Bjork backs Tibetan independence during Shanghai concert

kc turgeMar 4th, 2008 - 08:49:55

Apparently the author of this report missed the fury among the ordinary Chinese over the incident. The Chinese were perhaps too shocked or polite at the end of the concert to boo. This only added fuel to the pent up anger that ensued.

It is important to remember that, in matters concerning Tibet, it is the Chinese people, Tibetans excluded presumably, who will never tolerate anyone raising the prospect of an independent Tibet. So it was robotic of the author to attribute anti-separation sentiment to the policy of the government.

The Chinese are married to the territorial boundaries of the dynasties that represented what the Chinese thought were the height of their ancient civilization. Tibet, at times ruled as a subject nation and at times part of the empire, were always integral to the Chinese sense of identiy and history. It would be an insult to ordinary Chinese to describe that Tibet situation as one created 58 years ago, let alone associating the event as invasion.

It is nationalism with its root in thousands of years of history and not inflated ego under Communist influence. This, the West unfailingly fails to grasp.

To the Chinese, the emotional response to Dalai Lama is infathomable since, as they see it, the appeal of the messages to the Western ears was actually Zen in essence, when in reality the practice of Tibetan Buddhism, unlike Zen, is imbued with deity and is not separated from the state. It is hard for the Chinese to take seriously the idea that a five year old could be deemed and groomed to be lama. Yes, racism against the Tibetans and against the Westerners probably played a part in that assessment of the naivity of the West and entertainers such as Bjork.But the Westerners are probably a bit racist to stay above the paternalism that fails the recognize the arguments from the Chinese side.

Personally, I think it is hypocritical for anyone, Bjork included, to comment on Tibet if the same person does not similarly denounce US presence in Okinawa, US' much more brutal annex of Hawaii and Puerto Rico (and at one time, the Philiphines).

Yes, try a 'Free Hawaii' sticker first on your bumper. Then you can talk about free Tibet.

Bjork is toast in China because she insulted her guest, not the Chinese government, but the ordinary Chinese who have a much longer sense of self and history than the less than seven decade rule of the communists allowed.

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