So a few weeks ago, a Chinese student at Duke tried to mediate between a group of pro-Tibet protesters and a group of very nationalistic Chinese students. Within a few days, she received death threats, and her parents' address in China was posted online along with other personal information (forcing her parents' to move out of fear for their safety).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/us/17student.html?scp=1&sq=duke%20chinese&st=cse
Recently, if anyone writes anything condemning the human rights record of China, he (or she) can probably expect to receive rather hateful comments along with death threats. I think that this article sums it up pretty nicely:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1734821,00.html
I guess this ultra-nationalistic tendency of the Chinese is something like the little man syndrome, but on a larger scale. Except, it's not so amusing when it leads to hate, and people getting hurt.
2 comments:
That's really scary...
Yesterday in Korean class we were talking about nationalism, and a view of one of the professors here is that nationalism in Korea arose as a result of an outside force which shaped it. Korean nationalism is ridiculous at times, and a lot of people think it's a result of external forces. Perhaps it is that type of nationalism that is the strongest and most fearful--reaction rather than action.
i'm scared too
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