[quote]
washingtonpost.com
Dismantling the Wall
How to Change Chinese Views of Americans
By Tim Dorsett
Monday, August 16, 2004; Page A17
Last month Zhao Yan, a 37-year-old Chinese businesswoman, was beaten and doused with pepper spray by a homeland security inspector while on a tourist visit to Niagara Falls. The inspector later said he thought she was part of a drug deal and that she resisted arrest. What has followed in the wake of the assault is significant for further revealing the troubling disconnect between Chinese and American societies.
In China, the state-controlled media bombarded the public for days with indignant reports decrying U.S. hypocrisy on human rights and the prevalence of racism in American society. Rounding out this coverage were sensational depictions of America as a police state in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
Here in the United States, coverage of the incident has been practically nonexistent. There have been Associated Press reports and a few newspaper stories, but most media outlets have ignored the event.
As one might expect in the information age, this disparity in reactions has not gone unnoticed by the Chinese media, which have seized upon it as yet another example of American hubris and lack of regard for others.
In time, things will cool down. U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, have already apologized to China, and federal charges have been filed against the inspector involved. Growing business and trade interests should continue to ensure a stable if sometimes awkward relationship between both governments. But the beating of Zhao Yan represents another stain on America's image in China -- added to such grievances as the 1999 U.S. bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war and the U.S. spy plane controversy at Hainan Island in 2001. Coming on the heels of the Abu Ghraib abuses and the view presented in the Chinese media that U.S. involvement in Iraq is driven by oil and money, it can only complicate the task of the next U.S. president to speak about American values in Beijing.
Most Americans traveling to China will probably continue to be unaware of such things as the beating of Zhao Yan and of how passionately much of the Chinese public has come to dislike the United States. Especially for American executives, English teachers and college students studying Chinese -- people living in China over an extended period, as I have -- it has become increasingly common to have to defend U.S. policies and even cultural norms to colleagues, classmates and cab drivers. Good luck to those who end up in these situations. Even Americans fiercely opposed to the Bush administration may be surprised to find themselves feeling defensive.
My advice to these hapless souls? Talk freely of your background and beliefs, but don't bother trying to change Chinese perceptions. Any gain in understanding between the Chinese and American societies is unlikely to come from the efforts of Americans in China, who are too few in number and face too formidable a wall of Chinese public distrust.
Instead, our best hope lies with Chinese graduate students and professionals who have lived and prospered in the United States, as well as Chinese tourists (such as Zhao Yan, in better circumstances) who have experienced American society firsthand.
In many cases, these people will have both an understanding of American values and a degree of credibility back home. They -- not the American president, our self-focused media or any other American -- are the ones best equipped to challenge the Chinese government's monopoly on defining the United States to the Chinese public.
The U.S. government should be enthusiastically welcoming such Chinese in large numbers. Instead, it is playing havoc with their lives by delaying and denying their visas and now even brutalizing one of them. This is no way to deal with a gap in perceptions that could cause long-term trouble in one of our country's most important relationships.
The writer is a graduate student in international policy at the University of Chicago and a former Fulbright scholar in China. From 2001 to 2003 he worked in Beijing as a broadcast journalist for a Chinese-language television network. His e-mail address is dorsett@uchicago.edu.
Washington Post opinion piece
闹的很大的样子,那个打人的美国人已经被起诉了,最多判10年.
国内的反响特别大,掀起了新一波的反美情绪.
一个美国中国问题专家说,如果她是阿拉伯人,将会被打的更严重.言下之意是这是美国对恐怖活动以来的反映,和她是不是中国人没有关系.不过中国方面媒体的影响,让中国人人为是民族主义的冲突.
他怎么没提其他国家,比如欧洲,比如美国人,专提一个阿拉伯人来和中国对比.
美国人当然想压掉此事,所以职责中国媒体.其实要是反过来,美国人可不会善罢甘休.
国内的反响特别大,掀起了新一波的反美情绪.
一个美国中国问题专家说,如果她是阿拉伯人,将会被打的更严重.言下之意是这是美国对恐怖活动以来的反映,和她是不是中国人没有关系.不过中国方面媒体的影响,让中国人人为是民族主义的冲突.
他怎么没提其他国家,比如欧洲,比如美国人,专提一个阿拉伯人来和中国对比.
美国人当然想压掉此事,所以职责中国媒体.其实要是反过来,美国人可不会善罢甘休.
Last edited by 六月 on 2004-08-18 14:37, edited 1 time in total.
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helenClaire
- Posts: 3159
- Joined: 2003-11-22 20:12
不得不说，作者还是天真了。Instead, our best hope lies with Chinese graduate students and professionals who have lived and prospered in the United States, as well as Chinese tourists (such as Zhao Yan, in better circumstances) who have experienced American society firsthand.
In many cases, these people will have both an understanding of American values and a degree of credibility back home. They -- not the American president, our self-focused media or any other American -- are the ones best equipped to challenge the Chinese government's monopoly on defining the United States to the Chinese public.
hohoho, fat chance with that! do not they know that any chinese, with these kind of background, have to prove that they are 100% chinese first? meaning, they have to be more hostile?Instead, our best hope lies with Chinese graduate students and professionals who have lived and prospered in the United States, as well as Chinese tourists (such as Zhao Yan, in better circumstances) who have experienced American society firsthand.
and why would this guy think people with that kind of back ground would have 1st hand experience? Don't they know that a lot of Grad schools are dubbed chinatown? and why would this guy thinks that the 1st hand experience would soften the view of chinese on american? I have the background, but I still think the american view is too self-serving and too self-righteous.
there was a time a lot of chinese people harbours warm feelings toward america, and that was not too long ago, back in the early 90es, at least. the change of feeling is not only a result of public media.
乡音无改鬓毛衰
I still see the fevered nationalist passion as a reflection of an inferiority complex coupled with media's sensationalism. Will it quiet down when Chinese people finally build up more national self-esteem? More important, will a healthier and stronger national self-esteem result in fewer young women starving themselves to achieve bodies like white models in the magazines and flock to Starbucks?
xixixi, same questions can be asked about american, why are people so fixed on chanel, parade, and diamonds; what about the atkin's diet, the south beach diet,....
you know, I really do not see the above-mentioned problems as a problem of nationality, but rather a problem as human nature.
I remember on reading the human bondage, what impressed me the most is the samilarity of the bondage a youth has to break through, the bondage defers in name, but it doesn't defer that much in nature.
you know, I really do not see the above-mentioned problems as a problem of nationality, but rather a problem as human nature.
I remember on reading the human bondage, what impressed me the most is the samilarity of the bondage a youth has to break through, the bondage defers in name, but it doesn't defer that much in nature.
乡音无改鬓毛衰
hehe. What I meant was that Chinese youths should find their own stupid fads to follow rather than follow the stupid fads imported from the West.
Of course. There is precious little difference (if any) between the average Chinese people and American people. I am constantly shocked by how they are basically the same in psychology and attitude. And their similarities are surfacing more as the political environment in either country also converge.
Of course. There is precious little difference (if any) between the average Chinese people and American people. I am constantly shocked by how they are basically the same in psychology and attitude. And their similarities are surfacing more as the political environment in either country also converge.
此喵已死，有事烧纸
别拍我, 可是难道American hubris and lack of regard for others在某种程度上, 尤其是在美国对外政策上, 不是事实? 中国人对赵燕事件的解读或者有点过激, 但是如果没有大使馆事件和撞机事件, 是不是情形会有所不同? 看看八十年代末九十年代初中国知识分子对美国的顶礼膜拜.As one might expect in the information age, this disparity in reactions has not gone unnoticed by the Chinese media, which have seized upon it as yet another example of American hubris and lack of regard for others.
我还记得大使馆事件的时候, 我们学校中国学生学者的mail list上自然会有讨论, 因为学校的e-mail是UNIX的, 所以讨论是以英文进行, 而因为管mail list的是个洋人学生, 最后变成一场大吵. 那个洋人学生是个很好的人, 来管mail list完全是自愿, 没有报酬的. 可是在他说出那几个中国记者被炸死是他们自己的错, 因为他们根本不该在那里呆着这样的话以后, 你倒说说看中国学生学者是什么想法? 这样的firsthand experience恐怕不是文章作者期待的firsthand experience吧?
我不认为到过美国的中国人对美国的看法必然比没到过美国的中国人好．会更客观而已. 至于说更好还是更差, 完全取决于你原来对美国的认识.
至于说媒体的妖魔化, 大家彼此彼此, 大哥莫说二哥.
所以虽然新加坡就算是美国人该抽鞭子照抽我也觉得是好的, 说起来可不那么理直气壮. 就好比说你要进了吃人部落人家不管你是白人还是黄人该吃照吃 --- 除非人家讲究口味, 某一人种不吃. 我打赌这不被吃的人种决不控诉人家种族歧视. 要是人家通吃你也不会因此赞美人家种族平等吧?