A Next Media video simulation of a Taiwanese student in Korea was introducing her nation and Chinese students rushing the stage to threaten her, as non-Asian foreigners move to protect her! As a bonus look at the effects of visual media, see how inflammatory the video is -- it contains no balancing information -- compared to the article, which balances the usual bombastic, violent, ignorant rhetoric of the Chinese with sane voices that argue she had every right to speak...但中國留學生的部落格上也有網友以繁體中文留言回應：「外國人幾百年前就說過『我不同意你的看法，但尊重你的發言權。』今天的中國人遠比幾百年前的外國人還落後。」直指中國留學生未經過民主薰陶，不懂尊重別人發言。as well as information from the authorities.
[Basically, "...hundreds of years ago foreigners said that I don't agree with your point of view, but I respect your right to express it. Today Chinese were more primitive than foreigners hundreds of years ago."]
UPDATE: Taipei Times story.
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What can you say? Too often students from the PRC while abroad exercise their "right to free speech" mostly in the form of intimidating others out of expressing alternative points of view. There have been several similar incidents at academic forums in the US on issues such as Tibet, Taiwan, Human Rights, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's a 文化大革命 mentality that seems to have a sad and pernicious persistence.
Just wait-- in a few years, Chinese students may be doing the exact same thing in Taiwan...when Taiwanese universities' dream of attracting hundreds of thousands of Chinese students finally comes true.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm wondering about is how that will play in the local media in Taiwan, and how the two parties will react.
I also wonder whether Taiwanese universities who are able to attract a large number of students from China may eventually become financially dependent on catering to that particular nationality. And will that affect the market "value" of degrees from those schools? Will those Taiwanese universities adjust their curriculum, textbooks, guidelines, administration style, etc., to conform with Chinese "best practices"? They will, I'm sure, if they see a financial advantage in doing so. Of course, I have no idea how big a difference there is between the way Taiwanese and Chinese universities are run. Maybe the difference is less that I am assuming.
Maybe Taiwanese universities will eventually just decide to hire professors and administrators from China, too. That's probably what the Chinese students would prefer, anyway. Having more Chinese professors might even become a selling-point that Taiwanese universities will use to compete with each other in attracting even more Chinese students.
What do you think?
--scott
Bexar County
That's outrageous. This will not be an isolated incident. As the Chinese become wealthier and more powerful, incidents like this will occur with more regularity. The problem is that the Chinese nation is too insecure to tolerate difference in opinion yet powerful and wealthy enough to act upon their fears.
ReplyDeleteRemember the Tai Kwon Do shout down or the Video Game World Championship awarding ceremony?
ReplyDeleteIt happens plenty. Taiwanese are from a different culture that is not as verbally aggressive as Chinese.
This kind of situation is happening just too many times for me to consider that these are just one-time incidents. It's a common theme in Chinese that are abroad, and I would not say, that it is unfair to say that most Chinese abroad have similar mentality, but that most don't act on it.
ReplyDeleteIt's not all innocence and "free speech" on the Taiwan side when these things happen. Taiwanese living abroad know they're being provocative in front of Chinese nationalists, and I think the tactic is a clever one, since it seems to happen when the media is also present, thus exposing China's goon squads sent abroad to keep a check on "splittists."
ReplyDeleteMuch better than in the bad ol' KMT days where the anti-Taiwan goon squads were largely silent and sometimes deadly.
As a citizen of PRC, I was put to shame by such uncivilized behavior. It is so sad that some of my fellow country men are badly brain-washed by CCP propaganda. I hope those kids would regret what they did when they become more mature. And I strongly believe that there will be a day of reckoning, just like the day when Berlin wall fell on its own weight.
ReplyDeleteIf it's any consolation, here is an apology offer by Mr. Shen about a similar case ( http://kl.am/5qYI ) , which is pretty much what I am trying to say here. As a citizen of mainland China, I feel deeply sorry the mistreatment of Taiwanese. What we did was wrong.
By the time when I was writing this piece, the blog you were talking about has already been shut down. To keep evidence of such rude behavior, here are some cached contents of that blog:
http://is.gd/5gHfY
http://is.gd/5gHk0
Hoping such incidents will multiply
ReplyDeletea thousand fold so that Pres. Obama and the whole world will at last know the BIG difference between Taiwan and China.
Masalu
It's hardly surprising. These kids are brought up in a highly nationalist society with severe press/freedom of speech restrictions. They just don't know any better.
ReplyDeleteBut people shouldn't stereotype Chinese overseas students either. It's only ever a couple of nutters who cause trouble, no different from local nutters who grab the mics off visitors they don't like, shout and try to disrupt events, etc. The large majority of Chinese students can hardly care less when they're studying outside of China.
There might be a risk of Chinese students causing trouble at Taiwanese universities, but don't non-Chinese students already cause stunts, etc? Then there's the potential benefit that studying alongside large numbers of Taiwanese students will shift their views because they'll be exposed to them on a far larger basis.
Are you surprised? I'm not. Remember when Chen yuanlin visited Taiwan? When the Ma administration did not allow our own people to display our own flag in our own land, what can be more preposterous than that. My dear blue friends, do you still have an excuse to defend your chairman Ma?
ReplyDeleteI agree with EVERYBODY!
ReplyDeleteMichael
"Taiwanese living abroad know they're being provocative in front of Chinese nationalists"
ReplyDeleteI like how this is turned around and Taiwanese students are the provocateurs. Nice. I like that. Very creative!
Formosans are Mandarin-speaking Japanese. Go ask former president Lee Deng-hui’s generation. To anyone with a heart to listen, these Formosans whisper they are Japanese.
ReplyDelete64 years on and counting, PROChinese intuit that much. They would not dare treating present day otakus the way they do those they assume to be low-cast Riben guizi.
Taiwanese would do well to put their tongue where their heart is in adopting Japanese as their official language. That would show loyalty to their former overlords, filial piety to their long-suppressed forefathers and gratitude to both.
And that would deal the international community the kick in the noodle it mightily deserves for having allowed on Formosa the ugly farce the ROC amounts to. And while we are at it, how about pursuing a Japanese Commonwealth pact with their former colonizer?
Then the PROC students would have an added incentive for joining a Taiwanese university – i.e., total immersion in Nihongo on that outpost of Yamatai culture. That would teach the oafs manners and proper kotobazukai.
Here in California, it goes both ways. A number of students of mainland Chinese parentage purposely use provocative speech to Taiwanese, including your typical "you went to Taiwan? Welcome to China" idiocy.
ReplyDeleteA number of students of Taiwanese parentage, regardless of birthplace, also purposely use provocative speech despite the presence of mainland-origin students, such as ethnic insults. I've heard slanderous generalizations relating to wealth and manners while speaking to entire classes.
That said, the vast majority of young mainland/Taiwan people here are civil and seem to generally understand the complex relationship, so they mostly avoid confrontational attitudes.
Raj, what stunts are the Foreign Students of Taiwan pull?
ReplyDeleteIt's just a matter of time before the Chinese try this with the wrong crowd, and some of them get shot. Then I'll be cheering!
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, if anybody wants a license to kill Chinese, this would be a good way to do it and never get charged with a crime.
Anon at 8:22 said: "Come to think of it, if anybody wants a license to kill Chinese, this would be a good way to do it"
ReplyDeleteUm...which Chinese do you want to see killed, pal?
Mandarin-speaking Japanese? Not a very funny joke.
ReplyDelete