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Little Olympic Girl in Red Dress Pulls an ‘Ashley Simpson’
Posted in The Vance Report on 08/12/2008 09:30 pm
On Friday night near the very beginning of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the world witnessed the appearance of a beautiful little Chinese girl in a charming red dress who sang a heartwarming song as the Chinese flag entered the Bird’s Nest Stadium. Despite the magical and spectacular performance that followed her song, the image of her smiling face and the sound of her sweet and tender voice captivated the world at large and many are still ‘gushing’ over what they describe as one of the most touching moments of the ceremony.
There is just one problem. The little girl who we saw on the stage was not the little girl who we heard sing the song. The Telegraph Newspaper in England reports today that the show’s musical designer, Chen Qigang, “gave an interview to Beijing radio saying the real singer was a seven-year-old girl who had won a gruelling competition to perform the anthem, a patriotic song called ‘Hymn to the Motherland’”. The real singer is a little Chinese girl named Yang Peiyi who according to the article and Beijing radio ”might have a perfect voice but was unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth. ”
The music designer defended his decision by stating that it was “a question of the image of our national music, our national culture.” Apparently, Mr. Chen felt that attaining ‘perfection’ was the most important priority and that it could be only achieved by combining a perfect voice and a ‘perfect’ little girl.
While lip synching is certainly not a new phenenenom in musical performances, the fact that the girl who sang the hymn was passed up because she was not cute enough is a little disturbing. First, if you take a look at the picture of Yang Peiyi, you will quickly discover that she is actually very cute. I hardly would have noticed her ‘buck teeth’ had not someone pointed them out to me. I am sure that a performance by her would have had the same charming effect on the world. Second, if Beijing was willing to deceive the world in this manner, one has to wonder what other measures were taken to make sure that the opening ceremony went so smoothly . We already know that some of the spectacular firework displays over Beijing were staged; coupled with the revelation about this little girl, there are sure to be more questions forthcoming about Friday night.
For me, staged fireworks and lip synching do not take away from the grandness of the opening ceremony. However, they do leave me feeling a little uneasy inside because we all know that Beijing is an expert at deceiving the world. If it was able to pull these relatively innocent deceptions off so smoothly, I shudder to think about what else it might have been able to hide from the world in the weeks leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games
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08/13/2008 at 9:41 am
My guess is cuteness had little to do with it. Just another guess; Communist party membership of her parents probably trumped all else
08/13/2008 at 9:44 am
@Corky,
Thanks for your comment. We can guess all we want I suppose or we can go with what the music director himself said; she simply was not cute enough.
08/14/2008 at 9:15 am
This lip synching thing is clearly not guarded as national secret. Whatever Beijing has deceived the world this time, Beijing also tells the truth. So this incident won’t justify your guess of “I shudder to think about what else they might have been able to hide from the world in the weeks leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games”.
08/15/2008 at 7:24 am
People this is just plain old rude because if the real singer is not cute enough why can’t she just put make up on or something. it’s on the inside, not the outside,,,,
08/16/2008 at 12:04 pm
@Robert,
Be fair now, this goes on all around the world. In the US, American politicians wear American flag pins because people are very superficial and the media goes to mock them if they do not wear one. So, they react to these silly superficial things and try to prevent them by doing what the Chinese government did:
They feared that people would be superficial and mock China for having a bucked-tooth girl singing, so they brought out a cuter girl.
Yes, it’s still wrong what China did, but we should look at the root of the problem first imo.
08/16/2008 at 3:43 pm
@Demerzel,
You are right. China is not the only country that worries about appearances. However, this story is another disturbing reminder of how hard China works to give itself a PERFECT image. People here don’t even talk about Silver and Bronze Olympic medals. Such medals don’t exist as far as they are concerned. Perfection is the only option…
And now in light of the scandal involving the underage Chinese girls participating in the women’s gymnastics competition, I think we can safely say that this instance of lip synching, the staged fireworks, and the fake minority children are just the tip of the iceberg. China will do ANYTHING to obtain this perfection that they are obsessed with…
Replacing this little girl with a ‘cuter’ little girl doesn’t bother me so much. It is just that I fear that if these little deceptions are being revealed to the world, there are probably many larger ones that we will never know about…
08/16/2008 at 8:17 pm
@Robert Vance
You have serious stereotype problem. If Chinese gov need this Olympic opening to be perfect, why did the musical designer let out the “serect” in a state run radio station?
Again people nowadays talk about Silver and Bronze Olympic medals, You just conveniently ignore that.
08/16/2008 at 10:18 pm
Just before I post, Chen Jing has won a Bronze Olympic medals in man’s badminton, and he is all we’re talking about right now.
08/17/2008 at 11:16 am
@Robert
How one views the medal counts are differences of opinions. Some countries focus on gold only, some view the top three overall. But they are certainly talking about 2nd or 3rd place people as Chen correctly notes.
I do not doubt there are larger ones, it /is/ an authoritarian country after all.
08/17/2008 at 1:03 pm
@Chen,
It’s a good question. Why did the musical designer share this secret? I was very surprised. I’m sure the government wasn’t thrilled about it…
The media talks about the silver and bronze medals. My students tell me they’re not interested in those medals…it’s the gold that count, they say…
08/17/2008 at 1:18 pm
@Demerzel and Chen,
Alright. I will believe you guys if you say that people around you are talking about the silver and bronze medals. That is just not happening around here. People here have told me they could care less about the other medals. I suppose there are different reactions in different parts of China…
You can probably guess what everyone is talking about now though, right? You got it…Michael Phelps!
08/17/2008 at 1:59 pm
@Robert Vance
Yeah, Michael Phelps is amazing.
08/18/2008 at 1:05 am
@ Robert
Definitely about Phelps, although I was blown away by the 100m dash in track and field as I watched that one!!
08/18/2008 at 1:13 am
@Robert
Here may be a reason to focus on golds–The IOC itself ranks countries by golds, NOT by totals:
http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=2004
click “Medals by Country” under Olympic Results for the 2004 Athens Olympics
08/19/2008 at 12:32 pm
To: Robert Vance
Don’t worry about the things you don’t know, alright?? Take one thing at a time, for instance this lip singing controversy, you need to work on your “CHECK AND BALANCE” dept. first, please read the following:
I just saw the whole conversation of the interview conducted by 2 Chinese Radio talk show in Chinese, asking the music department official of the opening ceremony, NOW LISTEN CAREFULLY, IT IS THE OTHER WAY AROUND, because the girl on TV, her voice range is not wide enough, can’t quite hit the high note and low keys, so they use the other girls’ voice.
So stop accusing China calling the other girl UGLY, IT’S JUST NOT TRUE, again you will only believe your western media, have you heard of “LOST IN TRANSLATION”, this may or may not be the case of lost in translation, it may be just another case of selected bias done by another media, and coincidentally by the British, who will host the 2012 Olympics, hum………….
I personally think why not just pick just one doing the show and singing, even though if the girl couldn’t hit the right note, it’ll be very cute!
“”"China will do ANYTHING to obtain this perfection that they are obsessed with…”"”"
And you can assure the people in the world that your country has never done so………huh…………………………………………………
08/19/2008 at 12:42 pm
*******It is just that I fear that if these little deceptions are being revealed to the world, there are probably many larger ones that we will never know about….*************
I don’t think you need to worry about the things you “will not” know, who’s gonna know everything, NO BODY, alright!!!!!!!!
you need to worry about the truth that are laid out there already, that people are NOT INTERESTED to know, for instance, read up more world history and Chinese history, really go to China and have connection and talked to “at least” 200 Chinese people, then post your unbiased opinion!!!!!!!!!
08/19/2008 at 12:45 pm
@Check and Balance,
I am really not going to reply to your angry rants other than to say:
1). I live in China and have for a long time. (You would know that if you had bothered to read anything else I wrote).
2). It didn’t take long for us to find out about another deception that is a little more serious. Breaking Olympic Rules by allowing underage gymnasts to compete…
08/20/2008 at 6:33 am
@Robert Vance
What do you expect me to react as a Chinese who lives in U.S., having seen and read so much bias reports generated from the western journalism, and sit there keep reading about the same old bias like your comments?????
I don’t have a ANGRY RANTS, I may have very strong resentment toward bias, but my knowledge about China and the world view of China is very sensible.
And the way you wrote down your opinions of China, it almost seems like you have given a person “death sentence”. Like this is it, this is China, if they are evil, they are evil!!! If you are going to write like this, don’t expect people not to resent your bias!!!
You can write anything on any given day you want, but you have to be responsible with your views too, The thing I have problem with media constantly waving the flag of “free press”, they don’t realize “free press” also means “FAIR and RESPONSIBLE” press. Today’s media at times abuse and misuse their freedom!!! Yes, I do have problem with that!!!!
Another problem I have for American media is, their journalists seems to be too interested in China’s internal affair, has any foreign countries intervened American’s internal affair??? American had the luxury and time to correct their own internal problems without any outside pressure and force, why does China has to face all that pressure with severe criticism from other countries?????
Do you know why China chose communism in WWII??? China was in a desperate turmoil, no one else would help China but the Russian, and U.S. turned their back on China. At the time KMT (nationalist party) was very corrupted!!! What has China done to the U.S., that U.S. has to portrait China so badly????? Other countries should respect China’s internal laws, and some of them will be changed overtime. Give China time and space. China got enough foreign force from WWI and WWII, she doesn’t take craps from anybody anymore!!
China will stand up on their own feet again, she will stumble by obstacles and scrutiny, but she will grow strong and responsible to the world committee, I have faith in her!
Peace!!!!!!
08/20/2008 at 10:19 am
@Check and Balance,
I am not a member of the media, my friend. I am a blogger. I am not paid to write; I do not work for any U.S. news organization. If you have ‘a bone to pick’ with the U.S. media, then do it somewhere else;
If you take a look around my site you will find that I often defended China which of course makes the rest of the world angry. NO matter what I write, someone is going to be angry. I do take responsibility for what I write; that is why you and other are allowed to post comments on this website disagreeing with what I say.
You ask…”has any foreign countries intervened in American’s internal affair?” Do you read newspapers? Do you listen to what the world is saying about us? The world always criticizes President Bush for the way that he runs our country. They make fun of him because he is a Christian; they always want to tell us how we can run our country better. Try being an American in China (or most other countries) and hear people constantly berating your country. The severe criticism directed at China is NOTHING compared to how the world treats America. But we take it in stride; we don’t care. We are confident about our country. Unfortunately, you and other Chinese people cannot seem to handle any criticism. Anytime anyone says anything bad about the government, people here cry ‘fake’ tears and say that their feelings are hurt. If you want China to stand up on its own feet again, then I suggest that China needs to grow up and stop being so sensitive. Big boys don’t cry!
Those of us who live in China and are familiar with the past 30 years know very well that China is a completely different country now. We know that things are changing. We write about this often. Yet, for some reason, we are ‘not allowed’ to say a critical word about China…just like your state owned television and radio…it’s time to grow up…!
08/20/2008 at 11:57 am
@Robert Vance
Excuse me, I don’t know you until I saw what you wrote about this “small” Olympic controversy, I did read everything you wrote on this topic, no more than that. I found this link from http://www.sphere.com.
By the way, there’s a HUGE difference of criticism from other parts of the world when American government actually INVADED another COUNTRY!!!!! And Bush administration lied about the reasons of starting the war of Iraq, pretty mush fooled every one in this country and the WORLD COMMUNITIES. He tried soo……. hard to sell this war, I supposed this war has last so much longer than Bush administration has projected, and some American has forgotten how it was all started!!!!! And you are telling me this is only American’s business and internal affair anymore?????
NO, it’s not American’s internal affair anymore when American brings its war into another country??? It’s really too bad that you can’t even distinguish the difference. On my last post, I made it very clear that other countries should respect China’s internal law practice and internal affair, let me make it clearer here, you know, it’s the business between Chinese themselves.!!!!!!
I suppose you haven’t watched the Brian William’s show, a few days ago, NBC literally sent journalist to go to the Chinese police office, to scrutinize the Chinese police detain the protesters. Who in the world of other countries has ever done so to the U.S. police office to air this in their prime time when they were hosting their Olympics??? To me, that’s very low class, or no class!!!! They know China tried so hard to host the Olympics, and most Chinese are so proud, will pay almost any price to put it off, why would western media do such a thing, slap in the face, and you think keep taking those biased and blow out of proportion punches from your media shows Chinese’s maturity?????? hum, pretty twisted way of looking at maturity!!!!
If people have a biased mind, they are going to see every flaw from a microscope lens, and those flaw become very huge and unforgiving, and do you view yourself or your own country the same way?????????
08/20/2008 at 12:02 pm
correction ——
its “PULL IT OFF” not “PUT IT OFF” the Olympics, there’s a huge difference between this 2
08/20/2008 at 1:30 pm
@Robert Vance
“”"Those of us who live in China and are familiar with the past 30 years know very well that China is a completely different country now. We know that things are changing. We write about this often. Yet, for some reason, we are ‘not allowed’ to say a critical word about China…just like your state owned television and radio…it’s time to grow up…!”"”" ————–
When you see a child is growing up and getting stronger, are you going to keep beating down that child whenever you see small flaws and imperfection in that child, or maybe you will, because you are afraid that child will grow taller and stronger than you someday, so you launch a preliminary stride. Does this behavior sound familiar paralleled to the war of Iraq???
Could it be the flawless and perfect China that the western world is asking China to be, this could be part of why China wants to be perfect from the western eyes??????
History tells me that western countries have all the “luxury” to sit there imposing their democracy and freedom demanding China do this, or don’t do that, you know where the luxury come from?? it comes from giving U.S. more that 200 years to mature their democracy without being told or pressured by other countries, and you are lucky that TV and Internet was not invented for the whole world to eyewitness the atrocity and the very low point of human being acted onto from countries of Africa all the way to China.
Yes, it’s all old history, but it made who you are today. So you have come cleaned today (at least on the surface, arguably) but you were a criminal yesterday, so now you think you have every right to criticize China who has never performed a war crime before??????
08/20/2008 at 1:33 pm
correction —–
and the “British” were lucky that TV and Internet was not invented for the whole world to eyewitness the atrocity and the very low point of human being acted onto from countries of Africa all the way to China.
note: Above comment dose not apply to U.S. history
08/20/2008 at 1:40 pm
Basically the message the westerner sent to the whole world is: CHINA, DAMNED IF YOU DO< DAMNED IF YOU DON”T!!!!!!!
08/20/2008 at 10:48 pm
@Check and Balance,
No one is imposing democracy and freedom on China. I think that most would just like to see improvement in the area of fundamental human rights. For example, not being beaten by the police when you are arrested. Not being forced to have abortions. Having the freedom to worship whomever you choose with whomever you choose. Fair trials, etc. I(and don’t tell me this stuff doesn’t happen because I hear about it from my students and friend here). Is that too much to ask? Sure, it’s not going to happen overnight in such a big country but what is wrong with people continually reminding the CCP of what they need to do?
I wasn’t really talking about IRAQ when I wrote about how people love to criticize our internal affairs. I was talking about domestic affairs; the fact that Bush is a Christian, the fact that gay marriage is still illegal throughout most of the United States, the fact that certain races are ‘profiled’ because of the terrorist attacks, the fact that we have had a lot of school shootings, etc. These are the issues that people around the world love to ‘harp’ on as they try to diagnose what is wrong with the United States. I have had students stand up in class and tell me that they would never visit my country because of our right to bear arms. They believe that this is a ridiculous law and that Americans are foolish and also dangerous with guns in their hands.
The fact is, since the US is the strongest power, it seems that everyone has something to say about us and mostly negative. But we don’t care…
There is no such thing as a flawless country, my friend. But there is a such thing as a country that respects human rights and does not allow people to be swallowed up by corruption…hopefully that is where China is headed….
08/22/2008 at 2:27 pm
@Robert Vance
There is a difference between pointing out American’s societal problems and demonizing China government as a whole!! Only positive encouraging suggestions can be most effective and has best ring tone, if you want someone to change.
Otherwise they all sound like criticism with special agenda, like creating a bigger negative images of China, make China look like a monster, a good propaganda!!!!
Here’s my post on other forum just for sharing purpose ——–
I’m sure most American know the glory of how American “saved” the world in WWII and has become the world police ever since WWII has boosted American economy tremendously from the late 1930s’ recession, Not to take away your credibility, American did bring peace with help of other allies, but do you really think American involved WWII only has one agenda — to save the world?????
By U.S. wining the WWII, all of a sudden world moral standard is set by the American, this probably has taught American general citizens to bring their definition of justice to other countries, somehow you think you have every right to tell what and how others should run their countries.
Can you imagine American has domestic laws like cutting off the fingers from a thief criminal as a punishment, but some countries in the Middle East has such law, because their culture regarding stealing is a serious crime. Singapore also has more stern punishment on crimes that American doesn’t not consider that serious.
I can go on and on about how the differences of deep rooted culture shaped their domestic law practice. China has death sentence if you have committed bribery depending on the scale, any crime that has the impact of society, can be very serious. China is huge in landmass and population, economy can grow fast, but domestic law and infrastructure takes years to mature and evolve. Have you read the book “Tipping Point”, human behavior are highly contagious. Take fashion, it’s a highly contagious epidemic human behavior!! Same thing like the 1980s’ Tiananmen Square, it spread out so vast so quickly through out lots of provinces in China, and China was undoubtedly not ready for this mass protest and challenge.
If you really care about the people in China, instead of bashing it out of your hatred or bias, do or write positive and realistic suggestion, we know whether you really have the compassion of human right, or you are just another bandwagon jumper!!!! Because we are all human being, we can feel your compassion if your heart and soul are present!!!!!!
08/22/2008 at 2:28 pm
Peace,
08/23/2008 at 1:57 pm
@Chen,
I refuse to join your state controlled media in saying nothing but ‘positive’ things about China and its government. There needs to be a balance. I know you wish that I would present China as ‘heaven on earth’ but that is just not going to happen. I have written good things and bad things about China. You only focus on the bad things that I have written. Why? Because you and other Chinese people don’t want me to write negative things at all.
You speak of propaganda. What is CCTV doing everyday? Don’t try to tell me that isn’t propaganda. If you are going to admonish me about writing negative things about China, why don’t you also admonish the Chinese media to present a balanced view of China?
I live in China; I love China. I have a close family member here. Just because I love China does not mean I have to love the Chinese government. Just because I am American does not mean I have to love the American government.
China is not the target of more criticism than is any other country these days but yet everything negative said about is taken so personally. As I said earlier, it is time to for China to grow up and realize that with power comes criticism.
08/24/2008 at 12:11 am
@Robert Vance
Sigh………………………….
08/24/2008 at 12:57 am
@Robert Vance
I’m not here to nick pick what report from the media is true or not, I’m only here to things in PERSPECTIVE, and here they are —–
!) You wrote “If you take a look around my site you will find that I often defended China which of course makes the rest of the world angry” ——–
now tell me why the rest of the world gets angry when you defend for China, it’s the perspective that the rest of the world got from what they read about China.
2) You wrote “Unfortunately, you and other Chinese people cannot seem to handle any criticism. Anytime anyone says anything bad about the government, people here cry ‘fake’ tears and say that their feelings are hurt” ———-
First of all, those tears are NOT FAKE, and those feeling ARE REAL!!!!
second, tell me why there are so many Chinese and overseas Chinese, who has been exposed to western culture, wants to defend their government???? If China government is as bad as the rest of the world has portrayed??????
3) You wrote “I have had students stand up in class and tell me that they would never visit my country because of our right to bear arms. They believe that this is a ridiculous law and that Americans are foolish and also dangerous with guns in their hand” ———-
It is ridiculous for most eastern countries to comprehend the right of bearing arms, but most people don’t realize how America is founded, if they read history, they would have better understanding. This tells you most people only get half of the story from reading a short articles from some magazine or newspaper, and it’s time to open a history book!!!! Otherwise you will never see the reason of how some law is made.
What you wrote about the reaction of Chinese fearing to go to America because of gun law is another classic story of exaggeration from their own media. The media will write things that don’t put them in perspective.
I don’t know if you speak, read and write Chinese, but I do read Chinese and English. So I get to listen to the sources in both languages.
I have lived in the U.S. for 20 more some years and have been back to China for a few times. My view of U.S. is just as fair as the view of China. If I read or hear anything about America that’s not put in perspective or not fair, I would also express my view against that biased report from the Chinese media.
When I mean Positive or Realist suggestion, doesn’t mean only show the clean laundry. But you can discuss a problem with a positive attitude, and still stay true with perspective.
And America media is not censored????
08/24/2008 at 12:58 am
@Check and Balance,
Have you seen any large scale of protest against IRAQ war has been broadcast in major network, or on prime time, or even mentioned on CNN????
08/24/2008 at 6:53 am
No one dares to criticize Israel for fear of being branded anti-semitic. Those rare politicans (Cynthia McKinney) who bravely or foolishly take on Israel find themselves booted out of office because of the powerful Israeli AIPAC lobby that controls American politicans.
China is villified by American politicians; China-bashing will never end and only increase.
08/24/2008 at 11:20 am
Chen wrote,
And America media is not censored????
Robert writes:
I worked in radio broadcasting in the US for ten years. American media is censored to the degree that there are eight words that you cannot say on the air…and that describing sexual acts in graphic detail is not allowed during certain hours of the day…that is about it.
So is American media censored? Yes, but not so much by the federal government. When someone says something on the air (or writes something) that is offensive, advertisers pull their ads and people stage protests sometimes ‘forcing’ big media executives to censor the airwaves and punish those responsible. I suppose you could call that private censorship, which I am all for.
Do you listen to the radio or television in the US? DO you read the newspapers? The range of views that you encounter reflect both sides of the political spectrum. I have heard Bush called a scumbag and worse, I have seen cartoons depicting him to be an idiot….we have that freedom in America. What about China…?
08/24/2008 at 11:28 am
Check and Balance said
2) You wrote “Unfortunately, you and other Chinese people cannot seem to handle any criticism. Anytime anyone says anything bad about the government, people here cry ‘fake’ tears and say that their feelings are hurt” ———-
First of all, those tears are NOT FAKE, and those feeling ARE REAL!!!!
second, tell me why there are so many Chinese and overseas Chinese, who has been exposed to western culture, wants to defend their government???? If China government is as bad as the rest of the world has portrayed??????
Robert says:
This year especially, we have witnessed how the Chinese people get excited about something and convince themselves that their feelings are hurt when really there was nothing to excited about in the first place. Examples:
1). CNN and Jack Cafferty say something about the Chinese government that Chinese people take personally. Why? Because the Chinese government told its people that their feelings should be hurt.
2). Some random person starts a rumour that Carrefour is supporting the Dalai Lama. Next thing you know you have people protesting the Carrefour stores (which provide jobs to Chinese people and a place for Chinese products) and threatening French people. When all was said and done, it was discovered that the rumours were completely false and it was back to business as usual. To this day, my students are still embarassed to talk about this event and many have admitted to me that it was a way for them to vent their anger at the world. Definitely not China’s proudest moment….
3). American athletes wearing masks in Beijing airport before start of Olympics
The fact is, Chinese people got ‘all’ riled up because the media got ‘riled’ up. There really wasn’t much to get ‘riled’ up about.
BTW, I do think that Sharon Stone’s comments earlier in the year were highly insensitive and worth some ‘hurt feelings.’
08/24/2008 at 12:05 pm
@Robert Vance
check and balance is not me, but I do share many of his/her points.
08/24/2008 at 1:08 pm
@Chen,
I apologize. I have changed your name. Thanks for pointing it out.
08/25/2008 at 3:23 am
@Robert Vance
You wrote:
*******Do you listen to the radio or television in the US? DO you read the newspapers? The range of views that you encounter reflect both sides of the political spectrum. I have heard Bush called a scumbag and worse, I have seen cartoons depicting him to be an idiot….we have that freedom in America. What about China…?*******
Hum, for some reason, you just can’t grasp my point of views, and you think I don’t read newspaper, not sure where you get the idea from??
Reading newspapers as a reference is one thing, and believing everything from the newspapers, uh, BIG MISTAKE!!!!
Hum????? For some reason I have a feeling you don’t understand Chinese language, which is a key element to TRULY understand this culture. And maybe if you polish your world history and Chinese history, this might help you to put things in a fair perspective.
And please stop comparing China to America, or vise versa. We are made of different cultures and values. By calling your president any names you want, or mocking some officials, if that gives you thrill and proving that you have ultimate freedom, I say good for you, enjoy it!!! And perhaps you don’t realized American has one of the most sarcastic culture, that’s the way you choose to express yourself, I can appreciate that.
But let me tell you, Chinese in general are not that fast tongue and sarcastic, yeah, of course you might encounter some, but not as a whole culture. So let us to choose our own way of expressing our freedom and disagreement with our government.
The only time I will bring up things about America vs. China that you criticize of, the sheer purpose is to balance your views, never compare these 2, not fair.
08/25/2008 at 3:50 am
@Robert Vance — your #34 post
Wow, you are so biased, can’t get that out of your head anymore!
You think every time Chinese have problems with exaggerated report, you call us all brain washed. I have been exposed to American culture for so long, some I love, some I just don’t know how to appreciate. My way of thinking have been toned pretty westernized at times.
And as you mature, your views broaden, and you will realize not everything gets done the same way as you expected! Someday you will realize not every problem is a problem, not every problem is solved in the way that westerner think should be solved. Is this too deep for you? Maybe, because it’s the way of eastern thinking.
That’s why lots of military academies study the book “the Art of War”, the essence of this book probably can never be understood by some.
08/27/2008 at 3:31 am
sigh…..another dogmatic, self-righteous ‘great white savior’ who knows what’s best for the natives.