Chinese students studying in America are upset over criticisms of the Chinese government’s treatment of Tibet:
No matter what China does, these students say, it cannot win in the arena of world opinion. “When we have a billion people, you said we were destroying the planet./ When we tried limiting our numbers, you said it is human rights abuse,” reads a poem posted on the Internet by “a silent, silent Chinese” and cited by some students as an accurate expression of their feelings. “When we were poor, you thought we were dogs./ When we loan you cash, you blame us for your debts./ When we build our industries, you called us polluters./ When we sell you goods, you blame us for global warming.”
All I can say is: welcome to the world of the white male, my friends. Get used to never, ever being in the right.
April 30, 2008 at 5:21 pm
“Get used to never, ever being in the right.”
Sorta. That rule doesn’t exactly apply when you deserve the criticism.
And the poem is a little uneven. I have no problem with China having a large population; that’s a liberal argument. I do have a problem with government limitations on family size; liberals are okay with that. So yes, they are criticized all around, but it’s coming from different sources and for different reasons. The poet ignores this key fact by addressing the poem to “you,” implying a singular critic.