I'm a Gilman Scholar! Are you?

Above is an interview that I did with the Institute of International Education about my experience as a Gilman Scholar. I discussed my Gilman experience as an NYU in Shanghai study abroad student in China and offered advice to current applicants for the Gilman Scholarship. Wish I was more interesting! I need to start reading a dictionary!

I mentioned that I had just been accepted to FACES, as well!

To learn more about my time abroad, check out my China Adventure website.

Post by Erica Swallow

Follow-up for the Tank Man documentary PART II

Your London correspondent met with the girl that Abby mentioned in the earlier post last evening, together with another friend of us, who is indeed a FACES2007 alumnus. We had a nice chat over Chinese politics and legal philosophy for the whole evening (despite all of us are now $-minded corporate lawyers, haha).

We think that Beida students know 64, although it is doubtless that people have diverse opinion on the incident. But we generally agree that students outside Beida know much less about 64.

Back to that documentary, your correspondent learnt that the 4 interviewees did already know what that picture means. But as they were alert of its sensitivity (and they were told that they could just say "I don't know" if they did not want to answer), they whispered to each other (as seen in the documentary) before responding to the interviewer. This created a sense in front of the camera that they knew nothing and looked ignorant.

Your correspondent has a few extended questions after the chat, and would like to invite you to think.

1) The producer of the documentary clearly wanted to portrait current Chinese youth as ignorant about Chinese past history. Should that justify him for manipulating the documentary?

2) Chinese says American media (e.g. CNN, BBC) are biased (at least when reporting China-related stories). While at the same that American says Chinese media are biased (e.g. People's Daily), and Chinese are "brainwashed" by the meida. How should we view the "independence" of media? And how should/can we bridge the gap between people who read such different newspapers?

Michael @ (Sunny!) London

"Chinese People Need to be Controlled" (Part 2)

Here is some of the backlash regarding Jackie Chan's comments:

• "He's insulted the Chinese people. Chinese people aren't pets," pro-democracy Hong Kong legislator Leung Kwok-hung told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Chinese society needs a democratic system to protect human rights and rule of law."
• "His comments are racist. People around the world are running their own countries. Why can't Chinese do the same?" another Hong Kong lawmaker, Albert Ho, told the AP.
• "He himself has enjoyed freedom and democracy and has reaped the economic benefits of capitalism. But he has yet to grasp the true meaning of freedom and democracy," Taiwanese legislator Huang Wei-che said. (Associated Press)
• “It’s easy to sacrifice freedom when you’re treated like a V.I.P. or some high-level official every time you come to China,” said Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology. “I’m sure Jackie Chan has never thought about the suffering of the little people who have no power.” (NY Times)

A few other commentators are also taking a crack at this situation, including John Pomfret, and there's a running debate at the New York Times with Gordon Chang and Russell Leigh Moses.

By the way, Yuan Xiang and Wai Kit, you don't get to walk away chuckling. Apparently the comments are not just about Hong Kong and Taiwan:

"Jackie Chan: Singaporeans have no self-respect" (AsiaOne News)

"Jackie Chan slams S'poreans" (Straits Times)

"Chinese People Need to be Controlled"

Last week at a panel during the BoAo business forum, Jackie Chan made certain comments that might raise a few of your eyebrows:

• "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."
  
• "I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not. I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic."

There's been quite a bit of backlash from both Hong Kong and Taiwan (see here and here), as well as in China itself over these statements. Here's a good round-up of the whole situation from the New York Times:

"Jackie Chan Strikes a Chinese Nerve"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/world/asia/24jackie.html

So I'm wondering, what do you guys think about his comments? Is there some merit to the claimshe made about Chinese people needing to be "controlled"? Or is he mistaken, and even feeding into some problematic stereotypes?

Secondly, why do you think he said these things, and how should people respond to them? (By the way, has anyone seen discussion of this on Chinese websites that you can share with us?)