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June 10, 2008


A Kind of Poison

Victim or Victor? China’s Olympic Odyssey, by Ian Buruma

“When Communist ideology began to lose its potency in China, after the death of Mao and his successors’ turn towards capitalism, something had to be found to replace it. The Deng era slogan, ‘to get rich is glorious,’ was not quite enough. Chinese rulers have always needed the legitimacy of an official orthodoxy, whether Confucian or Communist, to justify their grip on power. The official post-Maoist answer has been nationalism.

To many Chinese staging the Olympic games has a special significance, because it is part of that promised restoration of Chinese greatness. National pride has to be bolstered by international recognition. So Westerners who use this occasion to criticize Chinese abuses of human rights are not just wrongheaded, but enemies who wish to stop the rise of Great China. And Chinese who support foreign criticisms of China’s human rights record are regarded as traitors.

Aggressive nationalism usually goes together with authoritarian politics. When people have no legitimate means to show dissent, vent their frustrations, express critical opinions in public, and generally take part in politics, nationalism fills the void. As long as they can control it, this suits authoritarian rulers.”

(Buruma has written several good books on Asia, notably “God’s Dust.”)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 3:41 pm (utc+8) and is filed under China_Culture.

No Responses to “A Kind of Poison”

  1. MarkusP said:
    June 10th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    “Aggressive nationalism usually goes together with authoritarian politics. When people have no legitimate means to show dissent, vent their frustrations, express critical opinions in public, and generally take part in politics, nationalism fills the void.”

    Indeed. Give your people the idea that they are victims of grievous injury and wrongdoing from abroad, creating a we-against-them sense of unity, fueled by ecstatic nationalism, and you’ve got the base prerequisites for some of histories worst slaugherers like Hitler or some of his lesser brethren like Milosevic.

    Nationalism is never a s symbol of strength.

    All nationalism exposes about a country is a deep sense of inadequacy and insecurity.

    I can only speak for myself, but the feeling we have here in Europe seems to be one of respect for a great country like China and it’s long history, but we can very well differentiate bewtenn the country and people on the one hand, and a corrupt dictatorship suppressing all dissent and means of expression and political participation on the other hand.

    Same goes for the US btw. Bush is Bush, and nobody much in the EU has any qualms in calling him a liar and a war criminal who has made the world a much more dangerous place while dramatically undermining democracy at home, a guy whose sole legacy is a failed, counterproductive and terror promoting war in Iraq based on nothing but lies and deceit, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib and the reintroduction of torture.

    But, as with China, there is a difference between the regime and the people.

    Criticizing one is not criticizing the other.

    I hope most Chinese (like most Americans) can see the difference.

    We respect China (and the US). We just have no respect for the Dictatorship running China, or the NeoCons that produced Bush.

  2. leeds said:
    June 10th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    老外写的就是老外写的，他不了解中国，我指的是中国的老百姓！他们没觉得奥运会的召开有什么改变，

    其实民主化不是一个事件，而是一个过程，在这个过程中，老百姓太需要稳定了，已经经不起风浪了，难道前苏联那样就好？也许对美国人来说那确实好！

    当然我并不是说现在的制度就是好，我也有很多不满，也有很多想法，一点一点来嘛！新中国才60年而已，美国1776+60年的时候怎么样？好像1860年时还在因为奴隶制度差点分裂吧？好像现在也仍然存在歧视黑人吧！

    至于纯粹的民族主义，我根本看不出老百姓哪里有！

    BTW，我订阅你的feed是feedburner，但是在中国被ban了，每次从googl reader里点你的链接都打不开，有没有什么好办法？（对此我十分痛恨GFW）

  3. C. Maoxian said:
    June 10th, 2008 at 9:17 pm

    leeds: Yes, Feedburner is blocked in China so there’s no way to click through from Google Reader or Bloglines or whatever. The only thing you can do is come to the site directly if you find a post that interests you.

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