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mpknight

Listed below are comments made by mpknight between Friday, 25th July 2008 and Friday, 5th June 2009.

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As if 1989 never happened 12:00pm on 05 Jun 2009 1. The 1989 incident is "temporarily" erased from history to ensure a steady and safe economic growth. It's yet unknown when this piece of history will come back.

2. Make sure you have seen the original footage before you post. There was conflict, there was no massacre.

3. To all the Chinese people commenting in here, stop arguing. Almost always, those who initiate the conversation have enough to eat you alive. State what you have to state and leave. Don't fight back - you won't win that way. Furthermore, don't challenge the BBC to post your comment. They're always glad to do that in order to show off how democratic and free they are.

4. People are fooled in any country. As much as what the government says is (most of the time) true, ten times more reasons lie behind every decision of every administration, mostly to maximize the country's security/financial/economic benefits. This argument we're having here only proves that China is feared to become a superpower.

5. China doesn't have a democracy. Democracy is for westerners who inherited humanism and individualism thoughts emerged around the Renaissance. China doesn't need a democracy. Democracy is for countries that, being either too strong or too weak, don't have a catch-up job to do. But in these statements "democracy" meant US-style democracy, in which, voting is the only solution to problems, and not everyone has the money to hold nation-wide elections. Oh wait a minute, has the US ever voted on whether to attack Iraq outside the congress? Like they voted for a president who is certainly for or against abortion?

6. This is after all 20 years ago. That's 1/3 of this country's life. What was the US like when it was 60 years ago? What was the UK like? It isn't fair to compare the current China to the current US.

7. Human Rights - you might mean it, your president doesn't. It hurts.
When does old age begin? 1:00pm on 18 May 2009 Where does this comment come from?

"The only time you tend to see a government official with grey hair is if he has been arrested and put on trial - where he is deprived both of his freedom and, apparently, his hair dye."

Cite your source.

Other than that, quite amusing.
Chinese charm 11:03am on 07 Feb 2009 I went through a dozen of comments and decided to write something somewhat off-topic.

Well, as we all learned, Chinese medias are controlled and manipulated by the states. And as we all believed, most medias in the western world, especially those in the US, Canada and EU, are free. This brings up a problem - it seems that the western medias' reports are the truths.

First, we as human incline to be excited, and to trust, speech that are challenging the authority. Newspapers report far more negative news than positive ones because this makes money; it makes money because people like to read it. If someone is criticized, it feels true. If someone is praised, it feels fake. Even if we _know_ that Chinese medias are controlled, we still treat them as "authorities" (no? come on, it's state-run medias run by a pre-superpower) and are far more interested in the articles that criticize them.

This brings up another problem. Whether secretly controlled by the western governments (as some " 'free' medias result in easy brainwashing" theories suggest) or not, western medias are far more likely to report how China, or any other administrations, is lying, hiding or doing the wrong thing. It may be true (suggesting it may be not), but it's guaranteed to be only one side of the story. Medias' responses to the Tibet riot, where faked and made up pictures and stories were reported before reporters really got in there, revealed this. Do these medias want to accuse China of anything? No. They want money, and time is the gold to the presses. As time goes, the negative images accumulate and more thumb-downs are given to China.

What China realized after the riot was that it should not only stand the negative reports, but also make itself heard to the world, for every time a piece of information is repeated, a few more people is persuaded. China has waited for too long and the negative images are already dominating. It's time some opposite information came up.

It would be difficult, I guarantee you, for China is the authority and people will tend to choose to trust the negative news, and leave alone the positive ones (while cursing, probably). That's exactly what I'm telling you not to do. Anything you read is subjective, some more than others. But as you read more, you'll certainly come up with a objective conclusion naturally.

So next time if you're reading anything, about China or not, check if you're choosing to believe or not to believe before reading. If you are, stop.
In retrospect 04:26am on 24 Aug 2008 Well, is this post meant to be funny? There's lot of literature in there :)
Chinese lose... at sabre fencing 02:59am on 15 Aug 2008 James,

I don't know what you heard but I guess the young man who said "I'm so disappointed" said that in Chinese, and the sentence was translated by you. That case, if he said "?????" (Wo tai shiwang le) it's better to be translated as "I'm so frustrated"

frustrate indicates a wish that's not accomplished. Expresses sadness.

disappoint indicates the blame on people or event that should have been better. Expresses light anger.
Not quite what we thought 02:50am on 13 Aug 2008 James,

you do need to cite your source for this one. As far as I know, the fireworks were pre-recorded but not faked or computer generated.

There were a few drills before the real ceremony, some of which were performed during sunny nights, which made the fireworks more beautiful and astonishing. When it comes to the 8th, which was a foggy day, all the TV viewers saw the pre-recorded fireworks that was taped during the drill. That explains the traffic.

That girl - I feel so sad. I didn't think about it but from my experience living in China, that's greatly possible. Although I heard no official admitting that. Maybe you can go for a deeper investigation?
Unblocking websites 03:28am on 01 Aug 2008 Hey James,

The censorship of "Falungong" and other topics are permitted by the IOC. Talk about something new.

Leave politics out of the Games.
Limited access 05:03am on 31 Jul 2008 Use your brain. China is different from the UK. Much different.

Serious consequences would happen if we allow pages of falun gong. those which probably wouldn't appear if we allow them 10 years later.
The benevolent emperor 03:07am on 30 Jul 2008 What is Communism? It's better you find out about the definition before attacking the system. The problem existing in China is not a problem about the system itself, but about an immature government that has been developing for only 60 years, compared to America's 232 years. It doesn't make any sense to blame all kinds of problems China has on Communism.

I myself am not at all interested in if China would one day reach the "ideal society" at all, but I have to say Communism has nothing to do with these problems, at least the eviction violence. It's the government who is to blame.
Protesters' parks 3:22pm on 25 Jul 2008 James,

I am sure some people have mentioned it but just in case, the three parks are not kept as secrets to Chinese people. Newspapers and websites are publishing the news everywhere and we all know that. Come on, if they want to hide it, why would they say it in the first place?

Besides, I've been subscribing to your blog for a while and I'm not so happy with your writing style. You don't write in a neutral way. You have the negative opinion preset in your mind and your writings are always somewhat biased. I know, this is your blog, but a whole lot of people are watching. Be more responsible. What do you want to express when you say (something like) 'they said it pretty fast and reporters have to gather around to make sure they got it correctly?'

I'm not sure about the omission. If the government did it on purpose, I feel sorry for them. But it doesn't mean they hid it. Make it clear in your writings.

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