Total Dehumanization In China
Don't believe everything you hear about China, especially from our sensationalistic media. I have lived there and travel there frequently and know from first hand experience that it is not as bad as it is made out to be. I won't begin to make any claim that there is not rampant corruption in the government and that the people there have less freedom than we do. There is and they do. In actuality, however, China is a completely different place than what we have been lead to believe.
Our media has a way of twisting the truth around to make us believe what they want us to believe. What they want us to believe is what is sensational, what gets people upset, and what ultimately sells more advertising space. Face it, the truth is often boring, but if they can twist that truth around to make it exiting why the hell not?
Here's an example, fictitious but based on some recent "news":
-Truth: In a recent discussion, when told that the United States had planned numerous scenarios for a possible nuclear war with China, a Chinese general responded by saying "That is to be expected, it is not a surpise that the U.S. has plans for a nuclear war with China, China has plans for a nuclear war with the U.S., nobody expects it will never come to that but it is best to be prepared".
-Newspaper "Truth" -In a recent satetment a Chinese general was quoted as saying "China has plans for a nuclear war with the United States"
Both "truths" are correct but the first would make people think "Duh, this is news?" The second, however, well holy shit, "China's gonna nuke us.".
Again, let me stress that I don't think China is perfect, especially their Government. I have had my own dealings with corrupt government officials and lack of freedom while living there. I just want people to know that what we have been led to believe about China isn't true and there is a lot more to the story than what our media has been telling us.
Total Dehumanization In China
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fengzi
Don't believe everything you hear about China, especially from our sensationalistic media. I have lived there and travel there frequently and know from first hand experience that it is not as bad as it is made out to be. I won't begin to make any claim that there is not rampant corruption in the government and that the people there have less freedom than we do. There is and they do. In actuality, however, China is a completely different place than what we have been lead to believe.
Our media has a way of twisting the truth around to make us believe what they want us to believe. What they want us to believe is what is sensational, what gets people upset, and what ultimately sells more advertising space. Face it, the truth is often boring, but if they can twist that truth around to make it exiting why the hell not?
Here's an example, fictitious but based on some recent "news":
-Truth: In a recent discussion, when told that the United States had planned numerous scenarios for a possible nuclear war with China, a Chinese general responded by saying "That is to be expected, it is not a surpise that the U.S. has plans for a nuclear war with China, China has plans for a nuclear war with the U.S., nobody expects it will never come to that but it is best to be prepared".
-Newspaper "Truth" -In a recent satetment a Chinese general was quoted as saying "China has plans for a nuclear war with the United States"
Both "truths" are correct but the first would make people think "Duh, this is news?" The second, however, well holy shit, "China's gonna nuke us.".
Again, let me stress that I don't think China is perfect, especially their Government. I have had my own dealings with corrupt government officials and lack of freedom while living there. I just want people to know that what we have been led to believe about China isn't true and there is a lot more to the story than what our media has been telling us.
i respcet your post and your opinions...but i humbly ask you to tell that to the floods of chinese students and immigrants who protest on the streets of boston and toronto, the shop owner i know who grudgingly looks at the picture of his wife executed for false reasons and to the chinese adults who get angry when you even mention china.
Total Dehumanization In China
Well said Fengzi, i've lived in China for 4yrs now and have come to understand a lot deeper the west's mis-shapen view of this country. I agree totally that it's a country of huge social injustice and inequality but where isn't?
Come on Americans for starters, have a look in your own backyard... How many people are on death row in the states? Fair enuff not a large percentage compared to China but still miles ahead of the rest of the free world and this from the country that is supposedly paving the way? And how many of those on death row are of African American decent and still again how many have, and especially recently thru improved dna testing, been proven innocent? I'm not tryin to compare apples and oranges and i realise harvesting organs from criminals or anyone for that matter is abhorrent but i do think it is often sensationalised and especially when injustices are occurring in ones own country that can be fixed before pointing out mistakes or moral and social injustices in others.
I'm an Aussie and it's no better in my home country, the Australian Aborigines have been virtually wiped out and the government still refuse to deal with the situation yet are the first to point out human rights violations and atrocities in other countries....
peace
c
Total Dehumanization In China
Ni Hao Chato, ni zai zhonguo zuo shenme?
Living in China is a real eye opener. Our media, happily helped by our own Pisshead, love to demonize China. But a huge portion of these stories are from remote areas and hand picked for the sole purpose of making China look bad. Think of how bad the U.S., or any Western country, would look if you just picked every fucked up example you could find to portary the country. That is what the Western media does to China.
China does have a problem in that it's infrastructure is still very undeveloped outside of the big cities. Most of the horror stories come from some backwater town run by "Boss Hog" types. These places tend to be quite remote and getting them, and the corruption in them, under control has been a big challenge for Beijing.
Do forced abotions occur? Probably, but it is not the official policy coming out of Beijing. Nobody I know has been forced to have an abortion and nobody I know, knows anybody who's been forced to have an abortion. I actually have a friend in Shanghai who has two children. They had to pay a rather large fine for having a 2nd child but they did break the law. They accepted that fact and paid up. And anyone who thinks a one child law is barabaric just need to go to the Walmart in Xiamen on Chinese New Years Eve. You'll instantly see why the government wants to, needs to, control the population.
As far as "mobile death vans" are concerned, it really doesn't bother me. The Chinese don't fuck around with violent crime. There is no waiting in jail for years, with hundreds of appeals, etc etc. When you are convicted that's it. But the Chinese have a saying that goes something like "you kill the rooster to startle the monkey". In other words they have these public executions to scare people into not committing violent crimes. My wife, a Chinese citizen, remembers actually listening to the sentencing, folllowed shortley thereafter by a loud "POP" then a soft "thud", of a man convicted of killing a small child in her home town. This was played over the loudspeaker in school when she was in the 5th or 6th grade. Anyone hearing something like that is going to think twice about doing something similar.
Does it work? Well, when I lived in China I lived in Shanghai, a city with 14+ million people. I (a rich, by local standards, white foriegner) could walk down any street at any time of the day without fearing for my safety. How many people could say that about any big American city? Just look around us, it is rare that I read the morning paper and don't find another murder story.
Like you chato, I won't pretend that China isn't a country with many problems, but like you said "where isn't?" . The world would be a lot better place if we weren't all so intent on pointing out the flaws in other countries while sweeping ours under the bed. Just think what the world would be like if we dealt with our problems at home, and looked for the positive in other countries, instead.
Total Dehumanization In China
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fengzi
As far as "mobile death vans" are concerned, it really doesn't bother me. The Chinese don't fuck around with violent crime. There is no waiting in jail for years, with hundreds of appeals, etc etc. When you are convicted that's it. But the Chinese have a saying that goes something like "you kill the rooster to startle the monkey". In other words they have these public executions to scare people into not committing violent crimes. My wife, a Chinese citizen, remembers actually listening to the sentencing, folllowed shortley thereafter by a loud "POP" then a soft "thud", of a man convicted of killing a small child in her home town. This was played over the loudspeaker in school when she was in the 5th or 6th grade. Anyone hearing something like that is going to think twice about doing something similar.
And it's not only crime you can prevent. Threat of death will prevent any "something similar" which the government wishes prevented. Well and good, right up until they wish to prevent something important to you.
Total Dehumanization In China
Quote:
Originally Posted by andruejaysin
. Threat of death will prevent any "something similar" which the government wishes prevented. .
Such as? Enlighten us with your vast wisdom. Please.
Total Dehumanization In China
Try speaking out against the chinese government, and see what happens. Pick any topic you wish. Or perhaps you agree with everything they do?
Total Dehumanization In China
Ahh, I see you've been a good little boy, diligently gobbling down everything our media feeds you. :thumbsup: Since your sources are so reliable I see there's no sense arguing. Enjoy your enlightenment.
Total Dehumanization In China
Your blind trust of the chinese government which has killed 20 million of it's own people manages a difficult trick. It makes bong's blind trust of the US government seem almost reasonable.
Total Dehumanization In China
I have no blind trust of the Chinese government. But I don't have a blind trust in the U.S. media either. I do, however, have considerably more knowledge of China than 99% of American's. This comes from my major in college, having lived in China, and having Chinese in-laws. If you pull off your anti-Chinese blinders and read chato's and my posts more carefully you'll see that we are not so much praising the Chinese government as we are bashing the Western media. Yes, the Chinese government does some fucked up things, so does our own government. But what we see in the papers is just a small slice of China which is twisted and manipulated to make them appear as bad as possible. Because that is what sells more newspapers and that is what sells more advertising.
My wife's grandfather died in a Chinese "re-education camp" so I know what the Chinese government has done. But that was nearly 40 years ago and the current government is quite different. While it is true that the government tolerates little criticism, it is no longer sentencing people to death simply because they speak out. Even the leaders of the Tiananmen Square uprising were only imprisoned, and most, if not all, have been released by now.
I'm not asking anyone to believe the Chinese government is not fucked up. I'm just asking that people open their eyes a bit and not beleive everything the media says about it. And that goes for pretty much anything the Western Media says. it's all just bullshit designed to make more money.