Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 23:43:04 -0500 Reply-To: NLUO@msvax.mssm.edu Sender: China-Net From: NLUO@msvax.mssm.edu Subject: CCF: 9/8/93 (No. 93.02) To: Multiple recipients of list CHINA-NT ===+==+=== C h i n e s e C o m m u n i t y F o r u m ===+==+=== Wednesday, September 8, 1993 (Issue No. 93.02) Table of Contents # of Lines ========================================================================== 1. Theme of Issue: Olympic 2000 in Beijing? Pros and Cons a. Editorial ............................................... Luo Ning 31 b. Update on the Open Letter supporting Olympic 2000 in Beijing (9/2/93) ................................. Jianliang Li 30 c. Perfect opportunity for first step of political reform ... Y. Duan 58 d. Why 2000 Beijing Olympiad? ............................ Tang Huang 93 e. Olympic, politics and economics ...................... Kevin Leung 87 f. A Survey on Beijing's Bid for the 2000 Olympic Games (from FCSSC NR #5-02) ............. Theoretical Committee of FCSSC 61 2. Voices from Campuses: a. A Brief introduction of Late-Arriving-Dependents (LADs) Network ............................................................ Mi Mi 36 b. A Brief History of LAFCSs Movement .................. Chengyan Liu 70 3. Life in a Foreign Land: a. Chinese Literature Club in SUNY at Buffalo ............... Hu Jian 29 b. "Do your kids see themselves as Chinese or Americans?" ... Xu Gang 11 4. Community and Society: a. Changing Policies on Overseas Chinese? An analysis ..... Luo Ning 55 5. Forecast of the coming issue themes ......................... EBCCF 8 ==========***==========***==========**==========***==========***========== 1a. Editorial ............................................... Luo Ning 31 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A hot debate on whether or not to support the bid by the Chinese Government (CG) for the Olympic 2000 in Beijing has been going on for weeks in the Chinese communities around the world, as the date when the IOC will make the decision, September 23, 1993, is approaching. The issue would have been simpler, were not China in a peculiar situation as it now is in. On one hand, China has entered a highly prosperous phase of rapid economic growth and social liberalization rarely seen in the entire history of China. The stable and continuous development of China will change the most populous country into one of the leading economies in the world. An Olympic Game hosted by China at the beginning of the new millennium will finally put the image of "the Sick Man in the East Asia (dong1 ya4 bing4 fu1)" in the last one and half centuries into museum. On the other hand, the world could not have easily forgotten what happened four years ago in the same city where the site of Olympic 2000 is proposed by CG. Many people have worried that the acceptance of the bid by CG would give a wrong signal to the world. Some even draw the parallel between the Olympic 1936 in Berlin and the would-be Olympic 2000 in Beijing. The ability of CG to handle such an event properly is also called into question due to its "unique" way to solicit donations from the public during the last Asian Game. In response to this dilemma, many opinions have been voiced on net as how to deal with it. What are the essential points in the debate? To facilitate the mutual understanding within Chinese community on this controversial issue, we have chosen the theme of this issue to be: "Olympic 2000 in Beijing? Pros and Cons". We thank the authors who have contributed to this issue. These are not to conclude the debate. On the contrary, they serve to stimulate deeper and more focused analysis of the problem and its implication to our community and to China. We welcome further contributions and comments from the readers. [net-cord@lab.ultra.nyu.edu, 9/7/93] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1b. Update on the Open Letter supporting Olympic 2000 in Beijing (9/2/93) ................................. Jianliang Li 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have collected about 3000 signatures. Here is a picture of the first 2550 supporters: Country/Area # of Signatures (current residence) (estimate) Rank Australia 126 4 Belgium 30 Canada 360 2 China 24 Finland 84 5 France 45 8 Germany 49 6 Holland/Netherlands 35 9 Hong Kong 1 Israel 23 Italy 18 Japan 47 7 Malaysia 1 Norway 12 Singapore 18 Sweden 27 Switzerland 32 10 Taiwan 17 UK 224 3 USA 1378 1 Jianliang Li CHINA2000@SPIKE.RICE.EDU [jli@mines.utah.edu, 9/2/93] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1c. Perfect opportunity for first step of political reform ... Y. Duan 58 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Dear Fellow Chinese: As Sept 23 approaches, Beijing has accelerated its effort on hosting 2000 Olympic bid. Many oversea Chinese are very supportive to this effort. They tend to undermind that the motivation of Beijing bid was pure politics. The bid is not a sports game. It is a purely political game. After 6.4 tragedy, most of the dark side of CCP politics has been exposed to the outside world. Since then, Beijing government has never walked out of the shadow of massacre. To improve its image in the international community, Beijing made a bold step. Its bid of hosting the 2000 Olympic game is a political gambling, yet a sound gambling. Fear of internal economic instability, political uncertainty, and military control (that played a crucial role in the "6.4" crack down), Beijing government has never admitted its obvious mis-judgement and mis-conduct. It still holds a lot of political prisoners. It shows no intention at all to alter its policy from which a lot of political arrests resulted. Ironically, the one who lead the bid, Mr. Chen, Xitong, was also one of those who have defended 6.4 massacre most. I still remember his red-face-screaming, his accusation on students of killing PLA soldiers. It is very hard for me to accept the fact that many of overseas Chinese supports such a pure political move. Under such politics, the Olympic game could be used again as the name for another crack down if one more political turmoil happens. Supporting such move that motivated by politics necessarily implies that we are accepting the fact of 6.4 massacre, we are accepting the fact of the lack of political openness, we are accepting the fact that more political arrests may follow. No! These are too much for me to accept. We Chinese have been suffering for hundreds of years internally and externally. Why can we only pay tears to the tragedy? Why can't we avoid tragedy? Why can't we think ahead to reduce the possibility for that tragedy ever happens again? WE DON'T NEED TEARS! WE DON'T NEED TRAGEDY! We need strategy. Let's not pass the perfect opportunity. Let's demand the government to release ALL political prisoners as the first step towards political reforms. If the government can not even satisfy such tiny demand, I say, the government is hopeless. On the other hand, hosting 2000 Olympic game, yes, will ultimately benefit China, our lovely motherland, where most of us came from, if we put politics aside. The Olympic game can create a necessary and perfect environment for military reform and political reform. But without basic commitment, the opportunity will never become reality. If we pass the opportunity, we probably have to wait for decades for such perfect opportunity ever to arise again. For reasons I listed above, I hold the position as "conditional- support". [duany@jmr3.xtal.pitt.edu, 9/3/93] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1d. Why 2000 Beijing Olympiad? ............................ Tang Huang 93 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Beijing's Olympic bid has engendered a heated debate among CSS. Both sides have plenty of reasons for pros and cons. Why do I support Beijing's bid for 2000 Olympiad? We all know that China is undergoing extensive economic reform and rapid social structural changes. I think the Olympic can bring China some valuable benefits, in addition to the big time entertainment -- the most exciting sports games. The Olympic, as developed into its current status, is no longer regarded as a purely sports event. Governments and peoples alike see the Olympic as an opportunity for development and attraction. That is why so many cities, developed and underdeveloped, around the world try very hard to bring the big Games to their hometowns. In China's case, I think there are basically four aspects that Olympic can be beneficial to our people. First of all, the Olympic is the world wide spectacle in sports event. No doubt about it, the Olympic is exciting and entertaining, and all the more so if you host it in your hometown. It is indeed exciting to bring this event to China, the world's most populous nation. This large scale sports event will bring us the unprecedented entertainment in sports. Moreover, the Olympic Games shows us the Olympic spirit -- tense yet fair competition. This spirit is valuable when our society is on going to a competitive one. It will also arouse our people's interest in sports activities and physical education. This can help to improve our public health in the long run. In this sense, the Olympic is a physical education class for our people. Culturally speaking, the Olympic will help people around the world to know more about our culture and our people. China had been closed out of touch with the outside world for too long. The world wide TV coverage of this all time favorite sports event will bring close-ups of Chinese culture to the viewers world wide. Never before have we had such a chance to let people know more about China. In the Olympic history, the games always serve as a cultural sideshow. In this sense, Olympic Games can be considered as the best advertisement for the host country. The huge showcase can boost and improve China's tourist industry. It was estimated that 1988 Seoul Olympic would increase tourists by 12% annually to South Korea. With China's long brilliant history, I believe the Olympic will bring at least the same benefit to China as the Seoul Olympic. Politically speaking, the Olympic can help to open China's door further to the world. During the Olympic Games, thousands of news reporters and numerous tourists from every corner of the globe flood into China. The on-site news reports will put Chinese government under the scrutiny of viewers world wide, and therefore put more pressure on Chinese government to adjust its behavior to the internationally accepted paradigm as such the human rights. As long as the door is further open, the political reform or change will be inevitable, and such change can be achieved without such pain and chaos as in the present Russia. In this aspect, no other means (foreign political pressure etc) can do better than the Olympic which takes place inside China. As China is no longer similar to then closed Soviet Union in 1980 and it still seeks more economic reform, the Olympic event can timely help China to change. Besides, the Olympic event is one of the largest modern enterprise which requires modern technique in management. If we host it, we can not do it in the old way. We have to change our way of thinking and our style of management. Therefore, the Olympic can also help to reform business management as well as government in China. Some friends pointed out that Chinese government will use this event to polish its face. In my opinion, as long as it is good for our people, why do we care someone who trys to polish something out of it (they do it everyday all the same)? After the Olympic, all we remember and cherish is the sports and the culture, and who cares about face-polishing stuff? The Olympic has really no magic to glorify any political regime, no matter how one thinks it would. Finally, the Olympic could bring in net economic profit. The Olympic has been hosted in the developed countries for the past twenty years, and never before in the past two decades has a developing country like China ever hosted the Olympic. Because of massive constructions and cost therefrom, most countries ended in losing money by hosting the Games. China represents a unique case as compared to other countries: firstly the cost of constructions is still very low, as compared with that in developed countries. The profit resulted from foreign TV rights and commercials is comparably much larger to China than to any developed country, because of the difference in currency exchange rate. Therefore it is highly possible for China to make net profit out of hosting the Olympic. Secondly, China has the fastest growing economy in the world. To host the Olympic, we have to ensure the stability of our society. The stability as well as the fast growing economy further encourage the foreign investment in China. Due to the potentiality of a vast market, the foreign investment and commercial during the Games could be unparalleled. Furthermore, with our economy in a much better shape, the economic repression as in 1990's Asian Games will not be repeated. It goes without saying that to host the Olympic, we need to tremendously improve the infrastructure in Beijing and other relevant cities, which costs huge sum of money. However we will never lose anything in the investment of improving the infrastructure -- we have to do it sooner or later. In other words, all money invested in the Olympic will not be wasted. In short, the net economic profit from the Games is very likely. The most common concern about Beijing's bid is that China is still poor. Why don't we host it later, say 2008 or later? In my opinion, if we host it later we might lose some advantages, as I pointed out above. Then Beijing 2008 Olympic would probably be just another Montreal Olympic. To benefit in maximum from the Olympic, the best time is at the beginning of the next century. Let's support Beijing's bid -- enjoy the Olympiad. [CHEM7J@Jetson.UH.EDU, 9/7/93] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1e. Olympic, politics and economics ...................... Kevin Leung 87 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the book "Olympic Politics", Christopher R. Hill correctly pointed out that "politics has been inseparable from the Olympic Games. All sports have had to take a view on questions of international politics." There are numerous examples that the Olympic Games were used to make a political statement. For example, the withdrawal of PRC in 1958, the ejection of South Africa in 1970, the bloodshed in 1972 Munich Games, the boycott by the African states in 1976, the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic and the boycotted of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It is naive to say "let sports be sports". The Chinese government should not hold the Olympic Games in 2000. In the moral standpoints, we should not support such an oppressive regime and totalitarian government with the rewards of Olympic Games. We should let the leadership know that a gesture of openness without the genuine interest in improving human rights cannot fool the world. How can we let Premier Li Peng stand on Tiananmen Square in the 2000 Olympics when thousands of freedom fighters died at the same place unanswered? In addition, it will be disaster economically and politically if the current government hosts the Olympics. The Games would stand a high chance of being boycotted by the western world. The government will be more oppressive to stop the public from revealing the miserable life of Chinese people under 50 years of communist rules to the world. Moreover, the government would not be able to handle the event because of its inefficient and ineffective bureaucracy. Huge financial loss is likely. Massive disruption of Chinese economy and Chinese daily life are inevitable. I will explain the several factors below to support my assertions. 1. China's human right records has consistently ranked among the lowest in the world. I do not see any improvement in the last few years. 2. The ten year anniversary of Tiananmen Square is around that time. Like what happened in the Asian Games in 1990, the government will arrest most of the dissidents. It will impose a strong military force in the Capital to prevent any incidents. Travel will be restricted at all times. The police in Beijing will "cleanup" the street by imprisoning thousands of people (e.g. homeless, beggars) that the officials believe would damage the image of the city. Western governments will not stand that. 3. China will take over Hong Kong in 1997 and Macau will be returned in 1999. These two events will inevitably take up a lot of energy and resources from the government and lead to numerous crises to be solved. The most noticeable one is the tensed relationship between the government and the majority party in Hong Kong, the United Democrat. The mishandling of other crisis like the construction of the new Hong Kong Airport, the constituent of the LEGCO, and the implementation of the BASIC LAW will jeopardize the world's willingness to participate in the Games. 4. The relationship between China and the west is tense. Recently, the government still insists that it does not rule out taking over Taiwan by force. In addition to that, the determination of paramount leader Deng to reunite China before year 2000 has caused some concerns among world leaders. Moreover, the Clinton administration has just imposed some trade restrictions on China for its conducts on weapons exports. Also, China has a big argument with the British over Hong Kong affairs. China's condemnation and threaten to recall the ambassador of France, Germany and Netherland's decision to sell weapons to Taiwan do more harm than good to its world image. 5. Since the Olympic Games were revived in 1896 at Athens, Greece, every year except 1932 and the 1984 LA Summer Olympic Games lost money. In addition, China also lost money in the 1990 Asian Olympic Games. Moreover, the recent incident about dozens of Chinese bank official embezzling ten of billions of dollars certainly exposed how corrupt the government is. Should we have faith to the same kind of officials to handle such a worldwide event? 6. Holding the Olympics in China in 2000 does not make economic sense. China has billions of dollars of budget deficit each year. The annual income of the average citizen is close to the poverty line. Moreover, the current government has tried so hard to combat inflation and to cool down the economy. If the Olympic Games is held in 2000, the government has to rebuild the intrastructure and has to construct numerous facilities. How can the government on one hand try to discourage the growth of the economy and on the other hand put billions of dollars on Olympic construction? Moreover, the government will need to compete with the other businesses for foreign currency to purchase materials and acquire foreign experts to prepare for the Games. The national deficiency will inevitably go up and the exchange rate will head down. The average citizens in China will be the one who suffer the most. By combination of all these factors stated above, it is immoral to support China to host the games. Moreover, I fail to see how China will make money out of the Games. On the contrary, I predict that China will lose big because of the corrupt bureaucracy, the potential boycott and the expense of security, renovation, new construction and loss of production. [kevin@if.com, yleung@carbon.colorado.edu, 9/3/93] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1f. A Survey on Beijing's Bid for the 2000 Olympic Games (from FCSSC NR #5-02) ............. Theoretical Committee of FCSSC 61 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Due to Beijing's bid for the 2000 Olympic Games is becoming a hot topic among Chinese scholars and students of Canada, The Theoretic Research Committee of the FCSSC (The Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars of Canada), a committee with the primary responsibility to do survey among Chinese students and scholars in Canada, hereby posts the following survey questions via the CND, providing you a chance to show your own attitude towards Beijing's bid for the 2000 Olympic Games. According to your own value preference, please choose only one out of the following five options: (1) "strongly support" (which means you strongly support Beijing's bid); (2) "support" (which means you support Beijing's bid); (3) "strongly against" (which means you are strongly against Beijing's bid); (4) "against" (which means you are against Beijing's bid); (5) "don't care" (you do not care this issue); Please note the following points when you send back you choice: <1>: Either you are "YES" side by choosing (1) or (2), or you are "NO" side by choosing (3) or (4), you have to show the reason(s) why "YES" or "NO" by choosing the given options or putting your own reasons(s). <2>: The number of reasons to support your "YES" (option 1 and option 2) or "NO" (option 3 and option 4) is limited within THREE, i.e. you may choose (or put your own) one to three reason(s) to support your "YES" or "NO" choice. <3>: Please arranging the order of the reasons in terms of the degree of the importance to your choice. (4): Please send your choice to: "fcssc-survey@sfu.ca". The given reasons to support you as "YES" side: a: China will get more international reputation b: China will take this chance to show China to outside world c: The Olympic Games will promote China's political and economic development d: China will retrieve the negative influence caused by 6.4 e: You are a Chinese, so sentimentally you support f: other reason(s) The given reasons to support you as "NO" side: a: China will cost huge financial budge, and China is still poor b: Chinese government plays political card on hosting Olympics c: Poor condition of human rights in China d: The conflict of Olympic spirit and political autocracy in China e: The party and the government cover with gold foil on their faces by hosting the Olympic Games f: other reason(s) Your reply should be standard as the following: "strongly support". a,c,b. or "support". b,c,f(you own reason) or "strongly against". a,e,f or "against". e,f,a. or "don't care" Please feel free to send you answer to "fcssc-survey@sfu.ca" Deadline of reply: September 9, 12:00pm Thanks for your response. The Theoretic Research Committee FCSSC Sept.3, 1993 [zhanga@sfu.ca (Yu Zhang), 9/4/93] ==========***==========***==========**==========***==========***========== 2a. A Brief introduction of Late-Arriving-Dependents (LADs) Network ............................................................ Mi Mi 36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LADs network was established on July 26. It was initiated by Peiyuan Zhou , who suggested on ccnl that all the netters with lads-problems organize themselves to share lads related information through a private mailing list. Very soon the number of netters increased so rapidly that it became very difficult to be handled by Peiyuan Zhou himself. Then Jun Wu offered his computer resources to host the list. After CND-US reported the lads-net's sign-on address, the number of netters has reached its peak. Now the lads-net becomes a listserv (1), and has over 1000 subscribers. During early August, the net was filled with so many e-mail messages that some of the netters volunteered to organize a committee. The purpose of this committee was to compile questions and answers, dispatch messages, and discuss the current issues. It was not until August 12 when Lads-net Committee began to reach out to the CSS community in general. The Lads-net Committee has contacted LCnet Working Committee, IFCSS, Dr. Zhao's NCCA and various other agencies. The current issues of Lads-net Committee are: A) Keep close contact with various agencies to solve lads-related problems, B) Write petition letters and collect signatures (2) to persuade INS HQ that lads be included in the world-wide quota; C) Continue to provide lads-net netters with timely lads-related information; D) Collect lads-related information. Mi Mi The Lads-net Committee (1) To lads-l unsubscribe, send a e-mail to listserv@spike.rice.edu, with mail body as: sub lads-l Firstname Lastname. (2) To sign your signature on our petition letter, please send a mail to lads-sig@spike.rice.edu. The desired format is: Mr./Ms/Miss:Name,Address,City,State,ZipCode,Tel# Co-signed Spouse, Co-signed Child. [hua7291@med2s0.engr.ccny.cuny.edu, 9/5/93] ==========***==========***==========**==========***==========***========== 2b. A Brief History of LAFCSs Movement .................. Chengyan Liu 70 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [The following article only expresses my personal opinions, it cannot be related to any committees.] Chinese Students Protection Act (CSPA) is a sign of hope as well as a sign of frustration. It divides Chinese Students and Schoalrs (CSS) community into two parts: those who came to the US before April 11, 1990 and those who came after. It stirs up the internal fight among CSS community. Fortunately, the majority of CSS community are rational enough to cool down and cooperate with each other to achieve the best they can. Past two months were crucial. Unsatisfied Late Arriving Fellow Chinese Students (LAFCSs) demonstrated their unity and strength when they found their potential rights would be deprived if they were not going to stand up for themselves. On July 6, 1993, a group of LAFCSs in Los Angeles set up an e-mail account and sent out the alert message which said the worst possible damage for LAFCSs was to wait 16 years before they can get Permanent Resident (PR) application approved. Followed this message, LAFCSs across the United States woke up. They felt angry and betrayed. They redistributed the related messages as much as they can. About July 12, a primitive network had been formed. They distributed a petition letter written by a group of LAFCSs at Univ. of Wisconsin. The main points was to persuade INS and related offices change the Interim CSPA Implementation Regulation and considered the interests of LAFCSs. On July 19, upon the request of one LAFCS at Univ. of Pennsylvania, Mr. Shannon Yeh set up late-comers net. It's a controversial action. Since the reputation of Mr. Yeh is infamous among many Early Comers (ECs), they just simply thought that the late-comers net would do no good for CSS community. However, the truth is not as simple as 1+1=2. On July 24, the first e-mail meeting of Interim Committee was held through Internet. They intended to send some representatives to Washington D.C. since there was no proper channel to solve the problem. They phoned IFCSS HQ, they phoned several IFCSS council members, urged them to do something for the crisis situation. But they failed. They couldn't trust IFCSS anymore. The nightmare didn't stop. On July 27, CND-US carried an improper information to help the late-comers net. This resulted in a resignation of Editor-in-Chief of the late-comers net. Meanwhile, some members of the Interim Committee found that Mr. Yeh wnat to use the late-comers net with his personal purpose. They decided to get rid of the crazy guy and move the whole net to a personal account at Washington Univ. at St. Louis. They encountered lots of difficulties with the turbulent environment. The only choice was the petition letter campaign before the deadline: August 2nd. From July 31st, in only two days, they collected more than 700 signatures. The petition letter with all the signatures was faxed to White House, Attorney General and INS. Experienced all the victories and troubles, they became mature. A totally new LCs Working Committee was formed by August 10th. Their inten- tion is beyond CSPA though the CSPA was still an major focus. They try to provide good service to LAFCSs and to bridge the gap between LAFCSs and their motherland beyond CSPA. They learned how to fight for their rights through a proper channel. On August 14th and 21st, the Chairman of LCs Working Committee was invited to attend the first tele-conference of IFCSS council. They geared up before and after the meeting to lobby the best possible results. Two resolutions in favor of LAFCSs were passed unanimously. They also try to cooperate with LADs-net. Their strategies is to make friends as many as possible instead of enemy. So far, LAFCSs are very happy to see their LCs Working Committee work for them efficiently. However, we must say that the current situation is not good enough for LAFCSs. There are LADs and illegal Chinese immigrants, all of them are unpredictable factors at current time. If they celebrate what they have achieved now, they may loss everything in future. There's a serious question to be answered, what's the goal beyond CSPA? If no one can answer this question, the LAFCSs movements would become only a closed chapter of the whole history of the CSS community. Personally, I hope both LAFCSs and ECs can discuss this question at various level. It'll benefit CSS community as a whole. Chengyan Liu at Washington Univ., St. Louis [cliu@wuecon.wustl.edu, 9/8/93] ==========***==========***==========**==========***==========***========== 3a. Chinese Literature Club in SUNY at Buffalo ............... Hu Jian 29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLC in SUNY at Buffalo is a club for those Chinese students and scholars who are interested in Chinese literature. The club was set up in 1992 fall by a group of graduate students majored in non-literature but interested in Chinese poetry, prose, novel, drama, literature critics etc.. The initiators hoped this club would help the club goers to improve Chinese literature knowledge and appreciation ability by communicating within this club; to make friends by talking with each other; to refresh Chinese by regularly reading and writing Chinese works; to pursuit spirit development by discussing and appreciating literature and art. There are more than 20 regular club goers. Besides the graduate students who compose the major proportion, there are some staffs and undergraduate students going to the club. The club also has Dr. Constantine Tung, a well known Chinese scholar, as its faculty advisor. Dr. Tung is a Chinese Professor of Modern Language department in SUNY at Buffalo, a Chinese literature critic. He has studied "crescent moon" poets, current Chinese drama (mainland), current Chinese military literature (mainland). In the past year, the club held several discussion meetings over Xu Zhimo, Bei Dao and other Menglong poets, Tang dynasty poetry, Qu Yuan and the students and scholars' own works. The club also held a summer hiking in a state park near Buffalo. In this coming academic year, the club will try some way to encourage club goers to write more and communicate more with CSS of outside Buffalo. The club highly welcome CSS outside Buffalo to contact with them. Please send E-mail to me. [V281XSJG@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu, 9/1/93] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3b. "Do your kids see themselves as Chinese or Americans?" ... Xu Gang 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a party I met a someone who was originally from Taiwan and had been in the States for many years and raised his kids here. To answer my question: "do your kids see themselves as Chinese or Americans?", he told the following story: A few years before, the Youth Baseball Team from Taiwan visited US and played against the US youth team. He took his teenager son to watch the play. In the end, the Taiwanese team beat the US team and won. He was very excited and shouted: "We won!!!". But his son was very sad and said: "We lost!". [GXU%KENTVM.BITNET@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU, 9/5/93] ==========***==========***==========**==========***==========***========== 4a. Changing Policies on Overseas Chinese? An analysis ..... Luo Ning 55 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was reported in the 81th issue of "China Times Weekly (Am. version)" that the new head of the "Qiao2 Wei3 Hui4" of the government in Taiwan, Mr Zhang Xiao-Xian, visited various Chinese organizations in the New York area recently and made quite a stir in the Chinese community. The novelty was his announced new policy of "parallel contact, equal treatment" to various Chinese organizations in US. There is a historic reason for the excitement. Because of the McCarthyism in the early 50's, most left-wing organizations within Chinese American (CA) communities such as the "Xi3 Yi1 Gong1 Hui4" in NYC were crushed, and the KMT gained the political dominance within the community, composed mainly of the natively borne descendents of the early generations. Most early CA came from Guangdong. Large number of new CA came from Taiwan only after the immigration reform of US in 1965. However, many political events since then, especially the "Bao3 Diao4 Movement", the Taiwan Independent Movement, and the assassination of Jiang Nan, had alienated many CA organizations composed mainly immigrants from Taiwan from the KMT government. Although the control of the KMT over the Taiwan-origin student organizations is still quite strong even today, there are parallel Taiwanese student organizations on many campuses which are quite hostile to the KMT government, and the control over the non-student Taiwan-origin CA organizations are even looser. Therefore, the KMT government had traditionally clung more to those CA organizations with Guangdong-origin members, while keeping distance from those Taiwan-origin CA organizations. In comparison, the overseas Chinese policy has always played a much more important role within the overall agenda of KMT than CCP. It is not surprise since the overseas Chinese community is like mother to KMT. It is therefore very interesting to find out if the recent new policy brought about by Mr Zhang represent only the personal stylistic change, or a more fundamental shift of the KMT government into the direction of treating the overseas Chinese community on a more equal base rather than the traditional pursuit of control and dominance. The CCP's overseas Chinese policy has been centering around the need of "building up a united front (tong3 zhan4)". Only in the last decade, the importance of the overseas Chinese community to the Chinese Government (CG) has increased significantly due to the need of luring the investment. Unfortunately, the counterpart "Qiao2 Wu4 system" in Beijing is still largely under the old spell of the cold war. Despite the large number of CSS settling down in many foreign countries, the CG still contact with the new community mainly through the "educational consuls" in the Consulates. These educational consuls are the representatives of the State Education Commission, another one of the most close-minded branches in CG. The question is: When the government in Beijing would face the reality, explore more "civil society" channels, and treat the overseas Chinese community on an equal term rather than a territory to be controlled with? So far, there has not been slightest indication that it has been aware of the problem. The adjustment of the overseas Chinese policies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will play an important role in the competition for winning the upper hand in the fanfare of the "Great China" scheme. [nluo@msvax.mssm.edu, 9/7/93] ==========***==========***==========**==========***==========***========== 5. Forecast of the coming issue themes ......................... EBCCF 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a tentative schedule for the coming issues and their themes: 9/15/93(# 93.03): IFCSS: Today and tomorrow (I) 9/22/93(# 93.04): ? The EBCCF welcomes contributions to the announced topics in coming issues and invites recommendations for subsequent topics in future issues. [net-cord@lab.ultra.nyu.edu, 9/8/93] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ + Executive Editor: Ning Luo Executive Moderator: Weihe Guan + +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + For subscription: mail "SUB CHINA-NT Your-First-Name Your-Last-Name" + + to: LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET or listserv@uga.cc.uga.edu (internet) + + For back issues of CCF: + + anno ftp to cnd.org[132.249.229.100]:~ftp/pub/community/CCF + + For contribution and inquiry: mail to net-cord@lab.ultra.nyu.edu + +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+