More Brain, Less Adrenalin                                                                                                                2008年3月25日

Originally posted at http://umichdems.com/blog/?p=409

It holds true most of the time that the harshest condemnation of China comes from people who have little first-hand information about the country. Sure, China has a lot of problems, but if you have ever visited the country or talked to 10 people from China for a combined length of more than 5 hours, you wouldn’t picture China as a hell-like nation where miserable people are ruled by devils and subsequently reflect that imagination in your language. It is exactly the same on the other side of the earth. The majority of the Chinese Fen Qing (abbreviation of “angry youths”) who would never have enough trashing Japan and other “hostile countries” (U.S. included) are those who have never visited those countries and who know nothing about the place other than the tiny little bit they want to believe. So here comes Human Nature No. 1: the less you know about something, the more judgmental you allow yourself to be.

I guess most of you have no idea about the courteous receptions Deng Xiao-Ping received when he visited U.S. in 1979 and the subsequent honeymoon years of the Sino-US relationship. The human rights situation in China was far worse then compared with right now. Even after the Tiananmen Square Incident in 1989, China didn’t enjoy as much denunciation on its human rights situation as it does today. Why? First, China was barely off the brink of collapse and it was so feeble economically and militarily that it could be largely overlooked. Second, Soviet Union and its close allies occupied the top of the list of enemies and China just did not have the priority. But now, it disqualifies in both aspects, so who else? Here comes Human Nature No. 2: people’s negative force has to find a target, and the target is the most prominent (in terms of power) among the most different, no matter how its situation of the area being attacked compares with its past or with others in the absolute sense.

The aftermath of the Tibet Riot is analogous to a typical scene in Everybody Loves Raymond—although surveys show that people who watch Everybody Loves Raymond are more likely to vote for the Republican, I suppose you know that Marie, the mom, has an unconditional preference to her younger son Raymond over her elder son Robert. So, Marie saw Robert shove Raymond to the ground. “Oh my god! Robert, how could you be so cruel to your brother?” This is the reflex of the western media after they learned about the unrest in Tibet. Then witnesses came forward and told Marie that it was Raymond who started the skirmish and he had hit Robert with a baseball bat. Accordingly, the distortion of facts by the western media was pointed out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQnK5FcKas), and as more foreign tourists provided their recounting of the incident, it is clear now that it was a violent ethnic riot during which innocent non-Tibetan Chinese were cruelly beaten and killed, their properties burned and looted (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/world/asia/24tibet.html?scp=5&sq=&st=nyt ). Marie’s reaction? “Robert, had you not mistreated your brother, how could Raymond have acted like that?” True, maybe Robert had indeed mistreated his brother before, but maybe not. No matter what, the truth of this very skirmish is covered up, because in Marie’s eyes, Raymond can never be wrong, and Robert can never be right.

I am blogging here not because people are outrageous in censuring China here. On the contrary, I see people who have the potential to listen and who are willing to reach out. You are the hope to act with more brain and less adrenalin.