CDT Bookshelf: Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China
A recent book by sports anthropologist and former professional athlete Susan Brownell, Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China
Last summer, when she was revising the book, she went home to visit her mother and asked her to review it. While Ms. Brownell sat on an upstairs balcony reading proofs, she began to hear her mother on the patio below.
“She’d yell upstairs her disapproval,” Ms. Brownell says. “It was the idea that China is an evil government that oppresses its people — human rights, religious freedom and so on.”
Ms. Brownell doesn’t dispute that China has problems, but she says many Western criticisms are hypocritical or ignore the huge progress China has made in many areas. More than that, she sees the two sides’ failure to understand each other as a tragedy.
Read also:
- An essay by Brownell on China Beat blog, “Beijing Olympic FAQ #1: Politics and the Olympics”
- A Q&A with Brownell from the Seattle Times.
- An excerpt of the book, via the publisher Rowman and Littlefield
POSTED COMMENTS: 5 Responses
Only people who have gone to China and lived with the people for a while can understand what are the differences between China and the West.
Saying Chinese government is evil is not much different from saying that the Chinese people are evil. The government is born out of the people just like plants can’t grow without a proper soil.
Looking back the Chinese history, you have to say the current government is probably the best we have got so far regarding the amount of freedom people got and how much advance we have made. Westerners, with a quick glance of China, with shallow comparison with their own systems, usually jump to the wrong conclusion too quickly. Everything has to be viewed in a historical context.
Tang, you are being undaring. What is wrong saying the Chinese people are evil if it is the case? Just think about it: what can grow out of years of propaganda, brainwashing and oppress. I guess the answer has to be “ignorance, selfishness, conformity, cowardice, xenophobe…”. And look at the huge patriotic mob out there attacking everything not approved by them.
To quote a Chinese professor: “Never underestimate the government’s cruelty. Never underestimate the people’s fatuity. Never underestimate the intellectuals’ cowardice.” I know I shall remember that if I want to survive future “movements” inside this great nation.
The brainwashing part is correct until 1990s. Now it’s 2008, most Chinese are not that brainwashed anymore. Chinese younger generations grow up in the Age of Internet. That professor’s words apply to any government and any people around the world. Those patriotic mobs are not aroused by the Chinese government. If the west media had done their due diligence and reported both sides with objective views, the situation could be totally different. There are demonstrations outside China and those Chinese have unblocked access to the media. Regarding those mobs resorting to violence, I don’t think that’s the result of brainwashing. There are violent people everywhere with pent-up energy and waiting for times like this to vent their anger. It has nothing to do with government’s brainwashing. Government has always said people should behave; people should respect ethnic minorities’ culture and customs; people should abide by laws. If that’s brainwashing, then it’s not a bad brainwashing. I would like to learn what part of government’s brainwashing make those mobs to beat up other people?
Well, first I’d say there is no such thing as good brainwashing, because it is abuse of human sprites. It is like saying there is good torture.
Brainwashing can take many forms, such as systematic propaganda via news, TV programs, movies, books, or force children to learn twisted history. But one method may be of most importance: by all means prevent people from real thinking by subduing all the possibilities of a marketplace of free thinking, which is why there is GFW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project), why some people were put into jail just because they expressed their opinions online, and why so many Chinese websites are doing self-censorship.
If I were a dictator, I’d do exactly the same things.
So you believe that the younger generations are informed in the age of Internet. Let me quote a story for you:
—-
I am currently teaching ESL in Korea.
there are a lot of Chinese people working in Korea, and since they speak limited English, and I am here with a friend who speaks Chinese, and we are foreigners in a strange land, we spend a lot of time together, talking.
One day, Tienanmen square came up, and they wondered why Westerners always made a big deal about that particular spot.
“it was just a bunch of bad students” one said to me. she knew something happened there one, but no specifics.
that was all they knew.
Tienanmen was just “A bunch of bad students”
I went online, showed them that famous footage.
there was shock, outrage, and disbelief.
2 of them now refuse to return to China.
———–
So they didn’t know what happened in 1989. I am not surprised by that. I guess government officials wouldn’t either.
As for your question, I think the reason may be that monsters can grow out of twisted environment, not only in China, but also in all of the world.
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972), August 8, 1950
If you are a Chinese but not living in fear, you may be too young, or too naive, or both.
First, it doesn’t seem that China is going down the road of increasingly repressive governing.
Second, I was in that protest but not in Tianmen square. To be honest, there were bad bunches of students who were bored of studying. At that time, there was a slogan that said long live with the score of 60. Strategically, the students pushed things a little bit too far. Democracy doesn’t come in one day, one movement. Tienanmen square incident is the result of a shocked government in loss of what to do and a relentless crowd determined to humuliate their government in the face of the world. Politics is a process of compromising. Britan comes to today’s political system gradually out of hundreads of years of baby-step reforms. If you pushed a dog to a corner then what you will get is nasty bite. Propaganda comes in many forms; in China it’s more blatant, but in the West it’s more subtle. And there are occasions blatant propaganda is also utilized through radio talk-shows in the US. Talk show hosts often shout “stupid moron” or “shut up” to their listeners. And many republicans call democrats “Commies” and “traitors”. The US has a better system and people enjoy more freedom, but during difficult times, it resorted to undemocratic means to round up Japanese Americans to concentration camps. I am no expert of politics and history, but we have to view things in a historical perspective. Is China today better than China yesterday? I think the answer is yes. Tienanmen square is already the China of yesterday.