Good Night from China.

Bedtime.  But before I go to sleep, I will mention the disaster that my English Corner almost became this evening.  The topic was Public Relations.  I asked if China was getting bad P.R. because of the torch relay fiasco.  A dumb thing for me to ask because it lead to a bad scene as students complained about the fellow on CNN who made remarks that the Chinese Government did not like.  I said that the singling out of one person on CNN (often called the Clinton News Network or the Communist News Network by Right-Wing Conservative Republicans) seemed rather strange to Westerners because the opinions that the one reporter expressed were nothing out of the ordinary in the American media environment and were one man's opinion. 

From there the atmosphere of the class became heated and strong statements were made back and forth.  A few students said that the CNN reporter was irresponsible and had insulted the Chinese people.  Another  student complained about  the coverage of the Tibet riots giving what seemed to be a recitation of the Chinese Government Line.  Another student then said that China had better human rights than America.  He mentioned some report that the Chinese government had culled from the American press about some incident of police shooting black people.  I almost lost my temper at that point saying that they should remember that the Chinese government has no credibility in the West and that the students should not think of the criticism of the Chicoms as being an insult to most Chinese people.  I should have taught them the meaning of the word cherry-pick.

But then the students quickly said we should not talk politics in class anymore.  Fine by Me.

The Chinese government is using the debate tactic of acknowledging the charge but taking it as an insult.  Said another teacher:  many of the Chinese have probably never hear such hostile criticism of their government before.  Since there is no way that the torch relay controversy can be ignored, the government has had to adopt this tact.  The Chinese are reacting in a strong manner to the criticism as this evening's English Corner has demonstrated.