duly note this history and take pride in your ultimate victory over the Western colonialists, when it comes to *your own policies*, you have to move on and liberate the vast creative talents of your own people. It's fine to be cautious and skeptical of the sanctimony of the West, but at the same time, you're only hurting yourselves if you repress the talents, efficiency and creativity of your own citizens. India had and still has the same problem-- we have so many neuroses from the British period, that our elites don't trust our own people. So corruption and theft of ideas shackle our entrepreneurial capability and make us weak. China can be a stable, harmonious country, yet at the same time a font of tremendous creativity and productivity-- in science, engineering, business, art, music, films, literature, whatever you set your mind to. Just trust your people a little more. When somebody in the Chinese press raises constructive criticisms about inadequate safety in Chinese coal mines, or mentions problems with pollution in Chinese rivers and lakes, or expresses concern about families who've lost their homes to construct a road but haven't been paid adequately for their loss, or criticizes a corrupt manufacturer who is cutting corners and introducing lead and other poisons into toys or other manufactured goods (which are damaging both to China's citizens and as exports to the USA and Europe, to China's embarrassment), or expresses frustration about political prisoners and the way this makes China look so bad and corrupt, or also states concerns about the one child restrictions and how these are hurting China's economy and workforce-- don't take these constructive criticisms as "attacks on the Chinese regime and people," instead, consider them the necessary feedback that any institution, whether a government or a business, needs to improve. I run a successful small business myself, but my business is successful only because I listen to the criticisms of people around me when I do something wrong or stupid. If I got defensive and shut up my critics as people "attacking my business," I'd make mistakes and hurt my company. Constructive criticism and feedback are the lifeblood of a successful country and company, and I'd hope that China would be more receptive to this. I'm not saying you all should imitate the USA and the West in all respects, because I think we do many dumb things here. Our diet and health habits are the worst in the world-- we eat high-fat, greasy foods, smoke too much, exercise too little, and make ourselves sick. The traditional Asian diets of China, India, Taiwan, Korea and Japan are much healthier than the Western diet. Likewise, like some other people say, I think that Western democracy, at least in the US version, has become an absolute disaster. We in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Eastern Europe and Western Europe, we are going bankrupt as nations while we yell and shout at each other and pollute our environment. Maybe some kind of more "intelligent democracy" in China, with laws being observed, courts reviewing decisions, cautious soliciting of the people's will, village elections and councils, somebody's idea here of meritocratic selection of leaders, thorough debate on issues and technical concerns, term limits like someone said, polls on difficult policies, independent judges, lots of checks and balances-- this will probably be better for China. But again, don't suppress your own brilliant people. To give another example, look at Japan, which is like China in the way the Japanese emphasize social harmony and civility. Yet the Japanese also have brilliant scientists and entrepreneurs, technological innovations, an internationally famous music and movie scene, wildly creative fashion trends, manga and anime art that are also world-renowned, many of the world's top business and universities-- in short, the Japanese have unleashed the creative talent of their people, while preserving social harmony. China would exceed even Japan and the USA, by large extents, upon doing the same. As for the intermarriage suggestion somebody had, hey, I'm all for it in China, for a lighthearted reason maybe-- back when I was in college, my girlfriend was in Chinese, but once when I asked her, she mentioned that she was 1/2 Han, but also 1/4 Tibetan, 1/8 Manchu, 1/8 Zhuang. And she was the most beautiful women I've ever met. I've noticed that women who are mixtures of ethnic groups in China tend to be unbelievably beautiful, and I'm all for more beauty in the world. So hey, I'm all for intermarriage among China's ethnicities. ;) Finally, on the language issue that people have been raising-- I agree totally, stop investing so much in English only as the foreign language that you all study! Especially with the way the US dollar and the British pound are plummeting like this, the way the US, British and Australian economies are floundering, the way we're stuck in wars, *the English-speaking countries aren't ruling the world anymore*. Yet China still invests so much in English to the exclusion of other fast-growing languages, it's crazy! Even in India, where we were colonized by the British, we've dropped the English requirement and we've spread out the languages our students learn. Everybody learns Hindi which is our national language, they also learn their local language (like Tamil in my family's case), but outside of this, they learn whatever's relevant for what they want to do-- Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, whatever. I'm totally in agreement with the need to help Mandarin Chinese become the global language. Most people I know, who've studied Chinese, either get a more favorable opinion of China, or at least they get a broader perspective on Chinese issues. They listen to you more. But there are economic advantages too. Start publishing your major books, technical articles, scientific papers and other major publications, movies, international media and other transmissions in Mandarin Chinese. The world will then work harder to learn your language. But yeah, as far as the languages the Chinese students study, I'd strongly advise you drop the English requirement and drop it now, as India and most other countries are doing. I agree with what other people are saying, make English an elective language for foreign language study, a popular and important one of course, but one of many choices. Obviously Hindi is important too (though don't forget Tamil! We use it a lot in southern India), but Portuguese and Spanish-- yeah, major important. Portuguese is an inspired suggestion, Brazil is on it's way up fast as a big power. German for science and some high-tech businesses, totally. Arabic, yes. Russian, French, Bahasa Indonesia, Malay, Dutch, Italian-- niche languages that can also be important. But spread out your net on the languages. You'll see benefits immediately, as we in India are already enjoying! |