Bridging the East-West Gap
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1165&Itemid=158
Tag it:Alice Poon
25 April 2008
How well do citizens of mainland China and citizens of the West understand
each
other? Are they trying at all?
The following is a Southern Metropolis article written by a Chinese
visiting
student (???) in England.
This is my translation:-
“Perhaps the past one-and-a-half months can be considered the most
tempestuous
period in the long run-up to the Olympic Games. Less than four months away
from
the Games, the smoke of war is already spreading all around. One obvious
fact is
that three big battle grounds have surfaced targeting biased re****ting by
the
western media over the Beijing Olympics and the Tibet issue: one overseas,
one
within China and one on the internet. As regards the latter two, the most
representative of incidents are respectively the Carrefour boycott and the
anti-CNN movement. On the overseas battle ground, there is the recently
organized 4.19 world-wide protest by overseas Chinese.
On April 19, thousands of overseas Chinese students in London, Birmingham,
Manchester and Glasgow initiated a silent protest against the distorted
and
prejudiced re****ting by BBC on the Olympics torch relay and Tibet issue.
On the
same day, Chinese students and residents in major cities like Paris,
Berlin,
Vienna and Los Angeles also joined in big rallies and marches. It was said
that
close to ten thousand Chinese in Paris participated in the rallies and
marches.
Being able to organize such detail-oriented and sensitive activities
within such
a short period of time and to coordinate such sizable protests so speedily
among
so many cities, the organizers can be forgiven for any imperfections that
may
have appeared in the process.
The most impressive aspect of the 4.19 protest movement is the fact that
the
overseas Chinese students are exploring and learning to use methods that
are
acceptable by western standards to express their anger and make their
voices
heard. In the example of the London protest, students uniformly wore white
surgical masks and conducted their protest in silence. They purposely
chose the
white color as the base color, avoided using too many red flags and chose
to
sing “My China Heart” as their theme song. From these choices, one can see
the
organizers’ meticulous thoughts. On the one hand, western society has
always
been sensitive towards the red color and has a habit of associating it
with
authoritarian governments like Nazi Germany. So using red would not only
fail to
earn sup****t but would arouse resentment. On the other hand, silent
protest in
place of loud slogan chanting would give a better impression on
westerners,
showing them that Chinese people are capable of exercising reason and
control
over their emotions and not just a bunch of “brainwashed” nationalists. As
an
on-the-scene spectator, I saw that the students were not only trying to
express
themselves, but they were actually learning how to make westerners
understand
them and how to use an appropriate way of conveying a correct message.
Negligible as this baby step may be in the direction towards rational
behavior,
it is still a far better option than mere exhibition of scalding
patriotism.
However, there is still a worrying aspect. In the overseas battle ground,
the
voices of “strong protest” seem to drown out those sup****ting dialogue. An
English professor in Chinese Studies told me that he recently conducted a
small
sample survey among Chinese students asking them how they felt about the
western
media’s handling of the Olympics torch relay and Tibet incidents. Almost
without
exception, the words used by the students are invariably “shocked”,
“disappointed”, “angered” and “unfair”. The professor asked me why the
Chinese
have such a strong reaction, when it is a widely known fact in western
society
that media re****ts are often inaccurate and biased and China is hardly the
only
target, as even their own government is victimized at times. I thought to
myself: the western media has really touched a raw nerve in the second
generation of overseas Chinese students this time. It is something that
westerners never expected. Indeed, a whole generation of Chinese people
has been
taught to immerse themselves in the learning of the English language and
to use
every op****tunity to expose themselves to western culture, which includes
western media that always pride themselves in fair and independent news
re****ting like CNN and BBC. So we open our arms to welcome western society
in
the most friendly way possible, only to find our idolized westerners not
only
responding with rudeness, but actually shouting abuses at us. In such a
scenario, it cannot be more natural for the students to utter those words
or
even go to the streets to join protest rallies and marches.
The more im****tant thing is that it reminds us that the gap between east
and
west resulting from political, cultural and historical differences is far
wider
than we ever imagined. Even if the exchange and dialogue that took place
in the
last 30 years were not totally mismatched, their effect nonetheless has
not been
as encouraging as one would expect. At least the effect of improving
mutual
understanding at the citizen level has been very limited. Citizens in the
east
and west are still very much in a state of ignorance where each other is
concerned. In the matter of correctly using mutually discernible texts,
symbols
and rules to convey meaningful messages to each other, we still have a
long way
to go.
Therefore, a more daunting task than just protesting is to develop a new
space
for re-learning. In comparison with the past, the new space and new
learning has
three prominent features. This time, the learning is not simply language
learning: it should also encompass learning of the western way of
thinking,
their social rules and their language symbols. This time, it should not be
part
of the traditional educational system with government directing the form
and
content of learning. Rather, it should fully utilize citizens’ abundant
internet
resources and independent social organizations to impart more social
element
into the exchange channels linking the east and the west. In the new
learning
process, overseas students should not only start new battle grounds but
should
also build a sturdy bridge facilitating the exchange of eastern and
western
culture, leveraging their advantage of being overseas. And we have already
seen
our Chinese student representatives in Paris issuing a most sincere
statement:
“We, who understand both the Chinese and French cultures, seek to act as a
bridge between the two peoples, an axis point for communication.” The aim
of
this new space and new learning is to seek chances for dialogue between
citizens
in the east and the west, striving to eliminate misunderstanding, tension
and
antagonism that arise as a result of differences and ignorance, thus
helping to
diffuse or mitigate the conflict at the higher political level.
There may be people who cannot wait to express their skepticism about the
effectiveness of such efforts. Some may even say: Why should a great
nation
such as China stoop to trying to understand the West? Why doesn’t the West
try
to understand China? To the former question, I can only say: “If you don’t
take
the first step, you will never be able to cover a thousand-mile journey.”
To the
latter, my answer lies in the book which I have been reading and which I
would
highly recommend: “What Does China Think?” by Mark Leonard. I would also
like to
share this saying by a Taiwanese friend of mine: “A great nation never
regards
itself as great.” If people are given ample room to utilize their various
lively
formats and abundant resources to start an honest, independent and
rational
dialogue and to learn and exchange ideas with the West, then I think this
would
be the best outcome that can be expected from the Olympics.”
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