To my friends from Australia and New Zealand:
I know the Olympics torch relay will arrive in Canbrerra in a few days.
In your neck of the woods, I have heard from here, San Francisco, my hometown, stirrings of protest, and anecdotal reports of China bashing and demonization.
Most of these have been directed against the causes of human rights and grievances against Chinese officials and their government on a host of issues from Tibet, Xinjiang, China's environmental problems, extra-territorial issues of Darfur, Burma, and even the Paracel islands in South China.
Here in San Francisco, we even have people protesting that China is abusing animal rights, and slaughtering animals for food. Which society is not carnivorous, pray tell.
I eat hamburgers all the time, and they come from cows.
Lately, I have seen your premier, Kevin Rudd, chimed in, and lend his voices on the clamor for human rights inside China.
With all due respects to your bilingual premier, the only head of state in the West historically who is the closest to being knowleageable about Chinese culture and its rich civilization,, not ignorant as our very own American Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Mr. Kudd is best positioned to eloquently communicate in the Chinese language, without filters or translators.
Mr. Rudd must act to engage, not to lecture the Chinese. He must be a bridge builder, not a bridge destroyer.
That said, I plead for civility and call upon all Aussies to welcome the Olympics torch to Canbrerra in a few days. I know because of our experiences here in San Francisco with the demogoguery of our congresswoman, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is from San Francisco.
We all may have grievances about politics and governance within our own countries where we reside. I too am not happy with many things I see and experience inside China as a Chinese-American straddled in both worlds.
I know. I have grievances too here in San Francisco, as an American. But I look at it as a glass "half-full" rather than a glass "half-empty" perspective. And those of us who are working very hard across cultures are unfortutely being drowned out by the forces of stridency, incivility, and China bashing.
Our government, the U.S., is mired deeply in the Iraq War to which we can't extricate ourselves as a nation, much less understand. And next, they are trying to pick a fight with Iran, an ancient Persian culture with a rich history.
Domestically, our financial systems, including Wall Street, is melting down. This past week alone, three of our airlines have shut down and declared bankruptcy in Hawai and America's heartland. Our airlines are besieged with bad and surly service, overloaded by the high costs of fuel, and strapped by eroding revenues. You Aussies must know when comparing airlines in Asia and in the United States.
Even our ordinary citizens, our "Johnny Six Packs" and "Soccer Jane Moms" are discovering that their pizzas and beer have gone up in prices. Many are losing their homes because they can't carry on with their mortgages. Some even are losing their cars because they can't absorb the financial overload and still pay for skyrocketing gasoline.
The high school my teenager child attends is saddled with budget problems such that we are facing teachers losing their jobs, downsized, and compelled to find employment other than teaching.
American health system is in shambles. Many of us can't afford the cost of basic health care, much less pay for prescription.
All said, we all face angst, anxiety, and concerns about the world and the suffering before us.
This is the worst of times I have seen in my short lifetime, especially in the West. And here in America.
Much of this anxiety and fear is that globalization has unleashed forces which are bringing us to unknown, unchartered waters. There is a lot of anger and frustration that CHINDIA, i.e. China and India, are overtaking the rest of the world with their dazzling success.
It is no different an angst in China as it is in the West, especially America, where I am today. And it is equally similar, I am sure in Australia. Inside China, many Chinese youths too are worried about gainful employment and how to cope with a slew of their own problems, like many of our Western youths in Europe, America, and Australia.
Those of us over here on the other side of the globe, have heard the din of protests emerging lately in Australia.
I feel that and I know the level of anxiety. I feel your pain. And I know much of these is being misdirected against China and its people, a country with at least fifty five (55) nationalities and ethnicities.
All these being said, as an American of Chinese descent, having experienced what happened here in San Francisco on April 9, 2008, in North America's oldest, most historic, most unique Chinese immigrant enclave, San Francisco Chinatown, we did the rest of the world, and especially the many decent people inside China some of the most bigoted, uncalled-for, and downright ignorant hectoring and insults. We did not do as well as we could to welcome the Olympics torch this week.
The Olympics games is a peoples' games. It is a world game to which Beijing for the first time in Chinese history of hosting. I am awed by the efforts being made by the peoples of China to make these games a success. These are the ordinary people I can relate and connect with.
Unfortunately, what we have seen and experienced in some western cities, especially in London, Paris, and San Francisco (my city) have not been all that honorable, civil, and dignified, as host cities welcoming the arrival of the torch as a peoples' event -- an event for world peace, harmony, and understanding.
We must do better. We must not repeat London, Paris, or San Francisco.
In each of these western cities, wracked by internal domestic problems of enormous proportion, we have seen the rising crescendo of incivility, rudeness, and hooliganism.
As much as we are all human beings, with differences in our political views, we must learn how to respect each other and not scream against each other. Bigotry must be stomped out.
As a Chinese-American who is straddled between two worlds, two cultures, and two sets of values, like your honorable and unique premier, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, I hope that Aussies can do better than the Brits, the French, and the Americans.
Where I am, in North America, we did better than the French in Europe. But I hope the Aussies can do better than the Americans. They must.
What happened in Paris was dishonorable. It is not I fondly remembered of French civility and decency. And Paris is one of my favorite cities. I learned Francophone culture, and I used to learn my French, Quebecois style, in Montreal.
But in the eyes of us dually-education Chinese-Americans, what many of us saw in our Western News Media, was uninvited incivility, boorishness, and hooliganism. I know because I was interviewed by German, Norwegian, French, and Canadian journalists here. And most are only gripped and filtered their news through the "protest lenses" of "Team Tibet-Shangri-La-Dalai Lama" and nothing else.
When I saw a crippled female Chinese-French torch bearer being assaulted by a Parisian protester, I cried for France. I cried for Europe. That's incivility from Europe.
And when I saw that our torch relay stop here in San Francisco was waylaid by our protesters here, and had to do an ad hoc shift to carry the torch by another route, notwithstanding that those of us here who are genuinely welcoming of the torch outnumber the protesters by a margin of 3 to 1, I was mortified at how these games have become politicized.
Aussies can do better. Let's honor the Olympics torch. It is our torch. Not any government's torch.
Let's not allow any protesters, regardless of their grievances against all the issues they are so passionate about, valid or invalid, real or imagined, wacky or legitimate, ambush and seize the stage, with incivility, rudeness, and boorishness.
And more, Let's not allow our supposedly free press in the western world, outside of China, use this occasion as a pretext to set up, stage, amplify and massage through their "protest lens" the China Bashing chorus that we have seen lately in London, Paris, and San Francisco.
As a Chinese-American, I call upon our Chinese Aussies to work to reach out in your neck of the woods to tamp down the negative and hostile passions, and really calmly and rationally engage the non-Chinese Aussies in a healthy dialogue. You are all Aussies, one nation; just as the Chinese inside, including its rainbow of nationalities including the Tibetans, are all Chinese, one nation.
I know many of our non-Chinese neighbors in the West are genuinely concerned and aggrieved by what they think or believe or may not have seen, but heard, through the biased prism of their own media, about China and its government. I ask them, "don't jump into conclusion until you visit China, and even more important, understand and read up on its complex history.
But be mindful, we are all people who transcends governments and government officials.
And the Olympics games is about people. Not governments, good or bad.
Learn not to be London, not to be Paris, and absolutely not be San Francisco.
I know Aussies, through your incredibly Chinese-fluent premier, can do better than us here.
Have a great torch relay. And give our best regards to our Aussie friends.
Sincerely,
Edward Liu
a Chinese American voice
San Francisco, California
