chinese olympics and the chinese

Look people. I understand that I am ignorant of the China-Tibet situation, so don't start slamming me for advocating what, in my opinion, you wrongfully call "the new Holocaust" or a genocide, or whatever other atrocities you've dubbed this situation. I get it, ok? I get it, and anyone with half a brain in the US, Europe, South America or Asia would also get that Tibet is being mistreated by China. I get it. This is the exact problem I have with certain types of people here in America. I have a problem with people who are ignorant of an ancient culture, a culture that people like Anthony Bourdain would say cannot be summed unless in a significant amount of time with a significant amount of effort. Do you understand anything about Chinese people? Do you even understand anything about any Asian country and its culture, those of you who have been harboring feelings of disdain toward "the commies" such as Northern Vietnamese and China? Do you even have the slightest inkling? If you say yes, I would call you a shameless liar, because I don't even know my own Asian culture as well as I ought to, much less other Asian cultures. You, you as internet dwellers with nothing more to do than to insult other people's cultures on an anonymous public forum--I hope you find much joy in knowing that such a dishonorable action is bound to summon karmic retribution. Onto the cause of my anger.

One of my facebook acquaintances has come across something that also ticks me off.

I stumbled upon a post on a celebrity gossip website showing an item purchased obviously from a Chinese store with a celebrity's head photoshopped upon the body. I definitely thought it was funny, until I saw a comment by this imbecile that was uncalled for and that completely crossed the line and missed the point of the post.

Submitted by cuntess on July 11, 2008 - 1:15am.
Damned Chinese rip off everyhing known to mankind, but can't spell worth shit. I can't wait for them to be humiliated at the Olympics.

So I replied saying that was racist (cue macro) and that I was Chinese. Someone else replied to my comment.

I'll agree the first part sounds kind of racist. Do you live in China?

There are probably millions of people out there saying the same shit at this moment because of what the Chinese are doing to Tibet. Try looking up "China and Tibet" and see what comes up. Then you'll understand why people think the Chinese deserve to be humiliated at the upcoming Olympics.

Also, how do you know the person who posted the comment is Tibetan?

I hope you are happy with the kind of people that represent your culture. That was really graceful. This person addressed quite a few problems with these kinds of comments in her note, which I shall post here for efficiency purposes.

Nice generalization. First off, this person obviously doesn't understand that Chinese people have no say in their government and should definitely not be held accountable or penalized for their government's actions. Even though I don't want to get into the China-Tibet-Olympics bloodfest, the Olympics are about UNITY and athletics and should not be tainted by political turbulence. I hate how so many people act like they can douse glue our whole population and to amass us all together and then label us all "rip-offs", "pirates", "human rights violators," etc. Another person commented comparing China's situation with Tibet to Nazi Germany's Jewish extermination regime. China has promised to improved its human rights policies, and that comparision is completely out of line. That person then continued with this audaciously impudent comment "If they wanted to end that shit, they could. There are like a billion of them." This clearly uneducated idiot thinks the Chinese could wake up one day, eat their xi fan, magically assemble, and overthrow the government. China's not even Communist anymore!

Okay, I know there is a lot of piracy in China and you all probably own a pirated DVD from China with some whack pseudo-English description on the back completely irrelevant to the movie, but please, pretty much every American teenager gets a significant amount of their music illegally via torrents and P2P sharing and watch movies & TV shows through various illegal websites. One could argue that it's different because the Chinese distributers of pirated media make money from it, but I'm sure the websites make money also from ads on their *please donate* sections of their websites.

Also, to say the Chinese "rip-off" everything is so ridiculous. Every country has taken ideas developed in other countries. Half of the electronics here are "ripped-off" from Japan. How can people make these ignorant accusations without fully acknowledging the contributions the Chinese have made to mankind millennia ago.

Everyone knows China has its faults, but the people should hardly be blamed, and the country and its people hardly deserve to be HUMILIATED at an event like the Olympic which China is so proud to finally host. Appreciation for China's rich culture is atrociously disproportioned to criticism of its every move. It's gotten to a point where it seems to me that "Chinese" has a bad connotation in this country.

Honestly, few people would dare to write a similar comment about the black population like that because there will be a ton of people that'll jump on their ass. Why do we have to endure this type of racism? Why do we have to be the silent minority? We don't have a spokesperson for us or even Asian Americans as a whole. Even though there are many activist groups, we're only making a whisper -- a murmur. I don't think we should tolerate such blunt racism that probably is largely ignored in public forums like this.

This was a much needed rant, and people might actually listen to me for once because my parents think my feelings toward this are silly and I didn't know any Chinese people my age up until this year.


Have you gone to China to meet the people there? I haven't, either, but once you get there and you get to know someone and see the way they live, hear what they have to say then you can start trashing people if you still disagree. Have you met the Olympic athletes? Do you know how hard they train? Look at your own Olympic athletes and you'll get an idea. What would you say if the US held an Olympic event and countries started boycotting for its decision to invade and stay in Iraq? What if someone else started to talk about the lack of decency and respect given to the 1st amendment from the people who sell porn by the millions and the people who use computer-generated graphics to create legal child porn? What if they said that Americans are nothing but ungrateful pigs with their fast food chains and indecent entertainment and hypocrisy? That's exactly the kind of thing you're doing with Chinese people. If you ask random people on the street about the war in Iraq, you're bound to get a variety of responses, correct? In the same way, China, with it's "billions of procreating people" are bound have different opinions as well. Or have us Asians become mindless government-obeying freaks? Please, give up on the idea that "if the Chinese wanted to get out of this, they can revolt". Let me ask you this. let's say you're unhappy with the US government, now tell me how exactly you're going to stage a country-wide mass revolt? There are so many problems with that argument that I'm not even going to address the failures that would ensure. That revolt would be reduced to massacres of the people or even worse, a war. What growing country would like to do that to itself? Moving on...China is a CAPITALIST country. Ask any Asian and they can tell you that it's not the militaristic "killer of defiance", communist dictatorship that it used to be. Get over that image already and do us all a favor. Also, to the people who are so eager to dirty up other people, have you looked at your own country? The problems I've named above are only a few that I am personally annoyed with. There's also a problem with feeding your children crap that's been processed by industrial farms and genetically enhanced vegetables that's been grown using chemically-altered/improved soil and fertilizer. Oh please. There is much to say about a culture that's bent on serving its people's need for the cheapest foods and the quickest means to get that food--and it's slowly killing you. There's also a problem with companies exploiting other countries like...oh say....CHINA for its cheap labor and its willingness to use other cheaper fuel sources like coal that cause pollution to its people? Do those American companies care about that? Oh, of course they don't. The laws of business doesn't deal with other countries' problems. Or what about the outsourcing to India or the shipment of other cheap clothing from Vietnam. Go look at the tags on your clothes and the stickers on your foods and household products. Look at the cheap shrimp that you're buying from Thailand and Maalaysia (shipped to Harris Teeter and other chain stores) and the soft-shelled crab from Vietnam. Look, like that girl I quoted, there's a lot to be said about every country. I can name a lot of things about my own country, so don't get me started on that 'cause they make me angry, too. My country is Vietnam in case you're wondering. I am an immigrant so don't start slamming me for being a know-nothing foreigner. I know someone absolutely DYING to. Even though I name these problems, I am WELL AWARE that it's not plaguing the whole population. Not ever citizen is a greedy businessman bent on exploiting poorer, struggling countries.

Don't perpetuate the grossly widespread idea that Asians all go around bootlegging movies and music and games and then badly translate them to chopped English. If this is me not spelling anything worth shit as an immigrant, then sure, I'm glad you have such high standards for English-speaking peoples. The Olympics, as this girl said, is about unity, it's about athletes who have worked too damn hard for people to wish they will be HUMILIATED at an event that they're hosting. China has worked its ass off in since the last Olympic to prepare for this year, so be courteous. I also get annoyed at people who boycott the Olympics because in the end, you're punishing your own athletes from keeping them back. Did those people do anything to you? If you're going to take a stand for something, then do it with honor and with a better vocabulary and a stronger point of view than that person did. Use a better username, too, than cuntess. Or is that a little American misspelling? If you're wondering whether or not I'm being spiteful, yes...yes, I am. It makes me angry to see people, especially my peopke, being disguatingly attacked.