At first I thought it was a parody, something The Onion might have done to satirize China Daily. But no, I’m afraid it’s the real thing. It’s hilarious. It’s outrageous. It’s totallty insane.
This article is described as an opinion piece from a reader. But would China Daily have given it this much space if it didn’t approve? Let’s see what this opinionator, one Blackie Lau, has to say.
From the First Opium War 1839-1842 in the Qing period, China has been maligned by the West and is still to this very day being maligned.
It was after all, not a matter of technology superior barbarians, but treachery by the west on a scale never before experienced by China and of course the use of the drug opium to set the standard of the mistakes of the west for the next 150 years, the constant demand for the Chinese to kowtow.
Oh dear. We’re back to the old argument that the treacherous Westerners brought about all of China’s woes with the opium wars more than 160 years ago. But wait; it gets much richer.
The arrogance of the west, of their minister advisers and the wicked designs on Chinese wealth of the western rulers, was the sole single force on Chinese technology lag during that period, which after 1949 quickly picked up again, until at present China forges ahead, again.
Darling, after 1949 things went to hell in a handbasket. China is still reeling from Mao’s asphyxiation of his people’s minds, from the destruction of their farmland and environment, from the famines and the insanity of the Cultural Revolution. Things only picked up and surged when Deng decided to embrace that vile Western economic model known as capitalism.
The west never learned from their past mistakes in relation to China from 1842-1935, the west continued to use treachery and designs on Chinese wealth to force China into as many losing positions as was possible.
The wests were ferocious when they waged wars on China and did search and find as much Chinese wealth as possible.
Chairman Mao and the CCP fought for a conclusion to these years of western treachery and were victorious in 1949.
The western bigots and zealots, however, have never ceased to have designs on China and on China wealth and prosperity, still today.
Okay, time out. I thought this line of thinking died with the Great Helmsman. Haven’t Western markets (not to mention Western investment) been one of the foundations of China’s stratospheric growth over the past few decades? Haven’t China and the Western nations made steady progress in recent years; don’t most Western companies and the politicians they own look at China as a partner now, as opposed to an enemy? I mean, where is this vitriol coming from?
If the west and their running dogs of war now expect a mercy from China for all these past invasions and thefts, they are seriously mistaken.
Only time will tell, if China chooses to forget the wrongs done to her by the wests and her imperial hunting dogs.
The West must face up to the treachery and insults given to China.
Uh-oh. Sounds like a veiled threat to me — as though it’s China’s whim whether or not to wreak deserved vengeance on the wicked, wicked West (and, of course, our “imperial hunting dogs,” whatever the fuck that refers to).
The creative China and progressive thoughts of China were held down by the western running dogs until the revival of 1949.
How many innocent Chinese were destroyed by the west, we may know.
Chinese by the how many, we will never know, lost their lives due to the treachery of the west and her running dogs, even Naking can easily be connected to the western dogs of war.
Never again should the west, be allowed that kind of access to China.
You’re sitting there with a straight face and asking how many Chinese were destroyed by the West? Open your eyes, good sir: The two mass butchers of China were not westerners. They were named Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai Shek. Does any Westerner even come close to having so much Chinese blood on his hands? Okay, since you obviously don’t know, I’ll give you the answer: No.
And are you really trying to lay responsibility for the Rape of Nanjing on us? I’d always heard the Japanese were behind that, and never that the genocide was facilitated by “Western connections.” But then, reading this article, I realize that most of what I’ve read and learned throughout my life must be wrong.
Can the west redress these errors and mistakes they made with China. ?
I don’t think so.
The Chinese leaders trust the Chinese people and the Chinese people trust their leaders and together this trust as always is for the national interest.
I see. And I suppose it’s this great trust that’s prompting China’s wise and loving leaders to make plans for mass arrests of suspected dissidents before the upcoming 15th anniversay of the Tianamen Square Massacre (another example of why the Chinese citizens trust the CCP so whole-heartedly)? And it’s this great trust that inspires the leaders to watch every click thier loyal citizens make as they surf the net, and to imprison students who meet to discuss democracy?
I am still wondering if this whole thing is a joke. It reeks of surrealism. Maybe it’s the CCP making fun of itself. giving itself an old-fashioned roast. Can you imagine the CCP ever laughing at itself? (No.)
This is such Maoist tripe, it sounds like it was written during the Great Leap Backward or the Cultural Revolution. And they print this in the English-language newspaper that’s read by Westerners, and handed out to us on Chinese airplanes???
Something’s off. Something is really, really screwy. It has to be a joke — right?
UPDATE: I notice they are allowing comments to be posted about this essay. Some are quite critical. I am now going to cut and paste my entire post and add it to the comments. If they let it run, my hopes for China’s political progress will be vastly increased. Anyone want to place any bets?
1
By she
they do this quite often, I think it is the editors either a. having a laugh or b. scoring brownie points for having the correct political’attitude’
they are very funny though, and not to be taken seriously -I certainly don’t think they print them in the actual newspaper- if they did that would be funny. The Shanghai Star used to do a bit of this ‘shock jock’ stuff to a while back, but got so many complaints they stopped.
April 27, 2004 @ 1:57 am | Comment
2
By Sam the Imperialist
You need to stop worrying, this is the China that can say NO! And as a result of that, has been lagging behind for the last 500 years, not just 160…
This nationalist victimization BS will be with us for quite some time, which will produce many more columns like this. But it’s nice to see it in the open- you tell me, progress or not? Haha….
April 27, 2004 @ 2:55 am | Comment
3
By Ron
Bet they will delete it as soon as you post it there.
Let us see… Going to check it out now.
Cheers!
April 27, 2004 @ 3:31 am | Comment
4
By Emile
Did they already delete your post ? Or have you not posted it yet ?
There seems to still be a few problems with your blog, the same link (to 00187.php) brought me once here and once to the post on bushworld O.o too pages with the same name is weird …
April 27, 2004 @ 3:41 am | Comment
5
By Ron
As expected…
I did not find your comment on that site. Perhaps, they just hit the delete button right after you posted it.
Cheers!
April 27, 2004 @ 3:43 am | Comment
6
By zhwj
Given that this is the same Opinion section that ran a piece a few weeks ago that had several commentators around here lauding the Daily’s progressivism, one does wonder whether this is the same sort of manufactured controversy that goes back to the pre-May 4 days where the magazines held scripted battles between editorialists. Take a few of the longer articles or comments from the message boards and post them under a nice heading–instant readership!
Looking at the section index, though, it really does seem that these are “Reader’s Voices”, with one running the full text of Time magazine’s three Chinese newsmakers in the top 100 (with the comment at the top “if the blah blah Lama is not included”). That’s a strange one, if the stories are indeed “selected by the editors” as it is put. It’s a bit more formal than the People’s Daily Online English Forums, but apparently attracts the same range of comments, from thoughtful responses to rants by kooks.
And the name Blackie Lau seems familiar–was he a gangster in some HK film?
April 27, 2004 @ 5:16 am | Comment
7
By 5600hp
How many innocent Chinese were destroyed by the decades of brainwashing of CCP , we may know.
Chinese by the how many, we will never know, lost their lives due to the treachery of the Mao and his running dogs, even Naking can easily be connected to the eastern dogs of war.
Never again should the east, be allowed that kind of access to Mainland China.
That’s why I fully, totally support Taiwan Independence!
April 27, 2004 @ 5:56 am | Comment
8
By Adam Morris
This article is described as an opinion piece from a reader. But would China Daily have given it this much space if it didn’t approve?
How dare the China Daily let a Chinese person view their opinions. They’re a state-run paper. Everything they say is the opinion of the entire country, even when it’s someone with a by-line, because it’s a state run press. Don’t you know that everyone thinks the same thing in China?
How dare they allow free speech! Don’t they know they’re less than that?
April 27, 2004 @ 6:54 am | Comment
9
By Zhang Li En
Well … firstly some interpretation. I think it’s pretty obvious that “imperial hunting dogs” refers specifically to the Japanese. I can’t see any other candidate.
Secondly, this isn’t a joke, and it’s not a minority opinion. This is the inevitable result of the way Chinese history is taught in China. I agree that it’s unusual to see it produced in English, but the only reason you don’t hear this kind of thing more often is that most Chinese are either a) not interested in their own history or b) too circumspect to actually say it to foreigners, even if they believe it.
When you think China, think of the kid who used to get sand kicked in his face at the beach. He’s been working out, he’s bought himself a gun, and now he’s just hankering to show those bullies that they can’t push him around any more. He might just get himself in over his head and have to pull out that gun and before you know it some pretty nasty things have happened that he never really contemplated …
Lastly, some specific corrections. The idea that China was not technologically stagnant until the first Anglo-Chinese War is just stupid. (To refer to it as the Opium War reflects a profound ignorance of the many issues involved.) China had had a period of quite good advances in prior centuries … there’d been some major innovations during the Manchu conquest, and in the following century or so, China was a vibrant society, but by the time the 19th Century rolled around, China was a stagnant state weighed down by a rigid bureaucracy and completely lacking in innovation. As far as specifically military technology is concerned, there’d been pretty much zero development once the Manchu conquest was finished. A good example of this is what happened with the borrowing of artillery technology from the Jesuits. There was a lot of borrowing and development in this field until the fighting was over … and when the First Anglo Chinese War started … Chinese fortifications were still equipped with Jesuit designed and built artillery. There’d been zero development during the entire period of the Qing Dynasty even at its most vigorous. Following the war, a number of Chinese pushed for innovation and reform, and again and again their efforts were stifled by traditional Chinese scholars who refused to acknowledge or accept the need to borrow from the west. But … facts and reality have very little to do with the view expressed in this post …
April 27, 2004 @ 7:48 am | Comment
10
By m.c.
If they let your comment posted, I buy you a whole Peking duck.
April 27, 2004 @ 9:40 am | Comment
11
By richard
Thanks for the great comments, and Li En it’s great to see you back.
Adam, I love your comment about “free speech.” Of course we want free speech, but it’s a question of nutty judgement. Most newspapers that are intended for Western eyes would not print an incredibly irresponsible attack on Westerners that is full of holes and outright lies. And if China Daily truly practices free speech, why did they delete my comment, and why aren’t you fuming about that? No, this is not about free speech — it is a fact that there is no such thing when it comes to the big China newspapers. This is about journalistic responsibility and offering a mouthpiece to whatever asshole comes along. You don’t print a rant for Aryan Nation in a newspaper that’s intended for distribution to Jewish temples. You can, but it isn’t smart. No, this is about giving a soapbox to more of the nutty propaganda that’s polluted the Chinese media for more than half a century. To imply that we are wrong to criticize it because it is representative of free speech is bizarre. What about our freedom of speech, our right to call a lie a lie? Now, if they allowed me to run my response on China Daily, then I’d believe they’re committed to free speech. But alas, it was deleted by the free-speech-loving China Daily. And I don’t hear you complaining. Oh well….
Emile, thanks for pointing out the bad links. In the future it should be okay. I hope.
zhwj, yes it is from the “Readers’ Voices.” But I’m a reader. They didn’t let me have a voice. I’m crushed.
Li En, the analogy to the kid on the beach is priceless, and scary, too. Remember Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold? Kids who get their feelings hurt can be capable of immense wrongdoing. I wanted to think the “victim” argument was long dead, but it’s apparently thriving. How sad.
April 27, 2004 @ 9:44 am | Comment
12
By richard
mc, forget about it! Deleted long ago.
April 27, 2004 @ 9:46 am | Comment
13
By Hui Mao
But would China Daily have given it this much space if it didn’t approve?
Pretty much all Chinese online forums automatically gather the “hottest” posts and put them up on the front page as the current hot topics. “Hottest” usually means getting the most replies in a certain amount of time. This has led to a phenomenon called “wa keng” or “hole digging”. Meaning people who has too much time on their hands deliberately post inflammatory or controversial posts in order to get a rise out of other people and hence drawing numerous replies that’ll push the original post to the top of the hot posts list. “Hole digging” is now almost a competitive online sport in Chinese forums. If drawing conclusions from online forums is a poor idea, doing so from “holes” is even worse.
April 27, 2004 @ 2:40 pm | Comment
14
By richard
Interesting, Hui! Would they let me post about Jiang Zemin’s role in Tiananmen Square? That’s sure controversial and would get lots of replies.
I appreciate your point about why we shouldn’t give too much credibility to those who are “hole digging.” But keep in mind, this went out over Google News as coming from China Daily, so millions of people have probably seen it, most of them not knowing much about the hole digging phenomenon. So it’s certainly good that we can call them on it and do whatever we can to make sure people don’t see this nonsense as serious, informed editorializing.
April 27, 2004 @ 2:49 pm | Comment
15
By Hui Mao
Yep, you’re right, there is heavy censorship on anything seen as politically “incorrect” in these forums, especially the ones run by news portals such as Sina and China Daily. Didn’t know that this article actually went out on Google News though. Guess google need to step up their filtering as well 🙂
April 27, 2004 @ 5:33 pm | Comment
16
By Daniel
I agree that this article is just downright surreal. I cannot believe that the paper’s editors would print this for any other reason than to stoke up controversy – but even then, it’s just too absurd.
It’s absurd in itself because The China Daily is an English language publication, which you could argue is more or less the language which represents “the West” at the moment, and seeing as this article is printed in that very Western language.
Now, I know Stalin long ago put his foot firmly down and enlightened us all of the fact that language is not a superstructure, but still… it seems kind of absurdly ironic, don’t you think?
Just what conclusion does the China Daily want westerners reading its paper to come to about China by publishing this?
April 27, 2004 @ 9:32 pm | Comment
17
By richard
Great question, Daniel. At least it lets us know that there is “free speech” in China — as long as you regurgitate the calcified beliefs of the party.
April 27, 2004 @ 9:37 pm | Comment
18
By Emile
Wa keng, hole diging, great !
I had been wondering how you said “troll” in chinese, and if that wonderfull part of geek culture has filtered into the chinese online culture.
April 28, 2004 @ 1:52 am | Comment
19
By Amatyultare
May I ask a question?
Why is it always ‘running dogs’?
Are running dogs somehow intrinsically worse than, say, jumping dogs or sitting dogs?
Just wondering…
April 29, 2004 @ 7:34 pm | Comment
20
By ts
i’m a regular participant on the chinadaily forums and can say they do actually allow quite a bit of leeway in terms of what is posted (at least in the forums). they pick and choose some posts to publish on the front page as a way of boosting participation in the forums.
this “blackie lau” guy is just one of many handles that is used by someone we call “chairman.” surprisingly, this guy is actually a white foreigner who has repatriated himself in shenzhen, where he supposedly works as a board member for a chinese electronics firm.
it’s a laugh to see his “article” commented on here. i’ll be sure to tell my fellow forumites.
thanks.
ts
July 7, 2004 @ 1:19 pm | Comment
21
By richard
Thanks, TS — send all those China Daily forum readers over to my blog. I’m sure they’ll have fun here, even if most of them hate me with a passion.
July 7, 2004 @ 1:43 pm | Comment
22
By Calimero
The below was posted by Lau Guan Kim in the China Daily forum:
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumpost.shtml?toppid=124881
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sneaky ‘hilarity’ against Blackie Lau is sprinkling salt to the wounds of Chinese pride
Lau Guan Kim
Singapore
2001-07-08. No restriction against the use of this article in the spirit of free thought and expression.
I have seen it all – this hilarity with a wry political humour.
If I may be so uncouth as to distil the ‘essence’ of the participants of the referred Website as one odoriferous murky brew fit only as sustenance for the buffoons and baboons of the Internet.
Hilarity is one where we all share the foibles and flaws in our actions as to laugh at our own quirks or idiosyncrasies.
Not, as I look at the on-goings of the proceedings, it was meant to ridicule with humiliation as its prime motive. Do we not detect a superior air, and some imperial dismissive in the jibes of these political yokels?
Where is the defence of free thought if they are orchestrating a hilarity that is more a suppression in disguise?
Indeed, hilarity is the ability to laugh at ourselves. But when one party laughs and the other party ridiculed and humiliated, would you conscientiously still maintain that is hilarity?
The desired behaviour from them, as these self-proclaimed political pundits and gurus would have us believed their dour and morbid humour, was to come into China Daily and take up cudgels against Blackie Lau in open debates.
But instead, they went about in a sneaky way to ridicule unreasonably Blackie Lau without giving him the same avenue of free thought as they were wont to carp on such misdemeanour on China’s part as infringement of human rights or the archaic views of one who is exercising his franchise to free thoughts.
I do not necessarily agree with Blackie Lau’s view in this instance, but I would be doing free thought and expression a disservice if I were to ridicule him – and done behind his back.
In that sense I am venting displeasure of what I think is remiss in a responsible and concerned political campaigner.
As for a bigot, sad to say, he often never sees himself that way.
[End]
2004-07-08 23:02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Come and join in this discussion richard and others, if you want your ideas challenged. The insights on this site are deeper than portrayed in this, your thread.
July 8, 2004 @ 9:23 am | Comment
23
By ts
seriously though, you guys should see the chinadaily forums. they are really progressing in terms of allowing “subversive” thought. it’s changed a lot, even in the past six months.
July 8, 2004 @ 10:25 pm | Comment
24
By Simon World
Asia by blog
Before I begin today’s edition a simple request: if you come across an entry (or you’ve got an entry on your blog) that you think should appear here, please send it to me. Also if you have any feedback on the current format or other likes and dislikes …
July 12, 2004 @ 1:55 am | Comment
25
By richard
I don’t know what Lau has been smoking, but he doesn’t seem to see that the original article was an extrended, hysterical rant about the evil Western dogs, using language that I thought was extinct everywhere except North Korea. I was just trying to offer some historical perspective: Westerners committed lots of bad things in a loty of places, but to lay all the responsibility for China’s problems in the lap of the West is unfair and historically inaccurate.
July 12, 2004 @ 4:15 pm | Comment
26
By china
I want to say that china have not invasion intent and hope to develop with all of the world. we want to live peaceful. and our government want to prosper.
July 13, 2004 @ 1:16 am | Comment
27
By Liang1ahost
China can achieve the sole ultra-superpower status within 30 years when with its awesome economic power and high technologies it could deploy the most formidable military power. And with such an invincible military power it could globalize the world in China’s image of universal justice, peace,
and prosperity.
May 20, 2005 @ 7:17 pm | Comment