One of my old posts on the lunacy of a China Daily opinion piece seems to have been brought back to life over at a China Daily forum.
This was where I blasted a writer, Blackie Lau, for saying the US (“the running dogs of war”) caused all of China’s problems. Lau made lots of other weird assertions, and commenters had a field day fisking away.
Here’s a portion from one of the more outspoken posts to the forum:
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’ve replied to the somewhat bizarre charges over at the bulletin board. It’s an interesting thread, and I’m certainly flattered.
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By Filthy Stinking No.9
Well, I was going to contribute to the discussion, but frankly I don’t feel like registering at the website, so I forgot about it … but … My god … don’t the people attacking Richard realise what idiots they’re making of themselves? Obviously not!
July 8, 2004 @ 8:47 pm | Comment
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By richard
It’s quite hilarious, and there’s not even a trace of serious debate about issues or facts. Just mud-slinging. Luckily I’m used to being called names, and if that’s the only way they can respond, their argument can’t be too solid….
July 8, 2004 @ 9:01 pm | Comment
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By ts
well, richard, i think that if your mao post in the “world conflict” section stays up (it’s been up three hours so far), then you should write a retraction concerning the obstinance of the chinadaily censors/moderators. despite the crazies, we manage to have some good discussions there, where hopefully chinese nationals will be “subverted.”
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumpost.shtml?toppid=125598
July 8, 2004 @ 10:38 pm | Comment
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By richard
Well, they already deleted my first response to the Blackie Lau article. So I’m not going to celebrate yet — most likely the censor is out scarfing shots of baijiu. Give them time. (Although, frankly, I thought my post about Mao would be zapped in a matter of minitres.)
July 8, 2004 @ 10:51 pm | Comment
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By tsupasat
mao post still there. i guess it’ll stay up. i’ve never seen them take something down after a couple days.
the chinadaily forums are fairly new in their present form. before, they were just plain ol’ bbs’es like xinhua. but since august last year, they’ve taken on a lot of new functions … and new users in the process. i think it’s an incredible window in the changing political climate.
July 9, 2004 @ 3:15 pm | Comment
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By richard
It is. Do you think they’ll accept my invitation to go through Blackie’s article line by line, as opposed to just calling me names?
July 9, 2004 @ 3:28 pm | Comment
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By Calimero
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“canchin” responded to this site in the china daily forum
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Ah look,
We have another one that shows by what he writes that he has little knowledge of China and yet assumes that the infinitesmal grains he somehow garnered can be used as a blanket comment on the entire age of Mao.
Sure, let’s forget the fight against the japanese and the millions of deaths they caused, the fight against the corrupt and even more evil – because they were doing against their own people – GMD.
Let’s not mention any of the good.
Let’s forget about the removal of so much of the antiquated superstition that kept China in darkness for ages. Let’s forget about the emancipation of women. Let’s forget about the years of growth and immense improvements in China from the time of the victory over the japanese and the GMD up to the CR. Let’s just forget all about them because after all – america says Mao was a communist and as everyone knows communists hide under your bed and jump out and scare you at night – ooooh!
We shouldn’t mention the help given to the GMD by the american pacific fleet to steal all of the wealth they could possibly carry in their cowardly flight to the island – leaving China essentially broke but still strong enough to deal with the treason of the GMD.
Let’s not breathe about the purposeful involvement of China in the Korean War while she was preparing to get rid of the hated GMD for good. You know, surely, how when Mao gave a warning that if american forces stayed ‘below’ a certain point she would not be involved but because america didn’t want Mao to end the evil of the GMD the american forces purposely “crossed that line” so as to involve China. Gee, guess they made an error of judgement in thinking the Chinese would not keep their word. Huh, wrong!
Let’s not discuss the evil of america allowing the japanese to surrender to them and letting most of their war criminals off for the information japan gained by the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of Chinese people – just so america could design better cold weather clothing and chemical protection suits.
Naw, let’s take a small period of time, a time when more than anything China was in the control of the Gang of Four, and let’s use that! Yes, that’s the american way! Find a fault that can be used to ignore the good – but ignore the faults at home.
You’ve had 5 insulting posts – you should probably stop while you’re ahead.
The McCarthyist bullshit you spout is pure american propoganda – guess what, we’re past that; deal with it.
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumpost.shtml?toppid=125598
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You, Richard, take one post you do not like and take that to criticize the whole site. You make your readers assume this post is a fine example of what is going on in this site. It is not. The China Daily forum is one of the most active and intelligent forums this world has.
Your views are antiquated.
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July 12, 2004 @ 3:12 am | Comment
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By Calimero
Oh, by the way: one of the reasons the china daily forum is so intelligent and active is because it is so international. People from all over the world are participating, not just people from the us, but from canada, many from europe, people from all over asia, and australia join in. Even martians! AND Chinese, not to forget!
canchin, for example, has been living in china for almost two decades now, he knows his stuff!
July 12, 2004 @ 3:27 am | Comment
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By richard
Canchin may know about China but he sure doesn’t know about my blog! He says all I do is point to Mao and the Cultural Revolution to base what I say about China. Not true. I post much more about SARS, AIDS in China, Tiananmen Square and the corrution in the 21st century than I do about Mao. But one can’t ignore the C.R. and the Great Leap Backwards when discussing Mao’s legacy — someone on the message board refers to these things as “blunders” that don’t really reflect Mao’s legacy. I strongly disagree with that. Many more people died from these unnecessary tragedies than in the Holocaust. They epitomize who Mao was, how his mind works, and his obsession with being a cult figure. It is a tragedy of unspeakable dimensions and can’t just be dismisssed in any discussion of Mao. Lau Guan Kim does dismiss these things when he says China only became great and healthy after 1949. There was some wonderful reform that lasted a short while, and then…. Well, we all know the tragic story of the famines and the C.R., and how a power-drunk megalomaniac almost destroyed the nation you (and I) love so much.
July 12, 2004 @ 10:47 am | Comment