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This is the first time I have started a thread here on DU and I hope this is the proper forum section to post this. Previously I have only replied to other threads. I have though long and hard about posting this mainly because I don't really know how fellow DU's would respond. I also hate getting into tit for tat flame wars and I know this post might devolve into just that. I'm doing this because I feel it is important and no one else seems to be bringing this up.
This post concerns China bashing on DU which seem to almost become a favorite past time recently. China bashing has always been around since the 19th century blaming Chinese people or the local Chinese community as a whole for anything that might go wrong for it was convenient to do so; to stereotyping Chinese people as being cruel, cunning and wear pigtails and always inventing tortures and throwing unwanted babies in rivers. But that was then. Anyone that implies such analogies today would be accused as a bigot.
However China bashing today has evolved. Most popular are cheap or dangerous Chinese products, pollution, labor practices and human rights. Although such subjects deserve to be given the spot light, the bashing always slowly spreads to other aspects of China and it's people. I have lost count how many times posts on DU concerning something about China has simply devolved into anti-chinese rhetoric. I've seen fellow DU members slam down Chinese culture, history, religion and calling China the biggest threat to the world. I've seen fellow DU'ers call Feng Shui, belief in various spirits and deities, praying at temples with joss sticks as bull shit and stupid.
Many recent calls for a boycott of Chinese products by some DU'ers have degenerated to an all wide call for a boycott of anything Chinese. I've seen DU'ers encouraging others not to patronize their local Chinese restaurants, grocery shops and Chinese owned launderettes and the arguments goes this has to be done because you never know what these Chinese might put in their food or in the laundry they wash. It's all dangerous. Others have called or wished the coming Olympic Games in Beijing would be a disaster simply because it's being hosted in China. I quote form one such post on DU some time ago that I bookmarked. Many others I did not bookmark and forgot who posted them and where but I certainly remember the remarks they make:
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"If the Chinese are such ardent practicers of Fung Shui, then why have they created the most polluted enviroment in the history of humanity and by their actions threaten life for all entities on this planet? Fung Shui is BS! And so is the Chinese government, state run capitalism, rampant cronyism and corruption, an enslavement of millions producing crap for the west to consume. I can't think of a more horrendous society, short of fascist Europe, Stalinism, and other brutal dictatorship run nations. Unless checked by western, african, south american and some asian powers, China's ugly culture, economy and military will dominate the planet for the next four hundred years, with unimaginable war making and horrors for humanity. The intelligence forces of those nations would be more useful spending their energies on disrupting the Chinese elites, by fomenting widespread discontent among the urban and rural populations, pitting ethic groups and regions against each other. Just as the Soviet Union - the model of state run capitalism, collapsed by its own weight with some help from the outside - not the least of which being the proliferation of PC's and the rapid spread of liberating ideas, so must the internet be the primary tool for the breakup of China."
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I was the only person who responded to this post. And to be frank I truly expected at least some others to do the same. Yet there was no replies nor was the thread deleted for what to me was insulting and ridiculing to one specific group of people simple due to their ethnic origin. I can only conclude that there were no replies because everyone seem to miss the post or many fellow DU members simply found it acceptable and nothing to complain about.
But why all this rabid hatred of China? Yes there are many things wrong like any other countries. Yes some factory owners treat their workers as shit and openly pollute. But to use this to paint all factories in China as this way? Worker pay is lower and unions are almost nonexistent. I hear DU'ers always point out saying
"Look, Chinese workers are only being paid $0.90 cents per hour. That's no better then slave labor. China is evil!"
Sure 90cents is not a lot of money. But fellow DU'ers don't seem to take into account cost of living. $10 a day gets you a lot more buying power in Ningpo than in New York City. $10 is a much higher wage than living in the rural countryside. But such facts are almost always ignored and people only focus on a few things that feed their China bashing and to give their arguments more substance.
China+heavy pollution+labor practices+cheap dangerous goods+low pay = slave labor conditions. China is bad. Boycott all China goods !!! Buy American!
I don't know how many times I have heard this. Chinese goods are cheap because that is the market the Chinese economy and industries can compete in. They cannot produce very advanced expensive products. If they do that as this time they will most likely fail. Both Japan, Taiwan and South Korea went through this same phase. Even the US went through such a phase on their road to being an industrialized nation during the late 19th and early 20th century where profit and growth was considered much more important than worker rights and environmental impact. In the 1950's and 1960's Japanese products were cheap and looked down upon by the West. So Japanese manufactures concentrated on making cheap less complicated products like transistor radios which they could easily export and in the mean time continued to make their products better until they could compete with the big nations. In the 1980's and 1990's Taiwan and South Korea had their turn. This time it was mostly electronic goods and computer chips. There is a huge difference in a 1987 Hyundai economy car than a 2007 Hyundai economy car. Because they got better.
Now it's China's turn. Just like Taiwan and South Korea, they focus on cheap goods but also concentrate on improving quality. 10 years ago China was hardly making any CD players. Today most of the worlds mid and lower end CD/DVD players are Chinese made. Why, because they improved. My cousin owns a factory in South China that manufactures CD/VCD/DVD players. He then sells them to Panasonic, JVC, Philips and Sony complete with proper packaging and instruction manuals for the proper company which then buys them and sells them as their own under their own name badge. I have one in my house, straight from the factory so no name badge simply blank. It's 7 years old and never had a problem. What's wrong with that? My cousin isn't evil. He does not treat his workers like shit. The factory is clean with worker housing both for workers and their families. They pay is much higher than anything in the area before the factory came along. Yet to many, his products are cheap, lousy, dangerous and must be boycotted simply because it's made in China or made by Chinese. You cannot use a few examples to paint a wide picture of how everything else must be like. If I used this same wide brush, I can argue that Americans are blood thirsty war mongers who have no respect for international law. Yet I know this is not true! Evidence is all round. Yet this is what's going on when it comes to China.
A few days ago there was a thread about Chinese made cars being sold in the US. Again as usual it degenerated to all out China bashing and the few brave souls who try to make the point that not all Chinese made cars are not the pieces of crap got called by all sorts of names and finally ending with being labeled by some as supporters of slave labor. Some DU'ers always start the China bashing and egged on by others while others simply follow and many times their points do not make sense if you really look at it. I doubt many of these DU'ers have been to China and rode in Chinese made cars. If so how can they be in a position to comment on it? I have rode in them. The Chinese WV Jettas, Santanas, The Buick Lacrosse and Audi A6. There is nothing wrong with these cars at all other than having the stigmata of being Chinese made. It's not unusual to see 15 year old VW Santanas on the road. If any of these cars were made else where like Mexico and exported to the US, I seriously doubt many DU'ers would have such a problem with it. Than it hits me that this is not really about badgering this China made product at all. What it was about was simply China bashing. This product is made in China, thus it is bad, it is cheap and dangerous and anyone that purchasing this China made product is supporting the exploitation of Chinese labor and causing unemployment at home. Period.
I am of Chinese heritage. I do not live in China or in the US. Maybe because of that I tend to be a little more sensitive when people start to bad mouth China which eventually usually leads to bad mouthing anything Chinese or in some instances reaching to a point of anything "Asian" is to be ridiculed. But think about it. Of all the things being said about China or anything Chinese made.. supplied... designed etc... here on DU everyday. Replace China or Chinese with African American, Muslim, Jewish or any other group and what does that sound like? If any DU members starts their bashing with these other groups you can bet there will be a host of other members coming down on them. But when it comes to China, it all seems fair game.
I was thrilled when I first found DU. A place of like minded progressive liberals can talk and write and get a wide variety of news faster than almost anything out there. But recently especially after the pet food and toothpaste incidents I have noticed that things have become decidedly hostile to China and sometimes even to Chinese people as a whole. You might think I'm over reacting. But those people making such off the wall comments and branding all China or Chinese products or people with a simple swipe of their brush as being dangerous, greedy, cheap, dirty, corrupt or even in some cases evil might think nothing of it. You might think differently if you are on the receiving end of such comments. It hurts.
I liken DU to a large tree with many people chatting away on topics under the shade. Things used to be nice with people respecting others that are different, from a different culture, country and beliefs. Everything is cordial and easy going until someone puts up the sign "Chinese Not Welcomed" I don't know what to do! I really like it here on DU and want to remain a part of this community. I can simply go on and try to ignore the best I can the many anti Chinese posts and comments even if it hurts a lot and simply say to myself that this is simply part of being on an online community as large as this. Should I remain on DU and simply make sure I don't reveal to people that I'm Chinese to avoid the possible scorn? If I do this then I would be admitting to myself that I am ashamed of my heritage for which I am not. I don't know how other non American Chinese members feel about what is happening here. I certainly did not expect something like this when I fist joined DU.
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