Thread: What A Tibetan Says About His Hometown

Originally Posted by tiskew

Yes,but no one stop them to go to the temple, or speak Tibetan , so what's wrong here
If you said OK they need to learn Manderin, because the business, tourists, college in China are Manderin spoken( in some college they have special classes for Tibetan or other minorities), so choose to learn Tibetan or Chinese is their choice. But since not many people speak Tibetan, it will be difficult to do business or learn in schools, some choose Chinese. Let's have a look at other local language in China, most of the dialects are dying , because of what? Cultrual Genocide?

About a way of living, they can choose what to dress, what to eat.

But hey, why they are also dressing in T-Shirts, Jeans, listen to pop music, stop being slaves Let's use another word, how about " Globalization" or "Modernization" ?

Apparently I have to try again to illustrate the parallel here: You are very sure that you should push a set of policies to modernize Tibet; Westerners are very sure that they should push a set of policies to modernize China. While you are sure that you should resist Westerners influence, you fail to see why Tibetans may want to resist your influence. I am not questioning the intention. It is human nature to want to share what we treasure in life with other human beings. Yet, why can't you have the faith that people are smart enough to decide what's best for them? China can set some high level principles and allow Tibetans to select their religious leaders, choose their officials, decide their education systems and all culture matters important to them. This of course won't be done overnight. But saying that Tibetans can go to temple and speak Tibetan so nothing is wrong, you set a terribly low bar for all Chinese and the society. Some day you may find yourself in a situation that you hold a minority opinion or become part of minority in the subgroup somehow. You'll appreciate that setting a high bar of respect for minority desire is an excellent thing for everyone in the society.

Originally Posted by tiskew

On the other side, personally I don't think the Chinese people here are defending CCP, but for the country. I guess you know these two are different ;p

I also believe that Chinese are speaking to defend the country's image, not for CCP. Yet the notion that you are patriotic if you support the government's policy and save face for the country is sadly harmful. I believe you are patriotic if you can push the government to do the right thing. Power corrupts. Whoever in power can do so many wrong things if not properly monitored. A transparent government is generally the best for its citizen and has best image internationally. Even in US, with so many watchdog groups and media outlets, we still let the Iraq war happen. Most Americans would not hesitate to dig out the dirts and force the government to do the right thing. You see, if they don't do that, their children may die in the war unnecessarily. At a personal level, I hope you never get into a situation that a high government official wants to beat you up. Anyone in that situation will appreciate voice against the corrupted official and the government. Again, you should focus on getting the government to do the right thing; the country's image will improve as a result.