Forcing Ignorance on the Chinese People

During the last few days, the online rantings of some Chinese people have been posted in Western media outlets. Westerners have been shocked to hear Chinese people saying things like, "Those Tibetans are getting just what they deserve", or "Who cares about Tibet?". Other comments are even more hateful and explicit. Many Westerners are angered by these comments, and dismiss the Chinese people as hateful and uncaring. I would urge the Western world not to rush into judgment so easily. None of us have a totally accurate view of the things going on in China - but the Chinese people don't even have the resources to make informed decisions.

First off, let's remember what the word "ignorant" means. It does not mean stupid. It means "having a lack of knowledge or information". My experience in China showed me that Chinese people are exceptionally kind, hospitable, and incredibly hard-working. I met many very intelligent Chinese students, and learned a lot from my Chinese friends. However, I was shocked at the widespread ignorance about certain aspects of Chinese history.

This ignorance is not the fault of the Chinese people themselves. The Chinese people have had ignorance forced upon them by their government. This has been done through an extremely effective campaign of censorship, misinformation, propaganda, and outright lies. Some affluent and highly-placed Chinese deny this, as do some Westerners eager to overlook truth in order to proclaim all cultures equally deluded and corrupt. But the simple fact is that the average Chinese citizen under 30 knows very little about China's recent past, and about hot issues such as Tibet, Taiwan, XinJiang, detention of human rights activists, repression of freedom of speech and religion, etc.

Want evidence? I can offer you a few examples from my own experience:

1. I brought a Lonely Planet guidebook with me to China. Some students were over one day, and saw the map on the back, which labeled Taiwan as a country. They were very confused. "Taiwan belongs to China," they said, scratching their heads. I explained to them - as nicely and openly as possible - the history of Taiwan, how it has been self-governed ever since the Communists came to power, how it has its own President and military and voting citizens, etc. They had never heard this side of the Taiwan story before.
   
2. One of my best students was always ready to discuss politics, and seemed to know more about the world than I did. But recently he came across some Western accounts of Tibet's history. He couldn't believe that the Communists had invaded Tibet in the 1950's, killing tons of Tibetans along the way. He had never heard this side of the Tibet story before.
3. Some Chinese friends were over at my home here in Thailand a few weeks ago. Somehow Tiananmen Square came up, and one of the girls had never heard of the massacre there in 1989. I pulled up a YouTube video clip, and could see her confusion grow as the clip progressed. "You've really never heard of this?" I asked incredulously. "No..." she said quietly.
4. Most people in Changsha loved Mao Zedong with a nationalistic fervor any cult leader would be proud of. Yet I rarely met students who knew the following facts:
1. Mao, through his power-grabbing and misguided policies, was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese.
   
2. In consolidating his power from 1949-1953, Mao put to death 2-5 million Chinese people, with another 1-2 million sent to labor camps.
3. Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, causing the greatest famine in human history, with tens of millions of Chinese peasants starving to death.
4. Mao started the Cultural Revolution and Hundred Flowers campaign, persecuting free thinkers and anyone even suspected of being a counter-revolutionary. Tons of historical sites and documents were destroyed (including ancient Buddhist sites in Tibet), and hundreds of thousands of people died.
   

These are just few examples I have personally witnessed. It's not that Chinese people are too lazy to get the information: it's that in China, the information effectively doesn't exist. Any books, movies, or TV shows with "subversive" elements are banned. Chinese people are imprisoned by the biggest Internet blockade ever created, often called "The Great Firewall". Any sensitive words, phrases, or websites are blocked. For example, when I tried to search for "Tiananmen Square Massacre" in China, my Internet would cut off for 10-15 minutes. In the last few days, many foreign websites have been blocked. Besides the usual websites such as the BBC, Wikipedia, and BlogSpot, Danwei reports that YouTube, The Guardian, the L.A. Times, and Yahoo! have been censored. CNN and BBC news channels have also been cut. Other bloggers complain of Gmail being blocked. There are ways around these blocks, but they are not always easy, and there is a bit of risk as well.

Westerners would do well to remember two things. First, our hands aren't totally clean, either. The West has done its share of terrible things, and we should always approach the Chinese people with an attitude of humility, respect, and a willingness to listen. Second, we should never allow the fact that we have a wider access to diverse sources of information to cause us to become arrogant, or to lecture the Chinese as a parent lectures a child. The goal should be to present the relevant information to the Chinese, so that they can make their own decisions.

Remember, the Chinese have heard, and are hearing, a much different story on Tibet than the rest of us. Until that changes, real dialogue cannot take place. On most of the hot-button issues in China, the ironic fact remains that the Chinese people themselves may be hearing the least of the story.