Our guest Youzi has given us a kernel for further discussion in one of his comments: And even within China, between different provinces and peoples are tremendous psychological differences, perhaps even greater than those between two countries. As time has passed, as the people’s living standards have grown and as awareness of personal rights has woken… if the traditional … [Read more...] about The Prospects of Democracy in China
The Chinese debate – Part 2: Democracy and the economy
Thanks to one our visitors (Traveler, Youzi, 游子), a debate about fundamental issues that divide many Chinese has been brought to our blog (see comment in earlier thread). In this post, I want to express my opinions on the economy, democracy, and the Chinese government. I also want to send a few sentences to Mr. Wahaha: please do not so easily “represent” the Chinese or the … [Read more...] about The Chinese debate – Part 2: Democracy and the economy
The Chinese debate – Part 1: The West
One of our myriad goals for this blog was to make one simple point: the Chinese debate politics. The Chinese community debate eloquently and foolishly, intelligently and blindly, informed and uninformed, left and right, China and West... the Chinese are not brain-washed robots living in a closed society; we often disagree, often very passionately. To make this point, we … [Read more...] about The Chinese debate – Part 1: The West
Is Fiat too clever?
The story of Fiat apologizing to China for its Richard Gere and Tibet themed ad for a new car was first reported on June 20. At that time, I quickly dismissed it as nothing but another blunder by the marketing department of a global company that should have known better. The ad itself wasn't problematic per se. But it was clearly created with Richard Gere's Tibet oriented … [Read more...] about Is Fiat too clever?
The misnamed Dalai Lama
What should we call the Dalai Lama? It might seem like a silly enough question... but if you look deeper, there lies a more substantial issue of basic respect and mutual understanding. On Davidpeng's blog (in an article linking to one of our entries)... an interesting discussion has developed (原贴) on that exact topic. One commenter (Flatfish, a frequent Tibetan visitor) … [Read more...] about The misnamed Dalai Lama