Chinese Monster---(最近的几篇除说明外都是原创)

Chinese Monster
I
The Chinese is coming! The Chinese is toxic! The coming Chinese is toxic and they are going to poison us!! No!!! They are going to kill us by all their fertilizer pesticide and other dangerous chemical materials! Stop buying any Chinese product!! No!! Keep all the Chinese away from our country!!
It may be because I am in China that I have formed this impression. I hope so. However I did notice that some medias in western countries (including Japan) had been trying to propagate the idea that though Chinese product is cheap we can’t buy it for it is not human-friendly. Especially these two to three months, from tiny iron tablespoon to huge furniture Chinese product is being widely queried just for Diethylene Glycol in the toothpaste and the suspicious pet food. At the meantime from Wal-Mart to Carrorford all the retail enterprises that put their attractive price on the basis of cheap Chinese labor are being broadly criticized for selling too much Chinese product.
Why just a few common food-security cases can have this effect. From my perspective there are two bases. Firstly the Chinese corporations doesn’t know how to corporate with the society. They are still in their own way to “doing business globally”. For most of them public relation is a brand-new thing. Money is king and they have never considered a mechanism to deal with bursting events. All the above reasons are why they can’t handle recent conflict lowly-key. Then if we knock to the bone, lacking social responsibility is the core reason of these events. Second is fearsome (or hate) to the cheap Chinese merchandises. If we pay attention to these years’ news report we will see that this fearsome is a long-existing thing. Japanese media are the first to do so and I realized this attitude when I was watching a documentary made by NHK few days before. This fearsome is partially the result of the idea that China is a potential threat of the world.
Do you remember in the beginning of 2004 SARS was devastating around the world? Any yellow-skin people were forced to receive “special” service at the entrance of U.S. The reason was really simple—they were yellow and the disease first broke out in China. On the front cover of a magazine publishing in U.S. “yellow peril” was mentioned again and the figure beside these two words was the image of an ill and wretched and dreadful Chinese which is a stereotyped image decades before. The stone on Ellis Island has recorded tragedy of millions of Chinese immigrants who were rejected because of the stereotyped yellow peril. In the near 1997 thousands of Chinese were killed or raped in Indonesia. This event is at first commanded by the government of Indonesia. They used the prejudice to the Chinese community to release the pressure government has to bear after Asia Finance Crisis.
Why can’t we just give the truth to the masses? Why we try to higher up sales of our newspaper or magazine by arousing the conflict between races and countries? If we do so what is the difference between the irresponsible Chinese corporation and us, the Medias in western countries who naturally believe that they are the representative of ethic judges?

II

During recent disturbance, Chinese government closed lots of the methods that Chinese people could learn more about what was happening. Instead, a lot of hack writer and hack exports jumped out and claimed that there is not obvious evidence to prove that Diethylene Glycol (the chemical material used in toothpaste which is suspicious to be harmful to people) is toxic. It sounds really ironical. The entire rest world but the Chinese people need an explanation but they make it as if they were turning down the angry of Chinese people. This reaction makes me so scary, because I can only think out two assumptions that they will do so. First, Diethylene Glycol is commonly used in the manufacturing process in China and it has caused some problem. What’s more all the producers know it clearly and their tactic is to claim it is hurtles so that they can clean themselves. Secondly there will be a lot of toothpaste (and pet food) to be recalled to China. If they destroy all these unqualified products, it will be a huge waste, so they decide to sell it in China. What they are doing now is just a preparation for their future movement. Why can’t they do it to the civilians? The Chinese people are much stronger than foreigners and the producers can save tons of money in this way!!
Who will care the health of Chinese people?

III

Kuznets, a famous economist from Britain, is famous for his Kuznets Curve. It is a curve in the shape of letter U. Some economists have developed a curve in the same sharp and named it environmental Kuznets curve, though it has nothing to do with the original one. Economists use this curve to support the idea that it is OK for a country to sacrifice environment for the development of economy at first. Briefly their theory is that after a country having got rich, the people would treasure their life more. Why? People will try their best to survive longer because the longer their life leaves the more wealth they will produce in a richer society. There are two points which are not strong enough for deliberation in it. Economic benefit is not the only standard to measure a person’s will to live on. Everybody have more or less the same desire to enjoy a longer life. Secondly the main reason causing problem is the public’s consciousness to protect the environment. These two points is also the premises of my following discussion.
Now that the problem of Chinese product has spillover problem, why don’t we cure this problem from the root? After all we can not find another country to take the place of China in a short time and China will go on being the factory of the world for a long episode of time in the foreseeable future.
From my perspective the key to promoting the consciousness of Chinese people is freedom of open discussion and transparency of information. I believe that everybody treasures his life and so basically most people would pay attention to the security of food. However not everyone is professor. Then media is playing an important role. Media includes TV newspaper and Internet, etc. Media can attract public’s attention. This character makes media naturally a forum of open discussion. Then in a country without obstacles setting by the government in the circulation of information, the media would maximize its power and usually at the same time the public would benefit the most.
Unfortunately most Chinese Medias are controlled by government, besides the Internet. However our government is trying to control the Internet. Few days before a local legislation were announced and from then on all the people in Xiamen City should use their real name when they surfed on the Internet. The strongest motive for the local government to do so is an illegal parade happened last month. Xiamen City is a beautiful city on the coastline of China and it is the capital of Fujian Province which is the nearest province to Taiwan Island. A month ago, the residents in Xiamen got the news that a huge chemical project was under construction near the city. Obeying the rule this factory should be 62.14 mi from city because it is deadly poison while the truth is the building is merely 4.35 mi from Xiamen. The government had never announced it before. The public was provoked. Then the “illegal” parade happened. Government decided to give civilians some color to see. Then the legislation came out, because the news spread at first on the Internet. It also is few days ago that I heard from my friends in Harbin Institution of Technology that all the workers serving for the BBS on the campus had resigned their job. HIT is a famous school in China and it is controlled by the military power. The workers protest a policy made by the leaders of the university in this silent way. Again, the leaders wanted to force all the students to use their real name when they surfed on the Internet by this policy.
When will Chinese people have the right to fight for their own health?

IV

Well at last I want to share with you all two really physical stories.
Only two days before I got a piece of news saying that aristocrat from Wall Street is considering about carrying out a reform about Chinese toilets. Exactly they are trying to do it in Beijing. In their opinion Chinese style toilet equals to stupid dirty smelly hell stench sick, etc and one of the most important is that when people use it they have to squat but seat. However they are right, basically.
Automatic condom seller has entered into China for nearly 10 years. I haven’t statistic data but what I have seen is really beneath the estimate of officials. All the automatic condom sellers I have seen have become the target of attraction and destruction. For so many years I haven’t noticed one person have bought condom from automatic condom seller. All my friends buy their condom from pharmacy or store. Whatever, the number of this kind of machine is growing quickly here, why?
As Beijing is becoming the host city of 2008 Olympic Games, it is true and necessary for the city designer to take foreigners’ requirements and demand into account. It is one of our duties. However, it sounds to me that they are trying to change all the toilets in Beijing into the category they have got used to. Besides it seems they are trying to do so by some political methods. If you need my comments I will say that they are really familiar with the rule of playing games in China. In fact I have one question. All these businessmen are from U.S. the biggest democratic country in the world and all of them are higher-educated. Why can’t they use some more democratic strategy and respect the forever residents’ wealth at the same time?
Chinese government is paying more and more attention to the problem of AIDS spread. The budget for and about AIDS is growing year by year and fund from other international organizations is also growing quickly. Usually central government would divide this money between provinces and then province government (play nearly the same role of state government in US) would divide to cities. Now that money is distributed, physical effect should be showed. Will they improve health condition of sex workers by carrying out health education program or handing out condoms? Of course not. Prostitute is illegal in China. Same-sex workers? They may not have the concept of what’s meaning of same sex? Will they offer free injection to drug addicts? Come on. This thing is still in debate. If I did it, who can promise my future in political field? If I do it, other cities’ president will definitely large at me for the number of the drug addicts in my city and they may even kick me out of the game by this evidence. Then automatic condom seller is such a good choice! We can film it and brag it. We can finish our duty in this way in a short time and it may be a good way to get some extra money.
There is a rule. This rule stipulates that the fund China (and other countries) gets from UN for curing and protecting against AIDS should be managed by both Chinese government and NGOs. Chinese government is hesitating at this rule. It hates NGOs. It is easy to understand. For an autocratic government which gets used to control every aspect of its citizens’ lives, it really is a hard lesson to learn that government (and its officials) has not the right to do as it pleases. It is hard but this lesson should be learned because it is the key to a civil society.
When in Rome do as the Romans do.

V

China is an ancient and mysterious continent for the western countries and people. And it is a huge country, no matter judging from economy, people or from power. China needs to learn how to behave like a huge responsible country. It will learn how to play games in a modern changing world and it need to digest its old rich wisdom at the same time.
Many years ago, a famous American Chinese historian Ray Huang said:
Chinese social system is a huge pure agriculture system. With this system, China has to respond to the challenges from a modern world and it becomes China’s question.
I believe it is still true today.
China is not a monster. Don’t describe it like snow white when you are fond of it and curse it as if it was an old witch. China is still there and she never asks any special treatment. Treat it by equality; you’ll see a true China.