Lhadon in China’s “Racist Park”

Lhadon wrote a heart-wrenching blog post about her visit to the “Racist Park” in Beijing (now called the “National Ethnic Minorities Park”). She described the sickening, imperialist, and, yes, racist attitude that the Chinese government takes toward Tibetans and other “minority” peoples (check out Lhadon’s video and photos):

Seeing this twisted place firsthand has only stoked my rage and passion to fight until Tibet is free from China’s occupation.

The park showcases what China calls its “56 ethnic minority nationalities” like animals at the zoo. There are different sections dedicated to different “minorities.” Brief descriptions of each species are accompanied by photographs describing their strange habits and unique customs. If the visitor is lucky, he or she will arrive when the animals are dancing and singing and get a close-up look at these weird and wonderful creatures.

To the Chinese government: have you no shame? Showcasing the temples of a culture you actively and violently tried to destroy in a genocide?

China’s political agenda is clear in showcasing Tibetans as happy, dancing “minorities.” We previously wrote about what China is doing in Tibet today: turning Tibet into an ersatz theme park showcasing commodified Tibetans, stripping Tibet’s natural resources, and filling Tibet with increasing numbers of Chinese colonists.

But beyond Beijing’s political motivation, what does this barbaric, offensive theme park say about the Chinese government’s relationship to the non-Chinese peoples that it rules, such as the Tibetans, Uighurs, and Mongolians?

Ironically, the best explanation is Edward Said’s writings on Orientalism, which he described as a way for the West to dominate non-Western peoples particularly in Asia and the Middle East:

“My contention is that Orientalism is fundamentally a political doctrine willed over the Orient because the Orient was weaker than the West, which elided the Orient’s difference with its weakness. . . . As a cultural apparatus Orientalism is all aggression, activity, judgment, will-to-truth, and knowledge.“ (Orientalism, p. 204).

Woser, the foremost Tibetan writer in Tibet or China today, said in an interview that she was “strongly influenced by the works of Edward Said… Said’s theory of post colonialism particularly gave her a new framework for looking at China’s rule over Tibet.” According to Woser, the Chinese communist party’s literary and art workers had “revised Tibet, repainted Tibet, resung Tibet, redanced Tibet, refilmed Tibet, resculpted Tibet.”

The Chinese government is, at heart, no better than the Western imperial powers that Said was describing. No better than the Western and Japanese imperialists that Chinese government propaganda still denounces to whip its people into a nationalistic fervor. And actually it may be worse, since the Chinese government is not content with controlling Tibetans’ land, but wants to snuff out their independent culture and identity too. Moreover, China’s overt, violent imperialism still goes on today.

Just ask a Tibetan.