From the readers’ letters section in Southern Weekly - an exchange between father and daughter. Fashion designer Guo Caijun writes from Shanghai to her father:
People nearly hit me yesterday!
During the May Day holiday, when I was in the waiting room at Qingdao airport, I saw an old lady taking up four seats while many people had nowhere to sit. So I got out my camera and took a snap. A woman immediately jumped in front of me and started cursing, asking me why I wanted to photograph the old lady. Before long, there was a crowd gathered round. A man pushed me with his hand, interrogating me with the same question. Even more people started cursing. I said I had no bad intentions, but no one listened to my explanations. Someone nearby said: “Then why don’t you take pictures of some happy children? What kind of person are you? What do you think you’re doing taking bad pictures like that? You’re not Chinese! How can you be so shameless!” I immediately understood - they thought I was CNN (Chinese negative news) and were afraid the picture of the old lady would end up with CNN.
Then airport staff advised me to delete the photograph and the crowd calmed down a bit. At this point the old lady got up and started cursing me. People crowded round again and started cursing again. “What race are you exactly? Why do you want to ruin China’s image? Why don’t you go and report good things? Are you jealous of our Olympics!? Piss off! Apologize!”
I said sorry. They told me I didn’t say it loud enough and started poking my arm and pulling my bag. I saw the old lady’s furious eyes again and said “I-AM-SORRY” then scrambled through the crowd and survived.
I remember answering many times, “I’m Chinese!”
Her father, the writer Guo Guanying (Kuo Kuan-ying) in Taipei, replies:
You’re right. It’s wrong to sleep on the seats. Since it is wrong, this is not an issue of washing dirty linen in public. The purpose of reporting something bad is so that it can be put right and this has nothing to do with being “ant-China” or “ruining China’s image.” These people were even more wrong, because no one stood out and said “she’s right.” They make it so that, just for being Chinese you need to make a great sacrifice and convince yourself of how much China has suffered in the past, instead of being a happy Chinese. A nation that does not have the courage to defend the truth cannot really defend itself.
I’m sorry that I want you to be Chinese.
(I found it extraordinarily difficult to be absolutely sure of Kuo Kuan-ying’s meaning, so feel free to openly disagree with my translation.)
9 Comments
There’s something wrong with the parsing.
他们使你在做中国人的时候，也要做出很大的牺牲与自我说服，也要联想到中国曾经是如何痛苦，而不是快乐地做个中国人。
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They make it so that, just for being Chinese you need to make a great sacrifice and convince yourself of how much China has suffered in the past, instead of being a happy Chinese. (i.e. they want you to pay nationalist pride at the expense of being right, as a price for being Chinese.)
对不起，我要你做个中国人。
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I’m sorry that I want you to be Chinese.
Thanks for that, Nimrod. Text changed as suggested. I will now delete your comment and pretend that’s how I translated it in the first place.
I can feel the pain of the father. He wanted the best for the daughter, and the daughter suffered.
It is a difficult time to be Chinese. It’s just as bad as in the 60’s.
It is kinda weird how only negative things about China show up though right? Have you ever considered that maybe people in China respect the elders and let her have 4 seats out of respect? It’s a great time to be Chinese, but people from Taiwan wouldn’t understand that because their leaders back in the day are the same ones who used to steal from the common people and then stole everything from the mainland and moved it over to Taiwan.
TrueChinese you are showing the trend to cry being a victim. Most articles on China are on it fast paced growth and modernization. It the Tibet case only the negative side that was reported yes but many people stepped forward to tell about the other side of events. This is what you should do instead of trying to make a Taiwanese man, who more then likely was not born at the time of the KMT’s flight from the mainland, into the great enemy of the people. Facts and the truth are better then posturing and polarization.
being chinese, why is it so important ? I really think chinese people do have a problem with their identity, you are not different from other people in the world ! you are just humans, born in china, and from my point of view, very but very manipulated by your government, since your grand parents you only have one way of thinking : your government’s way ! that ruins your identity, your so called ideas on tibet or taiwan or nationalism are not yours, they’ve been present in all your life (books from school, tv, news…), this must be difficult to hear some criticals from foreigners because foreigners don’t know china, they’re not chinese…we’re not that stupid, we can analyse things and sorry but china’s government is just a dictatorship. I also think it must be difficult to accept that you could have been manipulated that way all your life, it’s more easy to not hear and talk on a different point of view ! I worked in china, studied in taiwan and have a lovely mainland chinese wife, and a real lao wai ! But still, I really do like China and his people but definitely not his government !
and Julien throws out the other straw argument. Chinese only think, say and does what the government wants. You want them to be people but you just said all of them are robots with no free will, so why get mad at them? For someone who’s worked in China and married a mainlander, you have a very poor opinion of the Chinese and their ability to think independently.
hi reaver81, I think you misunderstand my point, and first of all. Anyway, I didn’t say either that chinese people can’t think by themsleves, I’m just saying where are the chinese people who do not think like their government ? Why can’t we read them in any newspaper, watch them talking about their opinions on CCTV ? Are they hiding scared of their opinions ? Why any journalist who write about freedom or anything else different from the government’s idea is pull in jail ? And to finish why being so extremely proud to be chinese and having difficulties accepting criticsms ? Also anyone in china who doesn’t think loudly like the government will be put in jail, no ?? I think a bit, it’s like brain washing, here is the idea, this is the only one you can have and secondly your’re gonna love your country so you’ll be able to defend him against the foreigners : basic propaganda ! Then, you live in fear with irrational nationalism behaviors for some people. So where are the chinese people who think their government is a kind a dictatorship ??? Abroad ? Very courageous ! Where were the people defending the author of this blog when she took a funny picture of an old lady sitting on 4 seats ? Where were the people defending my wife when men and women in the streets, taxi, pubs saying out loudly that she must be a prostitute to be with a foreigner and that she’s doesn’t have any face acting like this…I do like China for the beautiful country side, people especially in those country side but some of them (as everywhere) but proportion in china makes things quit bigger than everywhere else, act with basic (I really mean basic from the ground) behaviors, to be proudly nationalistic is stupid. And I’m not mad at anybody..strange conclusion dear reaver81.
When people are conditioned to think a particular way all their lives, it is hard accept any alternatives (especially critical ones). It is like having their (ir)rational universes turned upside-down. True, Chinese people are not stupid, they are the brightest people I know. But for most, the past injustices of the Party are forgotten. Economic glory, nationalistic politics and imagined and real humiliations perpetrated by the West are brought to the fore. History lessons in the classrooms of the young are selective so I don’t blame them for siding with their government. It is the blurring of Party=country/Chinese identity/ Chinese civilisation that rests uncomfortably with me. Chinese people generally are very unsure of themselves when voicing independent (political)opinion or even questioning the official media. Many take a ‘distanced’ approach. Reading between the lines is common. I am a research student but I dare not take photos that I think may stir controversy. I think of my safety because I may be mistaken to be Chinese (am of Asian descent) but ill-equipped with the language to defend myself in such an heated situation. The best way forward is rational exchange/communication. Keep talking to as many Chinese people as you can to learn of their opinions, ask them why they think that way, who told them so and exchange your own.
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