Hong-Kong Protests

KIENCHIN said:

So these thugs must be feeling really good about themselves, they have done this for the good of HK. My gut feeling is so long they don’t declare independence, Beijing would let them bury themselves in the grave they have dug.

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manqiangrexue said:

To be honest, and don't ask me why or if I'm stupid, but this is the first time in my life that I have seen truly clearly how manipulated and biased Western media is. Growing up, I used to think that although I love my country, Chinese news is kinda propaganda while Western news is more trustworthy because the governments cannot influence independent journalists so they will be free to report on what they see rather than what they are mandated to say. I still supported China over any other entity or all other entities combined, but deep down, I thought the Chinese media lied because lots of people are not patriots at heart and needed to be lied to to stay loyal. I wasn't one of those people and I didn't care; I would always support China.

But now I see that it was wrong to ever believe in greater media freedom or objectivity in the West. This incident made me revisit my views on Taiwan. Reading Western media as I grew up, I always though that everyone in Taiwan is a traitor and I hated them all. (I even hated Taiwanese food despite never trying it and knowing that it had to taste good. LOL) Traitors don't deserve anything other than to die painfully. And I carried this view literally until last month. Last month, my Muay Thai club had a mixer with the Shotokan club; the latter was taught by a Japanese instructor whose 2 best students were from Taiwan, one with military experience. When I saw them, I immediately tensed up and felt extreme hostility. I wanted to fight them and hold nothing back; whatever happened would be a "training accident." As they approached me, I spoke English to them, as I always do with Chinese people whom I don't feel comfortable around. To my shock, I didn't get 3 sentences in before they said to me, "Why speak English? We are all Chinese people so let's speak Chinese!" I almost cried at how ashamed I felt, and shook both their hands like they were long-lost brothers. That night, I thought some more. I have another very close Taiwanese friend who, every time Trump went on about tariffs, he would say, "We Chinese people need to band together and show that bully that he can only lose against us!" When I was much younger, I had previously visited a Taiwanese church a few times and I was itching to make them angry with my personal intro of how I loved China and Chinese unity! To my surprise, they clapped and when I sat with them to eat, they congratulated me on how well my parents had taught me to remember my Chinese roots! And lastly, the most important mentor I ever had in my life is from Taiwan; he met me when I was 19 and thought that FISH (fluorescent in situ hybridization) was just a lab pet and he supported me in my whole career from undergrad to PhD, to postdoctoral fellow to assistant professor, all to way to today. He rarely spoke politics but one thing he said that I'd never forget is, "Americans don't understand China but we Chinese understand well the United States. That's why the future will be Chinese." Of all the Taiwanese people I have met, only 1, perhaps 2, had been separatist; needless to say, I did not become their friend. After careful recount and reorganization of my life experiences, I have realized that statistically in my life, most Taiwanese considered themselves Chinese and were very good people to get along with, but because of the poisonous US media, I was so deeply tricked into thinking that the Taiwanese hated us Mainlanders that every time I met a Taiwanese person who was a patriot, I wrote him off as a special case! Now it's clear that from my experience, those who don't consider themselves Chinese are the actual special cases!

The incredibly biased reporting of these riots in the Western media opened up floodgates of realization for me.

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solarz said:

Truly, you're not the only one. If you go through my post history on SDF, you can get a feeling on the evolution of my thoughts.

My first watershed moment was in 2008. The Lhasa riots prompted the Toronto Chinese community to hold a huge rally downtown. I participated in the rally, the square we were in was filled with Chinese flags. There were easily thousands of us, of all ages and from all walks of life. I saw major news outlets interviewing many people.

When I got home, I eagerly turned on the TV to see news coverage of the rally. The Chinese community really made their voices heard this time, I thought.

I still remember that CTV report clearly. They showed a clip of a young Chinese guy saying he was told not to talk to the media, and that he didn't know why. Then they jumped to an Asian looking woman who claimed all the demonstrators where students and that they were forced to show up by the Chinese consulate. She further claimed that the consulate held the students' passports and controlled their visas.

I also remember searching Google for news about the rally. Every article put the rally number in the "hundreds". You can see an example of this coverage here:

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This experience was the most eye-opening experience for me. Up until then, I believed the Western propaganda about "free media". Now, I did not immediately change my mind after this experience, I remember arguing on an email thread with fellow Chinese about how they're misunderstanding Western media. I thought I knew more than them since I grew up in Canada.

I did not change my mind immediately, but I kept thinking about this experience over the years, reconciling what I went through with what I read on the MSM, and slowly I understood the pervasiveness of Western propaganda.

This is an ongoing process, as I am continuously learning new ways the media is manipulating my perception. The current HK riots is another learning experience for me. When I was searching for news of the unrest, I automatically dismissed reports from PRC sources reporting on pro-China rallies in HK. I thought that the majority of HKers were anti-China! It is only thanks to @Gatekeeper that I was able to gain an accurate understanding of the situation!

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manqiangrexue said:

In 2008, my coworker's friend (significantly older than me) had been interviewed by American media on his views of the Dollar Llama. He said something along the lines of,

"I think the Dalai Llama stands of peace and harmony in the West and he certainly does not seek to start any wars BUT his motives are much darker than what Americans realize. He is actually a separatist from a time in Tibet's history characterized by barbaric rituals such as coprophagy and forced brainwashing for blind religious worship and things like that have no place in modern China."

He got home to his wife screaming at him and hitting him for embarrassing China on the news and he was just at a loss for why. When she put the rerun on for him, he realized that they had cut out everything he said after "BUT" and now he was the face of national betrayal to all Chinese people at his university! It's actually kinda funny to think about as far as misfortune goes but I'm sure the humor had escaped him at the time.

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Gatekeeper said:

What a joke! This is so wrong on so many levels, I don't know whete to start.

I'll try:

1st, as many posters have already said. Joshua Wong and Denis Ho does not represent Hong Kong! So how come they are being given the red carpet at the congress in USA?!

2nd, and perhaps more importantly, WTF has Hong Kong got to do with USA?

Can you imagin the outcry, if China should meet with indigenous americans in China's hall of the people hear their grievances! And pass judgement on the USA of their treatments on their indigenous people"

Words fail me. It is, of course, purly for propaganda purpose, and these two traitors are willing accomplice of foreign manipulation.

Perhaps they don't see what they are doing is treason, because, after all, they are both of Vietnamese descend!

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