China?Follow

Maybe he was just competitive? Rugby is 80 minutes of physical sport, it is only at the end do I congratulate someone for a good punch.

True, but you get away with what you can. Sometimes I do it to purposely rile someone into stepping over the line, it's ******, but it's all in the game.

I'm never talking about football

Unfortunately, this is true in both China and Japan v.v "Exotic" foreigner syndrome. In Japan, we call them Gaijin-lovers.

The problem was more that you were a mostly white dude living in a really low class Chinese hotel. Chinese still care about mianzi and it sounds like you did not score well in that game. You may have accidentally given the impression you were slumming to meet with a lady of negotiable virtue ... the first conclusion a friend jumped to when hearing the story.



True, and more powerful if one remembers what that year was like. It made a stark contrast to the fall of the Berlin Wall. For all of that, it was twenty years ago. In diplomatic circles, human rights are an important issue and need to be addressed; however, there isn't much a visiting student can do to rectify events that took place when they were 2 years old (or yet unborn).



Fair enough, but why would you say China not and India is? Consider:




It is hard not to because the numbers make it sound like it should be uniform. Statistics like saying 90% of the population is Han don't account for the fact that Guangdong is quite different from Heilongjiang.

If you mean in Tiananmen, probably not; it is simply too large a venue. The government has been a bit touchy about students gathering there since a million of them kicked off the Cultural Revolution.

If you mean to ask if students, and others, can gather and protest -- yes, I've seen it. One of my daughters (gan nu'er) was involved in protests that nearly closed her school, and she still graduated with honors. Protesting unfair treatment is nearly a national hobby, and it is often effective.

Oddly, just after you posted the picture I had lunch with a guy who was part of that event. He's quite passionate about it, but he disagrees with the portrayal of it as a pro-democracy rally. He says that people were there for many different reasons. He considers it a Beijing phenomenon and says that even people from other parts of China don't really understand it because they weren't there.

Things have changed in 20 years. I have taught US Constitutional Law here, using a standard (US) college text, to law students (including a number of party members) at a national university. Content was not censored or controlled and there were some good discussions.

In fairness, can students in the US stage rallies like they did at the time of Kent State (and another iconic photo)? How about the UK, can we be sure there won't be another Bloody Sunday? How many in Illinois remember the Haymarket incident? Is the Bonus Army and how it was dispersed anything but a footnote in history books now? In short, are things really better anywhere?

Heh, yes.

I dunno! I haven't been in or around college campuses.

The impression I get is that apathy is a much bigger barrier to protest than oppression, though.

Oh, well, yeah. There have been tons of protests off campus.

The bonus army, ww1 vets who were peacefully protesting during the great Depression, to get some of their military pay that wasn't going to be paid out for a few more years, to help alleviate economic circumstances. The American military reacted violently towards not just the men but their families as well who were in the camps, protesting peacefully.

Also, we "repatriated" Latinos to Mexico to "cure" the great depression - some didnt speak Spanish and many weren't allowed to bring their identification which would allow them to eventually return.

Some schools teach this information, many do not. I only recently became educated in these events due having a wonderful history professor. Growing up in Pennsylvania, we only really focused on the history of the 13 colonies - a history that was very sugarcoated.

for the sake of fairness, I think ever nation in the world has had their fair share of outrageous human rights violations. I haven't been to China (yet) so I don't rightfully know how the people are,what the believe - all I know is what the news portrays and because of that, I reserve my judgment.

In your original post you hinted that your students had been treated poorly in America. May I ask where (what state) and what happened?

FAT TAX!

I can't imagine the government sending out tanks if all of our obese citizens turned out to protest the fat tax but I could definitely see a bunch of bulldozers.