For months over at the China Blog List, I noticed that one blog always seemed to get good play, perhaps because of its curiosity-inducing name, Sex and Shanghai, and its subtitle, “Western scoundrel in Shanghai tells all.” I visted the site once, and that was more than enough. The last thing I need to do with my time is read an expat’s sex diary in which he describes in occasionally graphic detail his sexploitation of willing Chinese girls, many his former students. (The writing is excellent and the blogger offers some keen insights into the Chinese psyche, but all of that gets lost in the unending stream of pornographic reminiscences.)
China is still a conservative country, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that as this blog gained traction it would also gain controversy. So I read with great interest an account over at ESWN of how the Shanghai sex blog has been denounced by a Chinese blogger who’s also a psychology professor, leading to one of those famous Internet-generated “manhunts,” like the search for the deranged stiletto-heeled kitty killer.
I urge you to go over to ESWN and read Roland’s translation of the professor’s article calling for the foreigner’s scalp. The article is a bit hysterical (Roland does a good job pointing out a few of its inanities) but it’s a fun read. Sample:
This piece of garbage openly declared in this blog that he was only dallying with these female Chinese students. He said, “We don’t talk about love, we don’t talk about marriage, we don’t even talk about being together.” Once, he was even shameless enough to say, “I ‘m tired of her already. A cunt is a cunt. I keep her just so that I can play with her again.”
This piece of garbage’s favorite show is to use obscene and pornographic language to describe the bodies of Chinese women and how they made love. For example, “My dearest Tingting, you have a very good and beautiful body. I cannot stop thinking about your beautiful skin, your lovely, smooth and soft breasts, you sexy, smooth and fine waist, your sweet and pretty legs and arms … oh, of course, you are so pretty, so sexy and so perfect between your legs!”
This piece of garbage is very narcissistic. In his writing, all Chinese women will tell him abashedly before they take off their clothes in front of him for the first time: “My breasts are too small.” When he takes off his pants, all the Chinese women will say in awe: “Your dick is really big!” Even if she is a virgin and this is the first time, she will say that too.
When you’re done with that, you can go back to the Shanghai sexploitation blog and check out the blogger’s response to the article. (Lots of good comments there, too.)
Now that he’s being hunted, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Will he be physically assaulted? Thrown out of China? Or will he garner a lucrative book contract. Sex, after all, certainly does sell. Just check out his site meter, which, with all of this week’s publicity, soared from an average of about 500 readers a day to above 6,000.
Update: I see someone’s already set up a blog dedicated to uncovering the Shanghai Sex Maniac’s identity.
1
By Shenzhen Whitey
China isn’t alone in this. Check out The Marmot’s Hole for the same type of thing, Korean style.
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2006/08/25/breaknews-article-on-naughty-english-teachers-up/
August 28, 2006 @ 1:44 am | Comment
2
By Ivan
You say this freak is in Shanghai? Are you SURE he’s not based in Shenzhen?
August 28, 2006 @ 2:01 am | Comment
3
By Ivan
Oh dear.
As soon as I started reading that guy’s response to the Chinese professor’s article, it reminded me a lot of the bizarrely self-righteous/paranoid/yet-creepily-amoral screeds and manifestos of the late Uriel Wittenberg.
Anyone else notice this?
August 28, 2006 @ 2:16 am | Comment
4
By richard
Ivan, you have a point – the response is indeed Urielesque. However, to be fair, Sex Man is way wittier that Uriel could ever be, and he makes some good points. And he at least seems to realize, unlike Uriel, that he’s sounding like a deranged asshole.
I think if he dropped the disgusting sex stories he might actually make a good China blogger.
August 28, 2006 @ 2:22 am | Comment
5
By Ivan
Mmmph. Richard, I’ll agree that he’s not as numbingly boring as Uriel was, but I think your estimation is far too generous.
August 28, 2006 @ 2:45 am | Comment
6
By Ivan
And in response to that update, I gotta say:
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t like the way this is heading.
Someone set up a website dedicated to outing this guy?
I see terrible potential for it to spin out of control. Even if this guy deserves to be run out of the country, still, just imagine the vast potential for entirely innocent foreign men in China to suffer for this because of mistaken identity, or because of people jumping to conclusions, or even other unpredictable possibilities.
Furthermore, imagine how a few malicious creeps might use such a “manhunt” opportunistically, targeting people on whom they just want to take petty revenge or to inflict suffering.
I don’t like this at all. I can forsee it easily spinning out of control and hurting many innocent bystanders.
August 28, 2006 @ 3:29 am | Comment
7
By richard
Ivan, I think that was part of ESWN’s message – that these manhunts are kind of insane. They bring out the very worst in people with their populist “calls to action,” which we used to refer to as “lynchings.” I hope this guy has protected his identity well – he really could face physical harm.
August 28, 2006 @ 3:35 am | Comment
8
By chicanohek
Stop talking about SIS!
Stop referring to the professors rant!
Are we such gulliable people that we actually think SIS has some truth to it! Hell no! Like the professor mentions to his Chinese women, “get a backbone”.
hek ek Chikano
August 28, 2006 @ 4:14 am | Comment
9
By richard
Pardon me?
August 28, 2006 @ 4:20 am | Comment
10
By shulan
As disgustingly chauvinistic this sex blogger might be, the reaction of the professor is dangerous and I have the impression, that the sex-blogger only offered him the opportunity to let out his own xenophobic and racist feelings, to rant against foreign men in general.
Sentences like this are revealing:
“Conversely, I have to say that I must thank this piece of garbage. I thank this piece of garbage for writing out his experiences and thoughts so directly. For the Chinese women as well as the Chinese men, this is lively and hard-to-find education material!”
For him this is not the story of one guy, but of foreigners in general.
It becomes abolutely obvious here:
“But, our female compatriots, when you make friends with foreigners, please always remember this: Are you willing to be the female star in a pornographic blog?”
and here:
“I also have something to tell the Chinese men: Please think about how these foreign trash have dallied with your sisters and made fun of your impotence. Do you want to say that this is no big deal? Do you still want to treat the foreigners as important? Do you still quiver when you see foreigners? Please straighten out your backbones.”
His credo:
Chinese women beware of those foreign devils! Chinese men defend your women! All unite against those decadent imperialist pigs!
As Ivan said there is a potential for really nasty things to happen to bystanders, if you remember what happened to the guy who allegedly had sex with a married woman.
This professor is deliberately putting up with such consequences.
August 28, 2006 @ 4:22 am | Comment
11
By richard
Shulan, I agree on all points. This is more of that irrational, vitriolic, blindly nationalistic rhetoric that leads to delightful things like pogroms and ethnic cleansing.
August 28, 2006 @ 4:28 am | Comment
12
By Ivan
And on another note, maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I perceive something existentially absurd about an Englishman and a Chinaman coming to blows about sex.
Isn’t that almost like two fish getting into a feud about flying?
August 28, 2006 @ 4:47 am | Comment
13
By shulan
Wow, I just checked out the professors blog. Seems his readers understood his intention very good. Some even call for the death of the English blogger and the professor seems to have no objections to that. At least he didn’t repiy in any way.
August 28, 2006 @ 5:02 am | Comment
14
By Meg
Thank goodness I’m not the only one who saw him on the CBL and was disgusted. With his students, for heaven’s sake!!!
August 28, 2006 @ 5:26 am | Comment
15
By Peter
OMG. Saw the link on CBL, but never read any of his stuff before now. Can’t say that I sympathize for this guy, but guess I don’t like the ongoing rally to find him either.
I bet they never find him anyway. You have to pretty loco to write the things he do, and not lie about your identity better.
August 28, 2006 @ 6:47 am | Comment
16
By richard
something existentially absurd about an Englishman and a Chinaman
Please, please don’t use the term “Chinaman.” It’s a loaded expression with lots and lots of baggage.
August 28, 2006 @ 7:27 am | Comment
17
By Jing
I don’t see why everyone is getting worked up over nothing. As almost everyone knows, pretty much all English foreign language teachers are narcissistic and delusional and more than a little shall we say geekish. 😛 It’s a stereotype of course, but for the most part true.
More likely than not, the only sexcapades going are on in the writer’s own mind.
August 28, 2006 @ 8:12 am | Comment
18
By richard
Jing, I’m not “worked up” over what the teacher did to his students, though I find it kind of disgusting. The interesting part of this story is the way the Chinese Internet has gone haywire, issuing what amounts to little less than Salman Rushdie-style death threats. The story of expats fooling around with the natives became old hat in the halcyon days of the Gweilo Dairies . The real story here is the explosive reaction among the Chinese and the ability of the Internet to mobilize them into lynch mobs.
August 28, 2006 @ 8:24 am | Comment
19
By Ahmet
Ruchard, you are spont on. When you have a society that is continually denied open access to information of all types, it is not possible to easily distinguish hyperbole and “reality.” What amazes me every day is the sheer ignorance that is perpetuated in every aspect of Chinese media. The CCP has turned every modern institution into a sham. Things like the “Great Hall of the People” and the “People’s Congress” and even words like “law” have lost all meaning in the perverse way that they are used in every day conversation. Lynch mobs incited easily, you say? When I see how much anger and frustration are percolating just below the surface in my daily observations of personal interactions on the streets of even a relatively sleepy city like Kunming, the idea that xenophobic jargon can incite mobs to action is easily understood.
Pity that we haven’t been able to turn that against the CCP. Imagine creatings blogs that incite the people to lynch the party kingpins. Now there’s a concept!
August 28, 2006 @ 9:15 am | Comment
20
By nausicaa
Ha! As if Chinese women need to be defended of their virtue by a professor with far too much time on his hands. Pathetic would-be Don Juans like the Sex and Shanghai blogger exist all over the world. He preys on his former students because he can’t get any tail otherwise. His dumpees will get over it. They’ll bawl their eyes out for a few nights, stuff their faces with pints of ice cream, max out their credit cards on impulse buys, and move on. Maybe one or two will key his car, spit in his coffee or something. He’ll be an important life lesson on the general assholishness of men.
To start an internet witchhunt over him is frivolous, dangerous, and so not worth it.
August 28, 2006 @ 10:58 am | Comment
21
By Jing
Are you a female nausicaa?
August 28, 2006 @ 12:46 pm | Comment
22
By Ivan
On a slightly tangential note: Is EVERY male foreign English teacher in China an emotionally retarded amoral Peter-Pan who couldn’t get a date for a cup of coffee with any un-hideous unpsychotic western woman if his life depended on it?
August 28, 2006 @ 5:47 pm | Comment
23
By Keir
Why don’t we take a poll?
August 28, 2006 @ 5:50 pm | Comment
24
By Ivan
That was merely a rhetorical question. The answer of course is “yes.”
August 28, 2006 @ 7:36 pm | Comment
25
By Sonagi92
Ivan, I love you! And that’s no lie!
Fortunately, this blog lets commentators edit their own posts, so I may retract my confession later 😉
August 28, 2006 @ 7:55 pm | Comment
26
By Sonagi
Hmmm, maybe I’ll start my own blog regaling imaginary sexcapades with male TPD commentators.
August 28, 2006 @ 7:56 pm | Comment
27
By kevin
The comments on Zhang Jiehai’s blog have descended into “If I find him I am going to…a) cut off his johnson” or “b) kill him.” There are also comments that Chinese girls who have relations with foreigners are “trash.”
With this kind of a gang mentality, I have a feeling I’m going to hear even more rude comments on the streets when I’m out with my wife than usual. But, I don’t blame this sex blogger. I blame this close-minded media system and society. I mean, didn’t everyone have a European exchange student in high school who got laid a lot and joked about it? We sure did at my school. Anybody get mad about that? Nope.
Lack of confidence is the real culprit here, combined with the fact that xenophobia is the only way to let off steam. This witchhunt’s just yet another repeat of the Boxer Rebellion.
August 28, 2006 @ 8:28 pm | Comment
28
By Ivan
Well, Sonagi, if you start that sexcapade blog, then please describe me as I really am: I’m five feet tall and pot-bellied with a shapeless behind and thin reedy little legs, mostly bald except for a wispy comb-over, pasty-faced and beady-eyed and I speak with a high-pitched nasal whine.
August 28, 2006 @ 8:37 pm | Comment
29
By Fat Cat
Kevin has made a very good point. When I read this at ESWN yesterday, mob violence akin to the Boxer Rebellion was exactly the kind of words that I’ll use to describe the possible outcome of what Zhang’s comment will provoke. It’s scary, to say the least. Not only for non-Chinese men working, living or travelling in China, but also for Chinese women whose spouse are non-Chinese. How is this going to affect their children?
I don’t usually see eye to eye with Jing. But this time around, I’ll have to agree with him that the English Teacher is probably some loser who’s fabricating stories out of fantasy. What is disturbing part though is that the Chinese netizens don’t seem to be able to make a distinction between facts and fantasies. This is not the first time that something like that happen. Should I once again blame censorship for keeping people ignorant?
August 28, 2006 @ 9:21 pm | Comment
30
By Feng 37
??Ivan=Zhang Jiehai?!
August 28, 2006 @ 9:26 pm | Comment
31
By Ivan
Feng 37, yes, yes you’ve found me out. All of the regular commenters on this blog know that in real life I’m a Chinese Nationalist who is obsessed with defending the “face” of Chinese men from the depredations of white foreigners. Especially Russians.
August 28, 2006 @ 10:00 pm | Comment
32
By dangfingers
Yeah – he is a disgusting bastard, however, I think the professor goes a bit far in blaming all foreign men –
“But, our female compatriots, when you make friends with foreigners, please always remember this: Are you willing to be the female star in a pornographic blog?
Do not let others play with your body first, and then with your dignity.”
He needs to better direct his “scholarly anger” lest he comes out of this looking like a “party” monkey!
August 28, 2006 @ 10:16 pm | Comment
33
By The Iron Buddha
Agreed.
And has anybody noticed the world class prostitution/female exploitation industry in China that is fueled almost entirely by Chinese men?
August 28, 2006 @ 11:05 pm | Comment
34
By OtherLisa
Yeah…on the main street up from where I was staying with a friend in Haidian this trip, I counted FIVE sex businesses in one long block.
August 29, 2006 @ 12:13 am | Comment
35
By nausicaa
To Jing: I’m female. My moniker’s a pretty big hint.
Now that I’ve read through more of the sex blogger’s posts, I’m finding something’s a little off. One – because he tries just a little too hard in his prose to approximate the tone of a “Belle de jour” type I confessional blog, and two – even though he goes into great detail about his relationships (or non-relationships, as it were), none of his lovers actually come off as being real, living and breathing women. They’re flat, interchangeable.
So he’s either 1) another chauvinistic creep (my original conclusion) – and while the world can certainly do with less of his type, the fitting punishment would be a bad case of gonorrhea, not his head on a stake, or 2) another delusional chauvinstic creep who hasn’t been laid in a long, long time and is seeking an outlet for his frustrations through (badly-written) fiction – in which case he deserves to be pitied, not lynched.
Either way, wives and girlfriends of Caucasian expats (especially those of British extraction) – lock up your men! (And I’m only half kidding.) And I’d advise the female expats to be careful out there, too. Just for the time being. Because while there are some reasonable comments over at professor Zhang’s blog, not a small number goes something like this:
咱有本事，就去收拾外国人，以暴制暴。
和野蛮人讲道理呵，用不着，也根本是没用。
所以，我建议让外国女人，日本女人，美国女人，都知道中国男人的阳刚之气，而非东亚病夫。
Newsflash to these people – you’re not being social justice activists, okay? You’re just being shitheads.
August 29, 2006 @ 12:23 am | Comment
36
By Ivan
(hee-hee!) Nausicaa, are you suggesting that he’s like THIS guy?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zVJOP1RdHC4
(for those who are familiar with it, this is a clip of the famous Monty Python “nudge nudge” sketch….)
August 29, 2006 @ 12:56 am | Comment
37
By Meursault
Can anybody else access Chinabounder’s site now? As of today it seems you can only view his site by invitation only.
August 29, 2006 @ 1:43 am | Comment
38
By richard
You are right – the blog is closed. What’s happening over there?
August 29, 2006 @ 1:54 am | Comment
39
By Yifan
When I first read the blog, my first though was “why go to the effort of blogging all of this?” Maitaining a blog requires a certain amount of energy and dedication, so why would this person dedicate so much of his time to something that he himself describes as “completely worthless?”
Thinking about it further, I came to the conclusion that the blogger was in fact, seeking to arouse anger and condemnation, so as to allow him to justify his continued exploitation of his students.
Creating all of this negativity simply feeds his preconceptions of China as ignorant, ugly, racist, etc, while simutaneously re-affirming him in his self-appointed role as one who liberates and elevates the woman of this “ugly” society.
The respone detailed here, while contemptable, is hardly surprising. It was only a matter of time before the hysterical mob was aroused, and as someone who has been described on various blogs as “having good insights into China,” China Bounder was undoubtably aware of this fact. Given all of this, the whole thing strikes me as a rather creepy and deeply cynical excercise in blogging, not to mention exploitation.
August 29, 2006 @ 2:18 am | Comment
40
By richard
Yifan, no arguments there – “deeply cynical” is a fine way to put it. Especially when you read Nausicaa’s perceptive analysis of how all the girls are interchangeable and unreal. While I admit I did enjoy the blogger’s writing style and on occasion his perception on China, I have little admiration or sympathy for him.
August 29, 2006 @ 2:25 am | Comment
41
By The Marmot
Son of a bitch has 17,000 hits so far today. Even after an Instalaunch, the most I ever got was 10,000 in a single day.
Clearly, if I’m going to pad my stats, I need to work on pissing off Chinese netizens.
August 29, 2006 @ 3:45 am | Comment
42
By richard
You should become a liberal, Mr. Marmot! A link from Atrios is now good for at least 15,000 hits.
August 29, 2006 @ 4:16 am | Comment
43
By Ugetit
http://whoischinabounder.blogspot.com/2006/08/who-is-that-masked-man.html
Girl in Shanghai said…
His real name is Brian Jackson. He taught me about a year ago… i am sure it is him as one of the women in the blog is me
11:59 AM
August 29, 2006 @ 5:03 pm | Comment
44
By blah
It just goes to show that western rogues who lead their lives with their dicks make terrible ambassadors. — Especially the racist ones who evoke the worst imperialistic, arrogant, exploitative, disrespectful, stereotypes of white men.
August 29, 2006 @ 9:45 pm | Comment
45
By Keir
Was watching an old episode of SCTV where Eugene Levy played Ricardo Montalban as a teacher of a class of yobs, immaculate in a white suit and exhorting the female students to remember their dignity and the boys to act like gentlemen. Reminds me of this ‘scholar’. Except that the former was a satire…
August 29, 2006 @ 10:53 pm | Comment
46
By shulan
@ Blah
I absolutely agree with your last comment but you forgot to add something:
It just goes to show that Chinese bigots who lead their lives having problems with their dicks make terrible teachers. — Especially the racist ones who evoke the worst cultural revolution-style, arrogant, brutal, disrespectful, stereotypes of Chinese men.
August 30, 2006 @ 12:38 am | Comment
47
By Michael Turton
nd on another note, maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I perceive something existentially absurd about an Englishman and a Chinaman coming to blows about sex.
Isn’t that almost like two fish getting into a feud about flying?
ROFL. Funniest. Line. Ever. I take back everything I ever said about you.
It just goes to show that western rogues who lead their lives with their dicks make terrible ambassadors. — Especially the racist ones who evoke the worst imperialistic, arrogant, exploitative, disrespectful, stereotypes of white men.
It’s fascinating that western men get slammed for behaving just like Chinese men do…I mean, all those pros in Shanghai are not fucking white boys. The villages for the second wives of Taiwan businessmen are not there for lame white losers. Trafficking in women in across Asia and into China does not exist to satisfy white male demands. ESWN has dozens of links to stories of Chinese men treating women like something they found stuck to the bottom of their shoe, including that very funny story about the official who had a half dozen mistresses, and had one of them manage his time with the others.
Why is this even an issue? Complaints from Chinese men about foreign males are common; I see them frequently. Many local expats I know have been accosted over being with local femmes — something I have personally witnessed, though fortunately never been the victim of. The “oversexed white male” stereotype is constantly exploited in the media here in Taiwan — the “macking in Taipei” thing that happened last year is just one example. There are bars where foreigners are frequently beaten up for interacting with local women. So why the fuss?
Michael
August 30, 2006 @ 5:42 am | Comment
48
By Ahmet
How about posting this Chinese “professor’s” photo all over the internet with a “wanted dead or alive” statement. Even if the the idiot laowai is guilty on all counts, I think an example should be made of the scumbag, know-nothing, bureaucrats that pass for scholars in a county steeped with ignorance. Ever wonder why the best students go out this country to learn something more than CCP drivel and rehashing of worthless history? I am so sick of this place, I can’t wait to leave.
August 30, 2006 @ 6:57 am | Comment
49
By Ahmet
How about posting this Chinese “professor’s” photo, address, phone number and email adress all over the internet with a “wanted dead or alive” statement? Even if the the idiot laowai is guilty on all counts, I think an example should be made of the scumbag, know-nothing, bureaucrats that pass for scholars in a country steeped with ignorance. Ever wonder why the best students go out this country to learn something more than CCP drivel and rehashing of worthless history? I am so sick of this place, I can’t wait to leave.
August 30, 2006 @ 6:58 am | Comment
50
By Ahmet
Sorry for the double post, internet connection at this hotel is ultra slow……
August 30, 2006 @ 7:45 am | Comment
51
By Sonagi92
Nausicaa,
Do you have a link or can you tell me on which thread you found that icky post threatening foreign women with sexual violence?
August 30, 2006 @ 11:46 am | Comment
52
By blah
Shulan,
How many continents have chinese men conquored? How many millions of native americans and south east asians have chinese men killed?
How many wars have chinese spies started?
How much profit has China derived from forcing the opium trade upon Britain?
How many non-chinese people have chinese men deemed genetically inferior and have enslaved?
How many times has China spoken about freedom, truth, democracy, and at the same time condoned slavery, colonialism, torture, war from within its own society.
Western men shifting the focus of blame, racism and immorality upon others is absurdly hypocritical. It’s like accusing Islam of facism despite invading and bombing other countries who have not posed a threat.
While that chinese professor may be naive and clumsy in his attempts to get the dickwad rogue with the blog, they are equally blameworthy.
While that dickwad was uncommon in his frank and publically boastful comments his true feelings towards asians, people like him are actually a common type of man who does cause alot of resentment and justifiable anger.
“You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” So even if a dickwad like the sexblogger visits asia, it seems like he’ll never understand the people or the underlying customs and social norms — due to his own inflated ego, and his disdain for trying to understand the perspectives another people.
When asians visit the west, they don’t act like they own the place and force everyone around to them to change to their desires. — And if they are racist, they don’t go on a screw fest, thinking “where da white bitches at?”
And they don’t as often disrespect the people and the laws, thinking they are above everyone else, acting like rowdy brats with “what happens in Asia, stays in Asia” attitudes. — Just because they are foreigners with special priviledges and lighter treatment by law enforcement.
August 30, 2006 @ 1:09 pm | Comment
53
By blah
“While that chinese professor may be naive and clumsy in his attempts to get the dickwad rogue with the blog, they are equally blameworthy.”
Whoops… meant to write that “they are NOT equally blameworthy.”
BTW, I do not mean say that all white men are bad, but indeed there are too many self-centered, racist brats out there with a disrespect towards asian men, asian culture, and an asian female fetish.
The negative attitude towards it should be easily understood.
August 30, 2006 @ 1:14 pm | Comment
54
By Chinese Queen
The lao wai is just testing water in China, something he couldn’t (perhaps not charming enough to his own kind with just the English language skill) in his own country. The game he plays could happen anywhere. The same story can be traced back to ancient chinese history. What he is doing is nothing new. It takes two to tangle. Who is to judge the lao wai at fault but not those chinese girls who willingly participated in the game?
If there is a moral to this story, those who hurt in the game need to learn to better protect themselves from another lao wai. Besides this, I don’t see any more to the story. Now if you elevate this story to a patriotic level, that is a bit much.
August 30, 2006 @ 3:27 pm | Comment
55
By shulan
@blah
OK, I understood it. Even if a Chinese is calling for a witchhunt, hazarding with the wellbeing of bystanders and enflaming xenophobic and racist emotions this is not so bad because he is still the victim of hundrets of years of imperialism. Right?
August 31, 2006 @ 1:25 am | Comment
56
By shulan
@blah
just to make myself clear. I said it before, I think this sex-blogger is disgusting, he is chauvinistic and if you want, call him racist too. But the professor is racist for sure. And he has an agend on his own which becomes clear when you read his blog. For him all foreigners are bounders, he makes this point quite clear.
Such a witchhunt, he is calling for, can easily go out of hand and then it can becomes dangerous.
August 31, 2006 @ 2:36 am | Comment
57
By usagi
It’s a sad thing, in general the Chinese are such hospitable and nice people.
From my point of view the first reason for so many Chinese to get infuriated is still the “unequal treaties” signed at the end of 19th century, its just like Europeans not being able to get over their dislike of Germans for the 1st and 2nd WW, but at least they don’t go hunting for Germans.
Another thing is the obvious discrepancy between the idea of the “rich” foreigner and the actual fact of this guys situation at home.
So this guy is a foreign teacher and Chinese universities/private schools are paying them a lot in comparison to what they are paying their local staff. What the Chinese see is this guy’s pay check in China (something in between 6000-12000 RMB a month, I guess, depending on this guy’s ingenuity), to ordinary Chinese that is a whole lot of money. That this same amount in Europe is barely subsistence level they don’t seem to quite grasp. When you add to that the huge amount of Chinese University grads that don’t find well-paying jobs+normal human jealousy for anybody who has something more+ a factor 1O because of the huge population of China+the growing disparity between the number of females and males in China (in Shanghai 6 f for 10 m according to a study in 2005) .
And you can figure out its pretty easy to form a mob for just about anything from hunting a guy who thinks with his dick to burning books to standing on one foot barechested with a silly hat on in the middle of the winter .
I think this incident also very well explains the huge fear of the Chinese government for any kind of criticism and their sometimes harsh methods of repression. If this one guy can spark so much attention for blogging his personal irresponsible behaviour, how much more so the people in power.
The longer I am following what is going on in China the more my respect for those in high and visible places in China, they have to be extremely outstanding figures because next to taking tough decisions they also have to keep a majority happy and keep the economy going. With all these people in one country, damn, I don’t want their job.
Of course their always is room for improvement, but aren’t they doing an outstanding job, especially in view of this fairly small incident and the huge reactions?
The guy who wrote the shit clearly has not been that long in China otherwise he would have never started that blog. Maybe he was inspired by the Chinese girls that rose to fame writing similar stuff and maybe he was unaware of the huge criticism they even got from their fellow countrymen.
If he would have been in China long enough he would have known that hurting the Chinese national pride is the worst offense. After all you are a guest to the Chinese people and guests should be grateful and not go slander their hosts. And its definately slander to insult and abuse “innocent” Chinese girls/women.
He also clearly is not a gentleman since “kiss and don’t tell” doesn’t seem to be his strongpoint.
As to the University professor who is inciting the masses. All people have their demagogues. This is just one, but in a way what he is doing is even more stupid, if this spirals out of control, guess what is going to suffer first, yes, the economy. Coz if the Chinese really would start attacking foreign men indiscriminately, the foreign men who are currently investing and turning out 70% of all chinese exports will be investing their money elsewhere, this leads to depression which in turn leads to even more unhappy masses. The government of China does not want that, so they are going to have to sacrifice somebody publicly to apease the angry foreigners. Who better to sacrifice than the professor who incited the masses???? This professor is toying with his own life here and he hasn’t even masked his personality, like the blogger did.
This might all seem far fetched, but then again who would have thought that a mere corporal in the German army would once set the whole world in flames???
August 31, 2006 @ 7:40 am | Comment
58
By Terry
Ok, I’m an English English Teacher and my (Chinese) wife pointed me towards this story.
That Chinese professor is just a blowhard. We all know the type.
One things right though. This teacher should be grabbed by other foreigners, taken to the airport and put on the first plane home.
Messing with your own students (even former ones) is Grade-A stupid. Messing with your own students (even former ones) and then posting a blog about it just blows through Grade-A stupidity to a whole new level.
Foreigners as a group should police themselves and this moron has hurt all of us. We’ll all have to deal with the looks, the gossip and the reduced income.
Getting this moron OUT should be Shanghai’s first priority
August 31, 2006 @ 7:45 am | Comment
59
By Ahmet
Blah, respect has to be earned. It is not a right. Your country’s leaders and many of your people do not respect even the most basic of human rights. When criticism is leveled at those people, unless you are one of them, I find it amazing that you would hind behind some cultural or social mumbo jumbo. Basic human rights are universal and those that deny them deny human nature.
Usagi, wouldn’t it be wonderful if the greedy loawai who want nothing more than to exploit cheap labor and turn out the trash that passes for product were forced to turn elsewhere? Then Chinese leaders would actually have to get off their collective fat, lazy asses and actually do something for their people.
Terry, the problem is that in a closed society no one is equipped to be able to tell fact from fantasy. The internet is far from being a reliable source of critical information. Any group of people who decide to act decisively based solely on information gleaned from the web are behaving in a rash manner.
Blah, China has enslaved or murdered millions of its own people following a common thug’s wishes. China continues to occupy Tibet, impose its language on Xinjian and throws its self-perceived weight around the Security Council like a bully. China treats it own citizens like slaves who nothing more than cheap labor who can be replaced at the drop of a hat. I am personally sick of the nationalistic, patriotic arguments attemp to cover up or dodge these issues. They only serve to point out the lack of access to information and the inability to form an accurate world view as a result of a society based upon ignorance and propaganda.
August 31, 2006 @ 8:54 am | Comment
60
By kea
Remember, one (small) reason for the student protests in Beijing in 1986 and 1989 because the Chinese men were angry at African exchange students for “stealing their women”. I think they mobbed the African students’ dorm and tried to break down the door.
A lot of Asian American guys resent white guys for “stealing their women” too. I heard such things when I was at university in Boston.
This professor’s outrage is so old. Only he has the internet. And access to millions of like-minded angry Chinese men.
At the heart of it is misogyny, I think. Chinese women are either poor stupid naive innocents who go around getting deceived and “stolen” by flashy foreign men. Or else they’re poor stupid sluts who allow foreign men to make fools of them. God forbid the idea that Chinese women have minds (or libidos!) of their own. Oh no, they must be coddled and hoarded exclusively for Chinese men, for their own good of course.
Not that the pathetic frat boy Brit doesn’t deserve a good kicking. But if anyone’s going to do it, it ought to be all his ex-girlfriends. I’m sure they can fend for themselves just fine.
August 31, 2006 @ 3:28 pm | Comment
61
By nausicaa
Entirely off-topic, but your political cartoons are awesome, kea.
August 31, 2006 @ 4:02 pm | Comment
62
By kea
Thanks! I try.
August 31, 2006 @ 5:36 pm | Comment
63
By richard
This thread is closing. Please comment over here if you have something to say on this subject. Thanks.
August 31, 2006 @ 6:55 pm | Comment
64 Posted at www.pekingduck.org
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