I often get annoyed at the very one-sided way that China is portrayed in the media. It probably sell more papers when you call the government here a dictatorship, and do as if China is a country where people live in fear and are restricted in everything they do. Or it is because the journalist has never been here, or he/she lives here but still does not understand (or does not want to understand) China. Because of that most people who have never been to China have a completely wrong idea about the situation here.
Therefore I was happy to see a blogpost today on Danwei, referrring to an interview with Dr. Susan Brownell. She is an American anthropologist with more China experience than most foreigners in China: she came to China in 1985 already. A quote from the article describes exactly the way I see the real political situation in China:
The stereotype Americans have is that China is a dictatorship – that Chinese leaders don’t have a lot of popular support and are therefore using the Olympic Games to legitimize themselves. None of that is true. It’s not a dictatorship – it’s a pretty well-run, open society. In some ways, the Chinese are more open than we are in the West. China’s government has a lot of popular support. I think that Chinese people believe in government more than we do in the U.S. The government’s primary goal here is not to legitimize itself. I think it is trying to shape the next generation of Chinese people to be international – which will benefit China economically and politically.
The whole interview can be read on the blog of a Seattle Times reporter. I read the article, it’s well worth the time if you want to understand a little bit more about the Beijing Olympics, and what it really means to China. Just like Danwei says, I hope all foreign journalists that plan to cover the Olympics will read it as well, to get a better understanding of China.
It’s true with the wetern media attitude, and the majority overseas Chinese haven’t been quite able to properly communicate about where is going wrong either. (I guess it takes a dual-perspective to know the in and outs)But it’s a matter of time, and I’m glad the western ground is getting loose already, in front of hard facts. A documentary from Paul Merton, about his fun trips in China, has shown the uprising trend in Western media. It’s been a very successful debut on BBC channel 5, not only for its entertainning effects but also for its truness; it can also be found on youtube. I believe the noises will get smaller without extra efforts, since fact tells itself…hope more and more entertainning videos like “Sexy bejing” or “Hard hat reports” will come out–they have set a good example for real communication between China and the world…
heb u ook een nederlandse versie blog? of schrijf u alleen met engels
@anonymous: I agree it’s probably a matter of time, the media just cannot ignore what positive things are happening in China. I will check out Paul Merton’s stuff on YouTube, sound interesting.
@vivianyeap: Ik schrijf alleen in het Engels, omdat mijn lezers uit de hele wereld komen. Tijd voor een NLs weblog heb ik helaas niet, maar ik schrijf soms wel stukken voor http://www.marketingfacts.nl in het Nederlands.
so, you live in shanghai, can you speak mandarin fluently? lol
@vivian Not fluently, but I don’t understand the connection between your question and this blog post.
sorry~
should my comment has sorta connection with your blog?
just curious how a dutch live in china…i know a dutch man who also live in shanghai and teach some commerce lesson -_-‘
No problem. Comments do not need to have a connection, but I tried to figure out if there was one (like whether the content of my posting was related to not speaking Mandarin fluently).
hmm interesting.. I have no doubt about the good intentions of the government at the very top, but the problem is that this generation of leaders are so cautious. why the RMB is appreciating so slowly? now we have this inflation problem all because money just come into the country but won’t go out.
i think because if RMB appreciate too much ,they will get export problem.
kan u even dit atikel vertalen voor me??? ik had geprobeerd, maar dat lukt niet en ik heb dit echt nodig!!
hartelijk bedankt!!
@vivian Sorry, maar aan vertalen van mijn eigen blog posts kan ik niet gaan beginnen. Er is toch vast wel iemand in je omgeving die je hierbij kan helpen?
nee,meneer, ik bedoel alleen dit atikel,maar niet de hele blog. ik heb al gevraagd,niemand kan me helpen. die is een opdracht van school,en uw atikel hoort bij gegevens..dus dat is een beetje dringend-_-~ can u just do me a favor???thanks alot!!!!
PS:als u wil,kan u ook gewoon emailen naar mij