Anti-Japanese, Anti-Schmapanese

I told one of my students I was thinking about moving to Japan if I didn't like Beijing, and to this she replied (via text message): "Really???but chinese are more honest and friendly than japanese and you will meet hardships there." I told her if that's the case, then maybe I'll just go home. She said she was just giving her opinion, but she really isn't--it's just the Party line. I don't understand why people have opinions about issues they have no knowledge of--I guess usually because either they think do have some knowledge or they just think that it's necessary to have an opinion about everything.

 

I can forgive the first case most of the time, because it's impossible to know how well you know something until you discuss it with other people. Chinese propaganda, dictated by the CCP, emphasizes a hatred of Japanese because they have yet to (in China's government's opinion) sufficiently apologize for the invasion leading up to and during WWII. Nevermind that Japan is China's number one trading partner, they won't forgive Japan until such apology is given, and what sufficient actually is, I haven't a clue. Koizumi is a bit of a dumbass for continuing his visits to the Yakasuni Shrine, but he won't be in office forever. Once he's out, I highly doubt the next PM will do the same.

 

It blows my mind that people can be so one-sided about issues involving the so-called "face" of a country, and in China that seems to mean the face of the people as well. Somewhat similar to the Americans who unequivocally support the war in Iraq and see anyone who criticizes Bush or the war efforts as "Anti-American," I guess (I wonder if they see the irony in being, if they are, from a "Red state"), but here it seems, even theoretically, inconceivable to express an opinion that goes against the Party line. Last term a teacher told his classes he thought Taiwan should be its own country, sparking a bit of an outcry from his students, some of whom started asking the other foreign teachers if we felt the same. I avoid that issue for the same reason I avoid the Japanese one: it's impossible for them to see the other side of the far too often and much too highly touted "coin" (an analogy that will result in involuntary manslaughter should I hear it one more time) of those issues. Sometimes students would ask just to get a rise out of us, but none of them would ever think Taiwan should secede. To even think of the idea of secession as a possibility seems impossible--I mean that students aren't willing to consider the other side of the argument even for just argument's sake because in their mind it's not possible, so why consider it? Theoretics is a realm of thought that almost doesn't exist, as far as I've seen. I think the CCP prefers to keep it that way. It's a clever set up, really: brainwashing the people by telling them that people or groups the CCP perceive as a threat to its power will brainwash you even if you simply listen to what they have to say, and they use their influence to deflect any anger the people have at itself (getting them unified in anger at Japan, for example), though it's hard to say how much longer that will work.

 

(Going back to my initial point about opinions, I also feel I don't know enough to make a valid argument in the case of Taiwan, except that in its entire known history it was controlled by the Chinese for an entirety of eight fucking years, and somehow this makes for a legitimate claim.)

 

I'm generalizing to some degree; students are more open in private discussions about some things, but Japan and Taiwan are not one of those things, nor is Tibet or the Fa Lung Gong.

 

In the end it leaves me curious about a couple things--in light of the nearly unanimous opinion Chinese have on these subjects, and in light of how China's ethnic minorities' cultures have become kitschy commodities dressed up in plastic that are being treated (especially the Tibetans) not much different than American pioneers treated the Indians (sad, considering that that genocide took place well over three centuries ago), do the Chinese truly value diversity? Do they value individuality? What about true multiculturalism and interculturalism? I see differences amongst my students, but those differences are still contained within a larger sphere of uniformity. Perhaps this is to some degree the same in the US, but I believe the sphere is larger--at least we have Red and Blue states (ha...).

 

A larger question is if individuality is really all that, but it seems to me to be a innate characteristic of human nature, regardless of where we live, but on the other hand it may just be  a luxury for the well-fed, properly housed, comfortably sheltered.