Higher, Faster, Stronger!

It has been a very long week. I have been through stages of feeling shocked, hurt, angry, depressed, confused, and finally calm and in some way enlightened, hopefully.

Lots of Chinese were actually shocked at the beginning to realized how much the Tibetans hated us. Many Chinese thought the we freed them from the medieval life style when the upper class mostly living Buddhas and monks owned everything even lives. We thought many Chinese of every generation volunteered or forced by the government to go to Tibet to build schools, hospitals, railways and the economy(Tibet has no natural resource nor they pay any tax) so that in the last decade the GDP in Tibet increased by 10% every year, higher than most areas in the rest of China and rest of the World. I think in some way what has happened in the last week is a good thing to Chinese. Finally we have to face the reality that there is something very wrong.

Lots of Chinese were angry because of the bias and the injustice done by the western media who has always portraited itself as the representative of justice, freedom and all that jazz (for more information, check out http://www.anti-cnn.com/). Personally I think there might be some good coming out of it. At least we know how it feels like to be the minority with a weaker voice and how it feels like when nobody gives a damn of what you have to say.

I was so confused. I have been reading so much in the past week (that's why I was late at work everyday :P). I tried to find out as many sides of the story as possible. I've realized how ignorant I have been on other ethnic groups in China and all the related problems. There are 56 different reported ethnic groups living in China. More than 90% of the Chinese population is Han Chinese (Han is the first dynasty of China 206 BC–220 AD, and that's what we call ourselves. Some older generation Chinese also call them selves Tang Chinese after the Tang Dynasty 618-907, when Chinese civilization reached the peak.) As the absolute dominant group, we have done many things we are not proud of especially during the Cultural Revolution. National collective craziness is not an excuse. We have never apologized. We have failed miserably to listen, to understand and to respect.

Most of the countries in the world has more than one ethnic group, and almost all of them have related issues. I don't know if every ethnic group needs to have its own country. But I do believe that when they are the same country it CAN work. As one of the Han Chinese, I think we need to drop that superior attitude, to judge less and to listen more carefully especially to the weaker voices. As the dominant group it is our responsibility and obligation to help them preserve their own culture, the language, the tradition, instead of trying to 'digest' them. I have learned that we should not be so fast to judge, to take side. We should listen more carefully, weaker the voices is more chance should be given for them to be heard.

I have had a relatively easy life. I missed the Cultural Revolution. I was 2 years old when it ended. I was 14 when Tiananmen event happened, too young to understand what was really going on. All I remember was I couldn't sleep because of the sound of gun shots (I didn't even know it was gun shots. I thought it was some kind of fire work), and the sound of my Dad's footsteps. He was pacing in our apartment the entire night. China and Chinese need freedom, democracy and human rights. But the revolution has to come from within. We have done it many times through out the history, and we can do it again. We shouldn't rely on the help from others especially the western world. They have become so rich and powerful by 'helping' others. There is no forever friends nor enemies. The only thing forever is profit.

Ethnicity is such a loosely defined term. It all depends on how far back you want to go. If you are willing to go all the way back, we would all end up in a small village in Africa. We are not that different after all. Study history, not just your version of the history, everyone else's too. Knowing where we came from, we would have better idea of where we are standing now and where we are or should be heading. The most powerful instrument of the devil is ignorance.

China is my mother land. Beijing is my home. All Chinese in spite of nationalities wish a great Olympic Game of 2008!

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Footnote:

Some people ask me about Dalai Lama. The 'rock star' status of Dalai Lama in the Western world shows how ignorant the Western world is on Buddhism. Compassion is the fundamental and core teaching of Buddhism. It has always been. You should not call yourself a Buddhist if you don't preach it. Personally I don't know enough of him to judge. I have more questions of him than answers. I don't know why he pictures Tibet as this snowy peaceful heavenly place. I don't know why he doesn't tell the world what Tibet was really like under his control. To me he is as much a politician as a Buddhist. Whether he does what he preaches can only be told with time.