8/08/2008
A silly article written by a 'westerner'
It's not my Beijing! Where's the charm and chaos gone? What charm and chaos that this foreigner is talking about her Beijing? Oh, it is about the shabby apartment complex across the street, about bare-bottomed babies, horse draw carts and chickens pecking the sidewalk...that's the real Beijing to this foreigner.
And it is regrettable that all these real things were gone and Beijing is now 'unnaturally sanitised and stiffly coiffed, with much of its frenetic grittiness and earthy charm falling victim to zealous organisers who want a flawless event(Olympic).'
To this western, Beijing should be as old and charming, and downtrodden as it was for centuries, and the flavour preserved for the visitors to savour. The new Beijing is unreal and disgusting.
This is the stereotype view of what a westerner would write or want to see of most Asian cities, the slums and the centuries of neglect, and stuck in time without progress. To be specific, the writer is an Asian wearing western lenses and thinking like a westerner.
The article is in Today.
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16 comments:
You know westerners. They always try to run down China and the Chinese. They are just trying 'to do China in'. Sounds familiar?
some people like old yucky slums, others prefer modern, clean, tidy, urbanised city stuff. To each his own.
the tooth is that people who enjoy the sight of slums are big city folks who just want to feel the novelty of poverty. see how bad the living conditions are of these people and quietly complimenting themselves on how lucky they were.
the people living day in and day out in the slums will have a different opinion. poor hygiene and inadequate facilities, living very close to mother earth and a lot of inconvenience, and smell like hell.
next time some westerners or bananas will write an article, 'That's not my Chinaman.'
the Chinaman i know and grew to love is one with a pig tail and very good cook, very obedient. see no trouble hear no trouble and give no trouble. not to be seen or heard. and he has an unscrutable face. kick him in the arse and he will say 'thank you, sir.'
that's my Chinaman. the perfect charlie chan.
Don't you know that westerners are still stuck with their colonial mentality? Everything must be view from the colonial perspectives.
this type of asian, esp if they are of chinese origin, they siasuay their ancesters. oh, how they wish their fathers were angmohs.
LOL, I insist my ancestors be white. I really wish my old man is white. But, wait! My old man IS white! LOL!
Better luck next time dude.
we all came from adam and eve. i think they were white. we are all white. god is white too : )
the colour is not an issue here. what we are discussing is how westerners look at asians. and to make things worst, some asians also look at asians from western lenses.
we need to develop our own ways of looking at things. and the two coloured perspectives may bring about a more balanced way of looking at the world.
I am a chinese wearing asian lens. I find the inconsiderate, selfish self centred, money faced, kiasus and kiasi, nose picking, loud mouth, public spitting, uncultured low life behaviours of fellow chinese rather cool.
aaarrggh....
i hope you are joking. any people, given affluence, education and time, will transform themselves to more refinement and living it off in the best way they could. there are exceptions.
the europeans have been living in richness and affluence for several centuries and are more refined than the nouveau riche asians. but then the europeans are slackening again and the new asians will emerge and be more refined in times to come.
but not all will turn out better.
Here I am watching, observing, trying to learn and understand MAN's stupidity and UGLINESS as watching oneself in the MIRROR....FOOLISH MINDS....MEN and WOMEN......HUH!! HUMAN!!!
basically we need to find ourselves and our own truth. we went to school to learn to read and write. we started by imbibing knowledge and information. then we continued by reading and understanding other people's ideas. then we quote them to support our views, to give ourselves some support. without quoting big names, our views don't carry weight.
but a time will come when we need to express our own views as our views. no need to imitate or utter other people's views anymore. be ourselves.
08,11.58, how can your old man be white if you are of chinese origin? is it albino.
according to the bible, we are all descendants of adam and eve. so we might be a bit off colour, but basically from the same stock, white.
i dont believe in that crap, even then does not make ones father, gd father or, even gt gd father white.
you are being too serious. relax man.
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