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.” When they are making you be Chinese, you need to make a big sacrifice and persuade yourself. You also need to remember how much China has suffered in the past, and not think that being Chinese makes you happy. A nation that does not have the courage to defend the truth cannot really defend itself.

I’m sorry. 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.)

A poster at the Tianya Forum (today I can only open that page via a proxy. It’s opening fine now) spotted the remarkable similarity between one of the flame attendants in Hong Kong and one of the bodyguards Hu Jintao took with him to the same city for the 10-year anniversary celebrations last summer. Was the Tianya poster right? (more…)

Would it be possible for a monk to join the party? Probably not. Officially, you’re supposed to be an atheist if you become a member. In reality, plenty of people in the party believe in one religion or another and aren’t worried about saying so. They’re just not supposed to practice it. That should rule out monk-members since a non-practicing monk wouldn’t really be a monk anymore.

But what about the Three Represents? The beauty of Jiang Zemin’s infuriatingly vague “Important Thought” is that it can mean whatever you want it to mean. “The Party represents advanced social productive forces” means that capitalists can join the party, though very few people would admit that when it was inserted into the CPC constitution in 2002. So why not monks, nuns, clerics etc.? Perhaps they could join under the second “represent”: “The Party represents the progressive course of China’s advanced culture.”

Last October, the 17th Party Congress added a reference to religion to the revised CPC constitution for the first time:

The Party strives to fully implement its basic principle for its work related to religious affairs, and rallies religious believers in making contributions to economic and social development.

Not a terribly inspiring phrase, though Living Buddha Dainzin Qoizha said at the time “I learned of the amendment on the Internet and was inspired.” So, it seems, was our monk Shi Qingming who wants to “unswervingly implement the party’s ethnic and religious policy, and then guide monks to actively dedicate themselves to constructing a harmonious society.”

So maybe one day in the future we’ll see a report that Shi Qingming has become Yunnan’s first Communist Party monk.

Yesterday and the day before were entrance examination days for part-time students at the Yunnan Provincial Party School. In the No.2 examination room of the Provincial Social Sciences Association district examination center, the examinees discovered that there was actually a monk taking the exam next to them. Many people were curious and puzzled by this.

At 10am yesterday morning at the Provincial Social Sciences Association district examination center, 92 examinees were engrossed in the exam questions. The examination room was absolutely silent. Examinee number 858801020063 was wearing monk’s robes, pen in hand and head bent over the test paper writing his answers.

According to the head of the examination center, Deputy-Professor Yang Ronghua, this monk’s Buddhist name is Shi Qingming (释清明). His original name was Su Liuchuan. He is deputy president of the Jianshui County Buddhist Association in the Honghe Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and one of the people in charge of the Buddhist management committee at Huanglong Temple. He is from Qilin District in Qujing City. He was born in August 1973 and graduated from senior high school. He came in contact with Buddhism in 1997, shaved his head and became a monk in 2000, entered the Huanglong Temple in 2004 and, in May 2005, became the first deputy-president of the Jianshui County Buddhist Association. Although Shi Qingming is a monk, he is diligent and eager to learn, exercises strict self-discipline and has paid for a poor student from Yunnan to study at a university in Harbin. He has also donated more than 10,000 yuan to an old people’s home, a flood disaster zone and other causes. His application to sit the part-time student enrollment exam for the Party School was approved by the relevant county and prefecture departments. Yang Ronghua said happily: “Judging by his performance in these two days of exams, he has a good basic foundation. He shouldn’t have any trouble getting enrolled.”

In February this year, Shi Qingming saw the Yunnan Provincial Party School’s announcement that it was enrolling new students. In early April, he applied to take the party school’s entrance examination and the enrollment board considered he met the necessary requirements. In mid-April, he received the official letter of acceptance from the Yunnan Provincial Party School Open College to sit the economic management entrance exam. Shi Qingming says the 17th Party Congress laid out a grand blueprint to “establish a socialist harmonious society” and the whole country gave an enthusiastic response. He thinks that by taking the party school’s entrance exam and then systematically learning about the party and economics, he is taking a clear-cut stand to accept the party’s leadership, unswervingly implement the party’s ethnic and religious policy, and then guide monks to actively dedicate themselves to constructing a harmonious society.

Shi Qingming is reportedly the first monk to take the enrollment examination for the Yunnan Provincial Party School adult education correspondence course for nearly 20 years.

ESWN has translated the interview with CCTV’s Bai Yansong, discussing his opposition to the boycott, and the nature of patriotism, protests and democracy. Here’s the other one of the three - with Wu Jianmin, former ambassador to France and current president of the Foreign Affairs University:

Southern Weekly: Do you approve of a boycott of Carrefour?

Wu Jianmin: No, I don’t. Some self-styled “patriotic” actions have damaged the interests of these staff, damaged the interests of China and damaged China’s image. If there are many excessive actions people don’t know what you might do next. They can’t be sure about you and their misgivings and anxiety about you will increase. Patriotism is a good thing, but it must be guided by reason. Patriotism must be in line with core national interests. Actions that harm the reform and opening up cannot be called patriotic.

Southern Weekly: If you met a crowd of people boycotting Carrefour, what advice would you give to them?

Wu Jianmin: It’s usually very difficult to reason with a protesting crowd. That’s my experience. When a crowd is very angry, no one will listen to reason. What’s needed now is for publications like yours to speak to them with a rational voice.

Southern Weekly: Some overseas Chinese and overseas students have been demonstrating. Are you against that too?

Wu Jianmin: The overseas Chinese demonstrations have been quite orderly. The actions they have taken have been within the limits permitted by local laws and I haven’t seen any negative effects arising from these actions.

Southern Weekly: Do you think boycotts are effective?

Wu Jianmin: You don’t hear about this much in a globalized world. Boycotts are an outdated reaction. Boycotting a country’s products - before the Second World War, China boycotted Japanese goods. There wasn’t globalization then and Japanese goods were made in Japan. Obviously, at that time, if you didn’t buy Japanese goods it would be a blow to Japanese businessmen.

Southern Weekly: There are also French citizens proposing a boycott of Chinese products.

Wu Jianmin: Very few people are doing that. It just can’t be done. Chinese products are absolutely everywhere in French supermarkets. And there are so many imported Chinese products because the quality is good and the price is low, so the supermarkets can earn a lot of money.

Southern Weekly: According to your understanding, what’s the story behind a particular company and businessman’s political contributions?

Wu Jianmin: French law allows companies to donate funds to political and religious organizations. Bernard Arnault, the major shareholder in LVMH, is a friend of mine. He’s already denied the rumors. Arnault is a financial wizard. He doesn’t get involved in politics, and that includes the issue of Tibet. Arnault has great admiration for China’s development. He thinks the Chinese market has enormous potential for development. I don’t believe a financial wizard like this would lose everything for the sake of something small.

As far as other business groups are concerned, this often stems from humanitarian sympathy for certain organizations or individuals, or they hope to improve the human rights situation in a particular region. It can even be a matter of giving money because of friendship and connections. Connections matter in France too. As for specific incidents, sometimes they understand what’s going on, sometimes they don’t.

Southern Weekly: A lot of people in China have also expressed dissatisfaction about the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe. Do you know this person well?

Wu Jianmin: I also have a strong dislike [for some of the things he has said and done concerning Tibet]. At Spring Festival in 2002, he held an official reception for 3,000 people on behalf of the Paris government. He also suggested that we hold a Chinese parade in the Champs Elysees and I expressed my support. The parade was accomplished in 2004.

The Socialist Party cares a lot about human rights. But a lot of people don’t really understand the Tibet issue and there’s a lot of prejudice. In my opinion, he is that kind of person.

Southern Weekly: Can you talk a bit about your impression of the French media?

Wu Jianmin: The French media boast about freedom of reporting. A lot of people are prejudiced against China. We have to acknowledge that, but there’s also room for improvement in our way of communicating. For instance, our formalized language and political terminology is very hard to translate. Our vocabularies are very different. Sometimes when we’re explaining our position we’re too rigid in the way we say it. Foreigners often start with the specific and go on to the abstract, but we start from the abstract and use very few specifics.

Southern Weekly: There are misunderstandings about China in the West. How can mutual understanding be improved?

Wu Jianmin: We need to promote travel and personal contact between the two sides. I was an ambassador in Europe for nine years, and one thing I discovered was that there is a very big difference between people who have come to China and people who haven’t. There are many issues that it’s very easy to discuss with people who have been to China. But people who haven’t often have quite a lot of prejudices.

Chinese people also need to understand France. Chairman Mao said that all countries, whether big or small, have merits and faults. As a nation, the Chinese are very tolerant. We need to study all countries’ merits, including France.

Southern Weekly: A lot of things that have happened recently are connected in some way or other to the Olympics. Do you have any worries about the Olympics?

Wu Jianmin: With the Olympics approaching, all kinds of forces hostile to China are making meticulous plans and they want to create disturbances. We need to be very clear in our minds that these people are absolutely not a majority in the world. The very small minority who are causing a uproar do not represent the whole world.

Every Olympic Games has some trouble, but that hasn’t affected the success of the Olympics. What should we do if we’re confronted with trouble? Two things — one, we must handle things according to the rules of the International Olympic Committee. Two, we must handle things according to Chinese law.

Chinese people should have confidence that the overwhelming majority of people in the world hope the Beijing Olympics are a success. Beijing’s hosting of the Olympics is the will of the people and the trend of the times.

I am most gratified to learn that there is now a campaign urging patriots to renounce their Canadian citizenship. I wasn’t aware until today that the Canadian prime minister is a space telescope. And I hadn’t realized that Queen Elizabeth was quite so old. But I know these things now and I wholeheartedly support this campaign:

The Canadian government led by Hubble, using human rights as a pretext, consistently adopts policies that are hostile to China. He has met the Dalai Lama, supported Tibetan independence and now refuses to attend the Olympic Games opening ceremony that symbolizes world peace. The Canadian mainstream media, represented by CBC, and public opinion have taken the opportunity of the Olympic torch relay to shamelessly slander our beloved motherland, the People’s Republic of China. As descendants of Yandi and the Yellow Emperor, we absolutely cannot tolerate this anymore.

We hereby solemnly proclaim the establishment of the “Return to the Motherland Action Committee.” We appeal to everyone to unite, and collectively renounce our Canadian citizenship or permanent residency and solemnly revoke our naturalization pledge to show our contempt and strong protest against the Canadian government!

Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth. When you were naturalized, you pledged wholehearted loyalty to the British Queen and royal heirs. Standing beneath the maple leaf flag and facing the Lord Chancellor, you pledged: “I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors.”

The British Queen is the chief representative of Western colonialism. She brazenly launched the two Opium Wars against the Chinese nation, cut up our land, destroyed our homeland and humiliated our great nation in every possible way. As a true patriot, you must revoke your pledge by renouncing your Canadian citizenship, otherwise you are a disloyal descendant of the Chinese nation. Perhaps you have never taken this pledge seriously, or really did not know what you had said. If that is the case, your words are like worthless rubbish and you have no business shouting till you are blue in the face that you love China.

Back to Our Motherland was registered by someone going by the name of Peter Lee of Toronto on April 17. However, it was a Peter Wu who apparently contacted the Canadian-Chinese website info.51.ca to publicize his cause. Mr. Wu (or Mr. Lee) said he was from Hebei and had been in Canada for ten years. He wanted to tell the April 13 demonstrators that he supported them, but only if they adopted his proposal. April 13 organizers appear to have welcomed his patriotic zeal, but did not think this was a particularly practical idea.

Mr. Wu/Lee’s clarion call elicited a somewhat mixed response on the Montreal-based website Sino-Quebec. One netizen was worried about the paperwork and procedures, but otherwise thoroughly supported the idea. Another called Mr. Wu a “stupid [censored]” and quoted Jiang Zemin’s famous rebuke to the Hong Kong media: “too simple, sometimes naive.” Others suspected a conspiracy, possibly by Tibetan separatists or Canadian intelligence. Or maybe Mr. Wu/Lee just wanted to avoid paying his taxes.

So is this campaign real? No one seems to know. But when the line between reality, parody and possible sabotage becomes so blurred, it might be a sign that things are going just a little bit too far.

See also: Mutant Palm, Blood and Treasure, Amoist, Lian Yue and Hecaitou.

Here are a few of those twists and turns in pictorial pairs. (Copied from here. Thanks to Sun Bin for the recommendation) The original poster said no explanation was necessary, but perhaps for an English-language readership, some words might be helpful.

Lin Biao, expected to one day succeed Mao Zedong as chairman of the party, holds a book of the “Three Constantly Read Articles” containing Mao’s speeches “Serve the People,” “In Memory of Norman Bethune,” and “The Foolish Old Man Removed the Mountains.”

During the byzantine power struggles of Mao’s final years, the long-lasting Criticize Lin Biao, Criticize Confucius campaign reached its peak nationwide in 1974, despite the fact that Lin Biao had died in September 1971 - allegedly in a plane crash in Mongolia as he allegedly tried to flee after allegedly failing in a bizarre plot to allegedly assassinate Chairman Mao. Many people were criticized in the course of this campaign including, at one point, Zhou Enlai. Ironically, some teachers managed to use the campaign as an excuse to reintroduce lessons in the classics.

President Liu Shaoqi occupies almost equal pride of place with Mao on the front page of the 1965 National Day edition of the Beijing Daily.

Premier Zhou Enlai serves dinner to the imperialist president, accompanied by Zhang Chunqiao.

Xinhua:

PARIS, 22 avril (Xinhua) — Les appels au boycott des jeux Olympiques de Beijing sont déplacés et il faut tout faire pour que les JO soient une grande fête, a indiqué le PDG du distributeur français Carrefour José-Luis Duran, lors d’une interview exclusive accordée à l’agence Xinhua.

Xinhua:

PARIS, April 22 (Xinhua) — The chairman of French supermarket chain Carrefour said Tuesday that calls for boycott of Beijing Olympics were acts with ulterior motives, and Carrefour would make its utmost efforts to support the Olympics.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Carrefour Chairman Jose Luis Duran also denied reports that his company supported Tibetan separatists.

Xinhua:

新华网巴黎４月２２日电（记者郑甦春　李学梅）法国家乐福集团总裁迪朗２２日在接受新华社记者专访时表示，抵制奥运会的呼吁是别有用心的行为，家乐福将尽全力支持北京奥运会。他同时否认了家乐福支持“藏独”势力的传闻。

Xinhua:

Interrogé sur les appels au boycott de Carrefour dans plusieurs villes chinoises, M. Duran a fait part de sa compréhension vis-à- vis de l’émotion du peuple chinois. “Il est évident que les nombreux incidents qui ont perturbé le parcours de la flamme olympique lors de son passage à Paris le 7 avril en sont à l’ origine tant ils ont choqué et même blessé l’opinion chinoise”, a- t-il indiqué, tout en souhaitant que “le calme revienne et que la fin de la préparation des JO se fasse dans un climat serein, car c’ est l’intérêt de tous que les Jeux organisés par Beijing soient un succès”.

Xinhua:

Referring to calls for boycotting Carrefour in some cities across China, Duran expressed his understanding for the Chinese people’s emotion, saying that “Obviously, recent sabotage incidents in Paris during the Olympic torch relay hurt feelings ofthe Chinese people, made them angry and triggered their protests.”

“I hope that the preparations for the Olympics will be implemented with a harmonious atmosphere. The success of the Beijing Olympics will benefit all the people,” he added.

Xinhua:

对于目前中国一些城市发起的抵制家乐福的呼吁，迪朗表示理解中国人民此时此刻的感情。他说：“很明显，４月７日奥运圣火经过巴黎时所发生的多起破坏事件是事情的起因，这令中国人民感到震怒，并伤害了中国人民的感情。我希望人们现在能够平静下来，让奥运会最后的准备工作能在祥和的气氛中进行。因为北京奥运会的成功举办是有利于所有人的。”

“What’s the story?” I asked.

“According your Western media, all foreign students are going to have to get out of Beijing in the summer. According to the Western media, that is.”

“Hang on a minute. Which ‘Western media’?”

“All of it. So you’ll have to pack your bags. According to the Western media.”

Three things: One, I’m not a student, so even if this story were true I wouldn’t have to leave. Two, I get on very well with this editor and he was just baiting me. And three, although I put that conversation in quotation marks I did not record it so I have no real certainty that those were our exact words.

But what is the story? And is it true or is it a repeat of the non-existent Bible ban?

EPA quotes Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

China plans to order all foreign students to leave the country before the Olympic Games in August, strictly regulate the issuing of business and tourist visas, and deport refugees, sources said on Thursday.

‘Even if you have to continue your studies in September, you need to leave Beijing in July and August,’ a spokeswoman for Beijing University told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The spokeswoman said the two-month gap applies to all universities in Beijing and was ordered by ‘higher authorities’ because of the Olympics.

Shanghaiist is somewhat skeptical and suspects that foreign students’ problems might be limited to tighter visa restrictions.

Xinhua is adamant:

Overseas media reports that foreign students in China would have to leave the country during the August Olympic Games were “totally fabricated”, the Ministry of Education said here Friday.

“Recently, some foreign media say China requires foreign students to leave during the Games. It completely goes against the facts,” ministry spokesman Wang Xuming said.

Relevant departments and universities “have never asked foreign students to leave China during the Olympics and Paralympics. During that time, foreign students could stay and some of them would join volunteer services”.

He added international cooperation and exchanges in the educational field would proceed as usual, including accepting foreign students who would come to study in China.

So who do you believe? The Ministry of Education or Deutsche Presse-Agentur? The Global Times concluded that this was another deliberate German attack on the Beijing Olympics. Slightly exaggerated, perhaps. But the Global Times did do the obvious thing - ask Peking University:

“It’s a very strange thing. We didn’t know we were going to do this ourselves until we read the report!” When the Global Times interviewed a member of staff at the overseas students office at Peking University, the worker was clearly astonished, telling the reporter: “Peking University’s summer program for overseas students will go ahead as planned. It hasn’t been canceled at all. And the Peking University spokeswoman mentioned in the report simply doesn’t exist. We’ve only got one spokesperson and he’s a man.”

So, it would seem that the story is probably not true - at least as far as summer students are concerned. But everyone seems to agree that visa rules are being enforced with greater vigor. Anyway, we won’t have to wait long to be sure. Either foreign students will be enrolled in summer courses or they won’t. Meanwhile, I think I should say that most of the “Western media” appears to be treating the report with caution. Blame those perfidious Germans, not me. (Note to Germans: I’m joking.)

Here are the results for just two of the countries involved - China and the US: (more…)