Call for your opinion (NY Times)

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times is writing his next column about the Tibetan protests.  He is calling for opinions, especially Chinese opinions.  Tibetans should give him their opinions too:

I think I’m going to write my next column about China, in the wake of the Tibetan protests, and I’d love to hear from some Chinese readers. [...] In any case, my sense is that many Chinese — whether in China or outside the country — are deeply indignant at U.S. media coverage of Tibet in particular and China-U.S. relations in general.

Mr. Kristof: how about Tibetans “deeply indignant” at the five-decade Chinese occupation of their country?

 He may not be asking for it, but Mr. Kristoff should also be interested in Tibetan opinions.  There’s no sense in asking only half a question. 

Of course many Chinese are very nationalistic about Tibet being “part” of China.  That is what their government has taught them, and also no one likes to think of their country as imperialist or colonialist.  So a typical colonial myth is how the colonized country is “part” of the colonizer; the colonized people “belong” to the colonizer.  Such is China’s attitude towards Tibet.

If history is any guide, then yes it matters what the colonizer’s people thinks.  But it also matters, perhaps more, what the colonized people think.  It is they who suffer, and it is they who rise up.

Click here to share your opinion. 

(Thanks to an anonymous colleague for bringing this to our attention and helping to draft this post.)