The West pays a price for loving to hate China
Updated: 2008-04-15 07:39
In the morning of April 6th, looking at the snow flakes falling outside the window, I could not but wonder: what the torch relay would be like?
About eight hours later, when the torch finally struggled through the route, Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes ran up to light the Olympic cauldron at O2 Dome, 4,000 spectators cheered.
This day will be remembered as Beijing met London with splashes and sparkles. It was an encounter between China, the first developing country to host the Olympics, and Britain, the first Western country to greet the torch.
On the bus to the airport, I was with some young girls from the Beijing team, including an Olympic Gold Medalist Miss Qiao. They were convinced that the people here were against them. One girl remarked she could not believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens.
I cannot blame them. I fully understood how they felt. They were running between vehicles for the whole day, noses red and hands cold, trying to service the torch bearers. They had only about three hours of sleep the previous night and some were having lunch sandwiches just now. Worse still, they had to repeatedly endure violent attacks on the torch throughout the relay. I was fortunate to sit at the rear bus and saw smiling faces of Londoners who came out in tens of thousands, old people waving and young performers dancing, braving the cold weather.
In the darkness of London night, waving the chartered plane good-bye, I had a feeling the plane was heavier than when it landed. The torch will carry on and the journey will educate the over-a-billion Chinese people about the world and the world about China.
A young friend in China wrote to me after watching the event on BBC: "I felt so many things all at once - sadness, anger and confusion". It must have dawned on many like him that simply a sincere heart was not enough to ensure China's smooth integration with the world. The wall that stands in China's way to the world is thick and heavy.
In China, what is hot at this moment on the Internet, for which China has 200 million users, is not only the attempts to snatch the torch but also some moving images of Jin Jing, a slim young girl, a Paralympic athlete in a wheelchair helped by an athlete with visual impairment. She held a torch with both arms to her chest as violent "protesters" tried repeatedly to grab it from her during the Paris relay. There is especially infuriated criticism of some of the mis-reporting of China in recent weeks like crafting photos or even using photos from other countries to prove a "crackdown".
On the other side of the wall, the story is different. I am concerned that mutual perceptions between the people of China and the West are quickly drifting in opposite directions.
I cannot help asking why, when it comes to China, the generalized accusations can easily be accepted without people questioning what exactly and specifically they mean. I cannot help asking why any story or figures can stay on the news for days without factual support.
Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land and information about it is ample. Four million tourists visit Tibet every year. The past five years saw the income of farmers and herdsmen increasing by 83.3 percent. In 2006, there were more than 1,000 schools with 500,000 students. In this autonomous region where 92 percent of the population is Tibetan, there are 1,780 temples, or one for every 1,600 people - more than in England, where there is one church for every 3,125 people. On the complicated question of religion mixing up with politics, separation is unacceptable. But people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China.
I personally experienced China's transition to opening up, from small steps to bigger strides. I remain a consistent and firm supporter of opening up.
The latest events have led the younger generation of Chinese born after the 1980s, who grew up in a more prosperous and better- educated China, to begin a collective rethinking about the West. My daughter, who loves Western culture, must have used the word "why" dozens of times in our long online chat. Her frustration could be felt between the lines. Many who had romantic views about the West are very disappointed at the media's attempt to demonize China. We all know demonization feeds a counter reaction.
Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the Western media needs to make an effort to earn respect. It would be helpful to the credibility of the Western media if the issues they care and write about are of today's China, not of things that do not exist or of the long gone past.
In my one year in the UK, I have realized there is a lot more media coverage about China than when I was a student here in the mid-80s and most are quite close to the real life in China. China is also in an era of information explosion. I am sure that more and more people in the West will be able to cross the language and cultural barriers and find out more about the real China.
The world has waited for China to join it. Now China has to have the patience to wait for the world to understand China.
The author is Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom
(China Daily 04/15/2008 page8)
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