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再推荐一篇文章 二子 (2008-04-12 17:20 阅读人次:1981) |
为什么西方文明在近代战胜了东方文明?这篇文章也许就是一个例证。德国人写的,关于西藏,关于中国于世界。
有时候我不知道,关于西藏大家到底在吵什么?
Many Chinese people wonder what is happening these days regarding the Olympics and Tibet and why the West behaves in such an unexplainable way.
I fell very sorry what is happening these days. Is not fair to take hostage of the Olympic games and the World audience for an political issue.
Therefore I tried to write something that may give some explanation and background.
I hope my thoughts are understood the right way, create no offense (if so it was not intended) and help to understand the situation from a perspective from outside of China.
What one may want to consider is the following:
The Dalai Lama has had several decades to criss-cross planet Earth and do a permanent PR-tour. He has given many lectures all over the world, been on many TV-shows and on radio, was interviewed countless times in newspapers and magazines. He has written many books and articles (search for Dalai Lama on www.amazon.com, the biggest online book seller). DL constantly talks about how to lead a good life, be a good person, partner and citizen, do no harm, be peaceful, be respectful, be a loving person and he also talks about how to gain equilibrium, peace of mind, become a thoughtful and balanced personality and many many other things. So over the course of tens of years, the Dalai Lama managed to appear as an embodiment of all positive human traits you can possibly attribute to a human being. So he appears as the proof of an ideal human person who does and cannot do wrong because of his outstanding loving and peaceful character and the ultimate wisdom which he has integrated into his being. The Dalai Lama has become sort of an esoteric, mystic and holy person in the West. He appears as the high priest of being a good human being.
So as it happens to be, when the Dalai Lama appeared on TV and talked about how to find balance and love in your life, at the end of the talk the moderator then asks: "You seem to be a very happy person. Is there something in your life, that you are missing or something that you are unhappy about?" He then would say, that one of his few wishes is to be able to go back to his homeland that he loves and misses so much. And then the discussion about Tibet would start and in the course of that the Dalai Lama would say, that he was forced to leave his beloved homeland because after an uprising of the Tibetians against the oppressive rule of China, he had to fear for his life and had to leave overnight with nothing but his firm belief. And China still would not allow him to go back home even after all those years have passed by and even after he said he only wants cultural independence, nothing else. Nobody however discusses what cultural independence could/would mean. More feelings and spiritual things then details.
In the rest of the world no one, really no one has any idea about life used to be in former times under the rule of the Lamas and the rich people. There is simply no real information or reports available, no pictures, no stories, no TV features, no books, nothing. All we hear is in conjunction with the Dalai Lama. We have no clue about what it meant to be a serf in the former Tibetian serf systems. Nobody knows what could have and did happen(d) to a disobedient serf and his family. To rest of the world it appears that China has invaded Tibet against its will and has robbed the land unlawfully and now is exploiting its natural resources for Chinas own good. Tibet was always very far away and remote from us, nobody paid any attention really, all we saw was the DL and we heard stories about Lama monks with special wisdom, meditation exercises and how to become enlightend and how peaceful all of the Tebetians and especially the Lamas were (no harm, not even allowed to kill a fly, etc.).
Because mediation, self reflection, self-finding methods, spirituality etc. etc. are en vogue these days, many people also adore the DL since they project their own inter-personal (spiritual) shortcomings (which everybody has) onto the (holy) DL. Because many people believe the wise DL has the ancient wisdom and secret knowledge that could potentially help to finally heal a person's hurt soul.
So the reception of the DL in the West was completely different form the picture of the DL in China.
Now, think about what happens these days. There is an uproar in Lhasa and the Chinese government makes harsh comments, sends military personal, accuses the DL that he only tells lies and the DL is a really bad person, almost a beast. This is a message understood and perceived completely differently in China and in the rest of the world. In China people of course have more knowledge about the history of Tibet and have a different understanding of politics in general as well because of a different history. The rest of the world simply has now concept of how to deal with this and they do not know what they don't know. They think, that they "know" that the DL is very fine person with all the good attributes you can assign to a human being. And then a disgruntled (because angry) Chinese government official says that the DL is a bad and violent liar. This is completely against the current model of world which the West has and they have no "logical" explanation about why someone would call such a wonderful person (DL) a liar. So many think, that if the DL is so wonderful because he has "proven" it and someone else says something bad about the DL, so maybe the person who has a bad opinion about the DL has an hidden agenda or he himself might be bad person (think about a person you really like and someone else bad-mouthes him/her). This looks logical, because if you have a "proven" good person and someone calls him bad, then the other one is wrong for whatever reason. And then you think what the bad reasons could be to call the other person (the DL) a bad person. All of this happens unconsciously, this is what makes it so effective. It's all psychology.
So this is all about different perception, different model of the world, and of psychology.
What to do?
I think that China may consider to have a separate message for the rest of the world. No harsh words about the DL because those are utterly counterproductive, they only will have a negative effect as of now. Give details that lets the Western audience allow to build a new opinion. Give background information, reports, pictures, high-resolution downloads and the like. Send educated and nice people to Western talk-shows. Have Tibetians appear on a Western TV show and let him/her give his perspective. How was life for an ordinary person in former Tibet?? What were the habits of those monks and feudalists? How did they treat their underlings? What were the practices and daily routines of the Lamas? Were they respectful to ordinary citizens? How did the life and the rights of women look like?? What were successful projects in Tibet were Chinese and Tibetians cooperated very successfully and in friendship? Are there any happy marriages between Han-Chinese and Tibet-people? Were Tibetian kids allowed to go to school in China, how did they like it and did they have a successful career? And so on and so forth. Don't attack because an attack always provokes a defense. Do it the indirect way, this is much more powerful and lasting. I understand that you may be angry, but if you are just angry and say angry things the Westerners only understand this as a confirmation of what they currently have in their mind. Patiently explain things, give background information, give details and talk about how you feel in todays China. So do it piece-by-piece, step-by-step show and explain how you see the situation.
And by the way, the West normally is very irritated if a religious leader demands political influence. But when it comes to the DL, nobody seems to notice that. They always talk about the religious leader respectively the spiritual leader of the Tibetian society. China has not addressed this in the Western media and did not yet talk about what it means to mix religion and political power etc..
Good luck with the Olympic Games!
I cross my fingers for you!
Best wishes and greetings from Germany.
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