Comments on: The emperor shows his benevolence

By: chriswaugh_bj

chriswaugh_bj — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:54:45 +0000

DavidofSanGabriel, as somebody who teaches young Chinese people, I can assure you that the sentiments expressed in the first comment are absolutely not representative of Chinese youth as a whole. The fenqing exist, but they are far less numerous than they- and you- pretend.

And the rest of your ranting bears about as much resemblance to reality as a fenqing wet dream.

By: DavidofSanGabriel

DavidofSanGabriel — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:23:59 +0000

I promise to do a better job of editing my posts in the future. Really!

By: DavidofSanGabriel

DavidofSanGabriel — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:02:38 +0000

Just look at the garbage on Chinese TV these days. Mindless patriotism, sentimental pop mush that makes Britney Spears look like Beethoven, vast nationalistic orgies so reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany, complete with music so treacly as to be physically revolting to anyone with more than half a brain, little kids saluting the sacred PLA, cops in uniform pirouetting on stage, Xinjiang and Tibet variety shows reminescent of the old American “blackface” acts…the Chinese government has learned from the west how stupid, bovine and easily manipulated most people are, and have applied these lessons with a vengance.

Talk about ideaology or “class struggle” and you put people to sleep. Put on sentimental family based slop favorable to the CCP, present a few believable stories about the cops and the army, and you have the mindless proles eating out of your hand. Add the complete lack of a free press, a tradition of a civil society, and a population which is largely incapable of independent, critical thought, and you have the perfect mix for the formation of a facist, totalitarian state.

By: DavidofSanGabriel

DavidofSanGabriel — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:46:56 +0000

“You are a monster which desperately attack China and Chinese people in your blog. Why do you call your Dubya Emperor? He has killed millions of Iraqi people. Where is your nuke? You’re a sinophobia. You shall die.

Go back to your America.”

Unfortunately, this kind of sh*t is typical of the Chinese youth of today.

Many of us in the west did not really understand the sentiments of the majority of participants in the Tianmen Demonstratrions in 1989. We saw only the superficial–people chanting “Give me liberty of give me death!” or the Statue of Libery copy. In fact, the demonstrators were merely part of a movement to try and find a way to strengthen China, and were only superficially interested in democracy, if at all. Look how many of the former 1989 demonstrators have now turned against the west and joined the virulent nationalism movement so popular today.

And now we have the next generation, the fenqing, or “sh*theads”, who have decided to treat the west and U.S. in particular as their enemies. We Americans are often sharply critical of our government and history–such as slavery–and in this, the fenqing will readily acquiesce. However, if we dare to criticize the government of China in any way…

When I was trying to decide to study Chinese or African history in college, I chose China because I quickly grew sick and tired of the “we are the victim” and “blame the evil white man” syndrome typical of African historians. Now I see the same thing occurring in China.

Make no mistake, the first poster is typical of the “thinking” of most Chinese youth these days. This blog tends to attract the more genteel and intelligent people and is hardly typical of the un-thinking of the vast majority of today’s Chinese (the mindless”patriots”).

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:18:42 +0000

I was about to get all conspiracy-theory on this, but the comment thread has gone off on strange paths and I a bit behind, alas.

Anywho, I wonder if this was actually a clever move on Hu’s part: Reporters encounter an unfettered internet and forget that the rest of the web-going public has, er, fettered access. This prevents anyone just in Beijing covering the Olympics from easily checking which sites remain blocked for the rest of the country, and hence, making reporting on it a chore.

Or, perhaps, someone in Zhongnanhai is actually taking a longer view of public relations, sort of.