Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1993 00:10:56 -0500 Reply-To: TWP66@ISUVAX.IASTATE.EDU Sender: China-Net From: Yungui Ding Subject: CCF #9307, 10/6/93: "Olympic Bidding" 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, October 6, 1993 (Issue No. 9307) +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Chinese Community Forum (CCF) is a journal published on China-Net. CCF is dedicated to the discussion and debate on the issues related to our community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the Editorial Board of CCF. Contributions to the discussions and suggestions of new topics are very much appreciated. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Table of Contents Author | # of Lines ============================================================================ 1. Theme of the Issue: Olympic Bidding a. Olympic Bidding: A Game of International Politics .......... Bai Yan 108 b. Beijing Defeated: CNN Headline News Under Scrutiny .......... Y.Y. Xu 92 2. Olympic: After Thoughts a. What Have I Learned From the CSPA? ....................... Lai Anzhi 104 b. Where you're from -- Does it really matter? ................ Luo Ning 67 3. Reader's Comment on Column Topics (3 items) .......................... 34 ============================================================================ ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== From The Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The foregone Beijing bidding of the 2000 Olympic has been controversial, how to face the bidding failure has also been in the discussion. In this Issue, we have two articles from Bai Yan and Y.Y. Xu examining the case from their different perspetives. As the heat of the debate around the subject is dying down, we hope these two articles can help us into the direction of sitting down and calmly thinking back the whole issue. More than ever, China is opening itself to the outside world; More than ever, China is coming to the play of the international community. This is an irreversible process that is taking place. This is the process of modernization. In this process, China will certainly undergo a lot of pains while learning every bit she has to. Good or bad, victory or failure, the Olympic bidding has been such a pain. Did we learn anything from it? In the second column, we continue the discussion of the "CSPA and Its Impact" topic with contributions from Lai Anzhi and Luo Ning. Together with the Olympic case, this topic may make up a portion of a bigger picture of the 20th century Chinese going to the world. We appreciate the readers contacting us. In this Issue, we carry three readers' comment/suggestion to our topics. We will welcome more ideas and contributions from the CSS community. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 1a. Olympic Bidding: A Game of International Politics .......... Bai Yan 108 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The safe and sure way to make people listen is to wait till their emotions die down. Remember, right after the announcement of the Olympic decision, some emotionally laden friends were so antagonistically aroused by the human rights statements issued by IFCSS and other organizations or individuals, as if the idea of human rights was a sort of taboo that everyone of us knew but could not talk about. To them, China had made greater efforts, therefore China should deserve the sponsorship. This simple linear decision rule could not be unfairly intervened by political variables. Trying to maintain their cognitive connosance, they stove to reduce inconsistencies to the extent of being intolerant of any human rights-related articulation. As a result, this world important Olympic event for which almost whole urban population in China were mobilized for years is vanishing out of our minds, even without a decent chance of being cross-examined for that sensitive yet decisive part of the issue--human rights simply for the fear of hurting feeling. What a vulnerable community we have, in which the voices of a few brave souls willing to be ostracized were so easily watered down by the passionate majority. China's tragedies of this kind have repeatedly exhibited a matter-of-fact attitude toward the past happenings. The Chinese people are not so much interested in theorizing events apart from their practical utility. We are prone only to the realm of the immediately apprehended, denying any components in the nature of things that do have causal effect but against our wishful thinking. We tend to construct reality to make excuse of the situation, rather than "seek truth from the fact" (Chairman Mao's sage advice). This past Olympic experience once again reveals the truth of the fact: politics can never possibly be separated from sport. Politics is omnipresent at every sphere of the human endeavors. The pervasive intrusion of politics into the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not manifested itself visibly as a human rights dispute in the agenda, but discernibly as political predisposition and vote intention. Most of IOC voting members were predisposed to mentally screen out, as a prerequisite, the countries perceived as having repressive regimes by using the indicators of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, and summary execution and so on. The fact that Australia was commonly thought to be devoid of repressiveness enabled its claims for better infrastructure and athlete services much more louder. China, by the contrast, had a very heavy burden of proof to convince IOC by showing equivalent evidence pertaining to civil liberties/human rights. Here there are two confusions that need to be clarified. First, the IOC's concern of human rights was not for the sake of human rights per se, but for the probable political instability sprung from in a host country which may potentially drive an Olympic game into disrepair. In the eyes of most voting members, IOC's decision on the host country was preliminarily an estimation of probability of such kind of occurance. China, unfortunately, was seen as the one with the highest probability among the five candidates, whose uncertainty was compounded by the forseeable death of the national leader and the takeover of Hong Kong in 1997. There is no need to make fuss of IOC's final decision in this aspect. As a transnational nonprofit organization, the uppermost concern of IOC must be to make sure, before considering other conditions, that the chosen state hosting the Olympic game is free of political intrusion and immune to political instability. IOC simply did its job. Second, the IOC's political predisposition was not caused by the human rights watchdog organizations; they originated back from the 6/4 Incident, when, whether like it or not, China's steadily improved international image was suddenly brought down to ruin. Retrospective evaluation was certainly one of the overriding determinants of one's vote, not to speak of prospective unpredictable. The human rights watchdog organizations only served to activate IOC members' preexisting political predispositions and reinforce their vote intentions by making them electoral relevant. Along this line of reasoning, it is not surprising that China's great Olympic-focused efforts to impress IOC (including rallies, sanitation movements, signature drives, shows, the Great Wall, Dragon ...) turned out not olympically consequensial, as all these heroic hard work did not translate into the voting majority, although China must be accredited and acknowledged for its tremendous contributions to the course and spirit of Olympic. Vote intentions can be legitimately speculated with reference to the rules of political games. It makes a great difference whose game we play. The rules of the game determine the requirements for success. The term human rights does not connote the same meaning to developed and developing countries. When discussed in Western nations, human rights refer to procedural rights of due process, fair trial, freedom of speech, etc. To the contrary, developing countries view human rights within the context of economic rights--the right to job, housing, economic security, and so on. To make things worse (or maybe better), the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, passed by the UN in 1948, mentions all of these. Developing nations defended themselves against charges that they were violating human rights (procedural and civil) by pointing to other rights (economic) violated by their accusers. With this view in mind, the actual voting pattern can convey a sense of coalition based on either developing countries or developed countries. For instance, when Turkey was voted out at the first round, most of its tickets converted to China; when Britain and Germany were out at the second and third rounds, most of their tickets went to Australia. Speculation aside, the point of argument is that the term human rights is a convenient label to attach to someone you dislike; if you get others to accept the label, you have won a half battle in getting others to adopt your value system. Obviously, China was in a weak position to command others into its conceptions of human rights. The release of Wei Jinshen was both a sign of China's impotence and a source of annoyance, when confronted with the growing global trend of democratization. One may also see that China was not that naive to really believe the separation of politics and sport. Will China stick with its own rules of the game in a bid for next chance, or play by the rules defined by others? To change or not to change are two roads diverged in the front. Whichever road is taken, one thing for sure: China will still get nowhere by only trying to make IOC feel moved, touched, impressed, and personalized, but not convinced. (From: 1-OCT-1993) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1b. Beijing Defeated: CNN Headline News Under Scrutiny .......... Y.Y. Xu 92 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- As if for the first time I noticed the glaring manipulation of news footage, and I must admit that I was truly and duly impressed by the simultaneous simplicity and effortless sophistication of it. Or, as they are so apt to say, "boy, it blew my mind!" Contrary to the customary dictate of the news media's predatory instinct for the explosive and the sensational, CNN turned its extremely sensitive camera away from the spot-light, Sydney, the triumphant victor, to focus on China, the crest-fallen loser. As though, as a spokesman of the American consciousness, and as an authorized interpreter of international events, it felt obligated to offer some sort of explanation or, better still, justification for a result that it might have the foresight and sagacity to see coming long ago, and therefore was not taken by surprise at all, however inexplicable it may be to many of us. The news anchor cautiously delivered what everyone else suspected, indeed what was on the surface for grasp:"China's human rights condition and its uncertain political future might have hurt its chances." Of course they did. Or did they? It is up for the U.S. to decide, it being the self-appointed, universal arbiter of human rights conditions. Meanwhile accompanying the sound track, the camera was busy rolling out familiar street scenes in Beijing, bicycles, pedestrians, early morning mist and all that; except it wasn't as prosaic and casual as it appeared. Rather the footage was calculated to convey ambiguous verdict about China's competence. While two or three young men interviewed on the street expressed indignation at the bigotry of the some Western countries whom they believed had conspired against China and pulled it off again, they naturally revealed their regret and disappointment, which in turn were taken as an index to their confidence in Beijing's winning the bid. However the camera clandestinely told the viewers a different story as it zoomed in at an elderly, plainly dressed anonymous Chinese woman trying to get on a presumably crowded bus, as she did so not without difficulty. This is the image of China, backward, primitive, ineffectual, oblivious of the advancement of high-tech, etc. It completely overshadows the image of the concerted effort that China has been displaying for the world, not without sincerity and persuasion. Then as the reporter commented on China's sense of national pride, we were shown hundreds of people lined up on the Great Walls, their figures somewhat obscured by the huge fluttering red flags. Incredible as it may seem, it was indeed "a sea of red flags!" For the viewers, the shot immediately signaled uniformity, and possibly coercion of the "masses" into submission, which reminded one of the much obhorred communist rule and dictatorship; moreover it invoked the dark memory of the infamous "Cultural Revolution." Precisely because of its familiarity it could cause paranoia in the Western viewers who have been brainwashed into "red-scare." Nothing could be more clearly insinuated: the apparition of the past loomed large even in broad day light, who can guarantee China would not "go back?" Hence the legitimacy of the alleged "political uncertainty" is confirmed. Compounded with the historical, political subtexts of the picture is the text Chinese government intended for the world to see, China's high hope for being permitted to host the Olympics for the first time in history. However this was brushed aside by the poignant irony in the commentator's pronounced judgement, "miscalculation." It sounded like a sharp, malicious snap in comparison with the apparent innocence of the sea of red banners. So much for your "objective truth." As China turned what the reporter perceived as a "mourning" into a celebration for the upcoming National Day, the latter was presented as a diminutive substitute for the grandiose aura of the Olympics, a poor consolation for a shattered dream. In the "realistic" grayish lighting for the scene where people were putting out signs for the National Day to replace those for the Olympics, Beijing was stripped of the halo one associated with a capital. And the poor Chinese resorted to the only kind of comfort left, the comfort of "Ah Q." Perhaps I deluded myself into imaging Beijing's victory as secured as history was inevitable, without stopping a moment to ponder that its loss might be more inevitable and "logical." I should have understood that the noble Olympics too is motivated by power struggle, bare-fisted ones or those cushioned by diplomatic gloves, unabashed blood-thirsty wrestle or behind-the-screen bargain. It makes perfect sense now that of course, if they can help it, they (whoever "they" are) won't stand to see China stand erect and dignified as a giant while extending its hospitality to the rest of the world in the year that ushered in the dawn of a new century. That would be granting China too much of a symbolic power and privilege. China literally and symbolically in the position to proclaim the beginning of a new epoch! It is intimidating to the fragile psyche of some. What an eye-opener it is for those of us (myself included) who still entertain the remotest illusion of "fair play" in the Olympics whose spirit seems too sublime and universal to be tarnished in the least by regional politics. It was barely a century ago when China was pillaged and subdued to the verge of collapse. Today, I feel as if China is made to relive the bitter taste of defeat and humiliation. What if We refuse to be subdued? What if we stop blaming ourselves for the "misfortune"? What if the Great Walls really becomes a powerful, ferocious dragon, alive and soaring? China, when its national pride is yoked with its historical burden, may prove to be too awesome a spectacle for the world to behold. What the CNN anchor forgot to mention was that the U.S. sanction that prohibited the sale of satellite technology to China did not just "happen" a few weeks ago at so handy a time. There could not have been a better timing and a strategically more meaningful move than this. Really, shall we borrow a cliche, for want of a better term to describe this by no means original manoeuvre, that it "kills two birds with one stone?" (From: ) ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 2a. What Have I Learned From the CSPA? ....................... Lai Anzhi 104 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- As correctly stated by some, the CSPA, good or bad, is closing a chapter of the history of the overseas CSS. Like reading a text book, one naturally asks a question after finishing a chapter: what have I learned from this chapter? There is no doubt that the CSPA was originated from the tragedy of the June 4th about four years ago, for which Mr. Hou Junwei's essay gave us an impressively colorful identification. On the other hand, the CSPA is also an outcome of a collective effort of so many CSS. While I could not forget about the origin of the CSPA, neither could I forget about the subsequent effort of so many, from which I learned what I have. It is just like the civilization of human beings. It is the God that created the universe bearing all the fundamental laws, but it is the human being generation after generation that discovered these laws and built up today's civilization step by step upon these laws. Yet, we gained our knowledge about the universe mostly by learning the evolution of the human civilization rather than the God's creation of the universe because the latter is not learnable. When I ask myself what I have learned from the CSPA, I found that I have indeed learned some valuable things. 1. Anything significant needs commitment and determination. I do not want to get into the debate whether the CSPA is politically and morally correct since many people have argued but yet no definitive answer is seemingly possible, but I would like to point out this: it would be impossible without the commitment and determination of so many people one after another, just as it would be impossible to come up with today's quantum mechanics, which changed the human civilization so profoundly, without the persistent effort of physicists of so many generations. When we talk about the CSPA, we should not forget about the earlier effort of lobbying for the change of J-visa to F-visa. As a matter of fact, this earlier effort was even more difficult than the later CSPA in terms of time and energy that the CSS had to put in. I still recall the feelings and anxieties among the CSS in those days for the "J to F" lobby. When we finally came to the point of lobbying for the CSPA, the leadership and the working forces were much more experienced. It is interesting to notice that, if one compares the activists in the "J to F" lobby with those in the CSPA lobby, they are basically different persons (except for a couple of them). Why can we achieve a consistent result, i.e., the CSPA is a "natural" outcome of the "J to F", even if the personnel involved in have been quite different? The only interpretation is the common commitment and determination of so many. 2. Commitment and determination need good organization For things that affect as many as the CSPA does, each individual may have the deepest commitment and determination, these commitments and determinations may well mean nothing without organization. I believe that few would deny the fact that the IFCSS is one of the most, if not the most, important factors in organizing the "J to F" and the CSPA lobbies, although the IFCSS inevitably made misjudgement and mistakes on some issues. The US society was surprised by the skillfulness and effectiveness of the IFCSS lobbying effort with some claiming "they are more knowledgeable than most immigration attorneys in the country". The older Chinese immigrants in this country regard this a "highly professionalized work and achievement done by amatures". If we say that this is an unprecedented result, then the driving force can not be anything but the well organized effort based upon the mass commitment and determination. 3. A good organization needs good rules It would be unthinkable that the IFCSS, whose leadership changes every year, could lead such a time consuming effort if it did not have good rules, without which the very much impressed mass participation would not have been possible. We have seen so many Chinese organizations that face crisis whenever there is a leadership change. Although the IFCSS itself has problems here and there, its basic rules were reasonably well defined and forced upon its leaders. These rules require the leaders to lead on what must be led, and to compromise on what must be compromised. This is probably one of the key reasons why the organization could keep its continuity in the whole CSPA lobbying, regardless its frequent change of leadership and working staff. 4. A good organization needs also identify the interest of its members There is no doubt that the CSPA reflected one of the biggest interests of the CSS. However, it is not always obvious to the leaders of an organization what is the biggest interest of its members. It might be just lucky (or obvious, I don't know) that the IFCSS leadership identified the CSPA. If we recall all the activities organized by the IFCSS, the CSPA was probably the one that enjoyed the maximum mass participation. In summary, when I close the CSPA chapter of the CSS history book, I learned that we need an organization that can identify our interest, has the rules to guarantee that the leadership has the courage to lead the mass will and determination, and to ensure the continuity of the effort. These may sound trivial, but they are not trivial things to put into practice. Now, a chapter is being turned over. While one knows what he has learned from the chapter, he is also eager to go to the next chapter. Then we ask: what is the next chapter? do we have a next? I don't know. As an organization, is IFCSS still valuable to us? While I recognize the fact that any organization has its beginning and ending -- an organization like the IFCSS may not exist any more some day, I can't help thinking that the CSS community will probably last forever. Then I can't help asking this question: are we willing to be organized as we are now? I guess the answer to this question is in the next chapter, which is still waiting for all of us to write. It is my hope that the IFCSS will still exist in the next chapter, which very much depends on the wisdom, courage, determination, and patience of both the IFCSS leadership and the CSS community at large. (From: 30-SEP-1993) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2b. Where you're from -- Does it really matter? ................ Luo Ning 67 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- An interesting observation: In the heat of the summer of 1993 and the debate around CSPA implementation, we have seen frequently the "declarations" such as: "I am a late-comer." "I am an early-comer." "I don't have a LAD." ...... It seemed that credibility would flow "naturally" out of such self-claimed of "innocence" and more weight would be accounted for whatever were argued in front of the audience. When I heard these proclamations, I could not help to recall the incredible time of 1966-67, during the height of the Red Guard Movement. At that time, the family origin was all it took to determine a person's position in the social hierarchy of the Cultural Revolution. "I am from Red Five Classes!" "My father is a revolutionary cadre!" ...... At that time, there was no distinction between public and mob. Anyone bearing a "From Black Five Class" label could be forced to do self- humiliating work at any time. The alternative would be beaten by the mob. It is fortunate that the physical forces have not been developed over this virtual world of netland, otherwise we would probably have seen quite a few broken faces come out of the fights, which were full of hatred, during last June and July. I remember a scene in a classic movie I saw (I could not recall its title), which depicts the life story of a famous Swedish queen. When faced with the revolting subjects of hers in front of her palace, she asked the first man run up the stairs leading to the palace gate: "What work do you do?" "I am a blacksmith", the man replied. "What did your father do?" "He was also a blacksmith." "I am the queen, my father was the king, so was his father. It has been handed down generations and generations for my family to rule this country, the same way as your family being the blacksmith. Why don't you do what you do the best, and let me take care of the affairs of the country?" These are not the exact words, but that's how the queen convinced the revolting mob to disperse without using violence. In a traditional society, no matter it was China or other countries, the low social mobility was one of the major factors contributing to the social stability. Accordingly, a value system was developed to accommodate it and to reinforce it. It is ironic that a system to "pin down" each person to where he or she was born was developed and highly guarded in China after 1949 by the government which vowed to modernize China. The system has never been officially abandoned, but it has been seriously eroded in the last decade due to the enormous economic and social development. Unfortunately, the old habits die hard. The family background does imprint strong influence on each person. However, if an individual is entirely "defined" socially by his or her origin, he or she is then forever deprived of all possibility to enter new social spheres, since one can never change one's own origin. By the same token, to confine an individual into his or her current state, what he or she "is", is to take away all the prospects that he or she might become. More important than the potential to change is the capacity of human mind to think beyond the existing "reality", because that is the source of all human freedom, the origin of all human potentials for future change. To close this commentary, I am going to quote the beginning sentence of a TV commercial: "Where you're from, it doesn't matter..." (From: 4-OCT-1993) ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 3. Reader's Comment on Column Topics (3 items) .......................... 34 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ty Hu 22-SEP-1993 In recent months, many CSS have decided to develop their professional career in the US. The implimentation of the CSPA will provide permanent residency for a large number of CSS who have been here for more than three years. One thing every CSS has to face is the professional life in the US. So, I'd suggest CCF to put up a topic for CCF discussion, say "CSS Professional career after postdoctoral training." Thank you. ___ ___ ___ From: Charlie Li 22-SEP-1993 Just some random thoughts on the "Between Readers and Editor": I understand that CCF is discussion oriented rather than news oriented. Although moderated discussion list (with lots of editing efforts) greatly reduces noise level of the postings, the negative effects of discouraging discussion is unavoidable. It is obvious, most moderated forums receive much less contributions, because a poster know if his post might go nowhere bu the editors then people don't have much interests to submit contributions. Plus, after a week of post, some topics might go out-of-dated. Another possibility for CCF to be get more source is to digest open forums like ccnl, talk.politics.china and soc.culture.china. This way, many people who don't have time to read "noisy" lists can still hear about some interesting discussions. Making issues on some urgent topic discussions available without weekly publication restriction can also help, I guess. ___ ___ ___ From: Theo-dric Feng 24-SEP-1993 I'd like to see some exploration in CCF of the relations between Chinese of various origins. I, myself, am an ABC (2nd generation) acutely interested in the Chinese diaspora. (Several years ago, the BBC had a series on that very topic.) Over the years, I've interviewed a few people with Chinese ancestry for my radio show, people from Mexico, Indonesia, and South Africa. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++ + Executive Editor: Yungui Ding Executive Moderator: Zhendong Liu + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + 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: + + anonymous ftp to cnd.org[132.249.229.100]:pub/community/CCF + + For contribution and inquiry: mail to net-cord@lab.ultra.nyu.edu + +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++