This video, in Mandarin Chinese, shows overseas Chinese living in Flushing, New York protesting against Falun Gong demonstrators standing outside of a local public library — who had been there for three days — in an effort to force the Falun Gong to leave the area. They say that, as Chinese, these Falun Gong ought to show their concern and support for their country, instead of denouncing it and refusing to provide charitible donations or assistance. And, perhaps more importantly, it collides with the usual image of Falun Gong practitioners as kindhearted, caring individuals.

Some of the seething language used:

“Falun Gong is an evil cult…everyone else is providing disaster relief, and what are you doing? You have no ancestors!”

“Where is your goodheartedness?”

“You’re not Chinese!”

“Falun Gong uses lies to create hatred. They have no humanity. That whole “kindhearted” image they promote is not Falun Gong.”

“Even Kuomintang, who we have a conflict with, has no problem [helping with disaster relief]. But you Falun Gong are still [condemning the disaster]….you’ve sold your souls!”

“Chinese people ought to have more responsibility [than the foreign workers coming into the country] to help….”

“They say they can foretell the future…so this is also their country, they are also Chinese. Why can’t they make the disaster go away?”

“The Communist Party wasted their resources raising [The Falun Gong]!….Shameless!”

The video is in Mandarin Chinese.

This type of biased report could lead audiences to form a negative image of China, stirring up anti-China sensation and collective misunderstanding of China.

The media may justify their unprofessional actions as providing moral support for the protesters who advocate Tibet independence. This justification is hypocritical. The fact is that Tibet has been part of China since 13th century and still is part of China today. ³ Whatever wrongs and new oppressions that may have been introduced by the Chinese government after 1959, the Chinese government did abolish slavery and the Tibetan serfdom system of unpaid labor. ⁴ Those who lost their privileges are the lamas and landlords. Today, Tibetans even enjoy more freedom than Han ethnic in China. For example, Tibetans are exempt from China’s one child policy. The Tibetan population growth is higher than national average since 1970. Tibetan life expectancy increased from 35.5 years in 1951 to 67 years in 2005.

Before you read another report about China, you may want to get the other side of the story.

For readers interested in learning more about Tibet, click here.

Sure, I get it — the Olympics are a perfect opp for bringing to light the human rights violations within China (Tibet included) and as a proxy of China’s actions (Darfur). But are we going too far in trying to push this country that embraces “Socialism with Chinese characteristics”?

Perhaps.

As much as the Western media, such as US outlets CNN, likes to believe we’re “taking the high ground”, I have to wonder if the Chinese have come to another conclusion.

The human rights violations of the US have become too pronounced and too egregious for the Chinese to ignore. Guantanamo. Iraq. Secret CIA prisons. Heck, even the US health care debacle. We are no longer seen as a model of human rights. That makes us less credible and hypocritical in the eyes of the Chinese. What right do we have to denounce China when we can’t fix the current human rights abuses within our own country?

Meanwhile, Western media outlets have ignored the facts — and even ignored the actual situation on the ground. For example, the vast majority of attendees on the torch relay are in fact supporters of China. These events are almost never given balanced coverage in the media reports.

These actions also stoke the nationalistic undercurrents within China. Nationalism generally doesn’t win friends and influence people, and having a China opposed to the West will only mean trouble. In the worst case scenario, it could lead protests that might result in the arrest of Chinese citizens. There are already protests against the French supermarket chain store Carrefour.

Foreigners in China are starting to see some fallout, perhaps as a result of these actions, as visas are harder to secure and obscure regulations on registration are being enforced.

Perhaps what we need now is more of a “Nixon-style” approach. Nixon didn’t open up China with hard rhetoric or exposes or threats. He did it with diplomacy. In his historic visit to this “sleeping giant” of an Asian country, he was able to win the hearts and minds of a people and a leader who had long turned their backs on the evils of Western capitalism. Maybe Nixon realized something we have long forgotten — that every country has its own “skeletons” of abuses and imperfections. Including the US.

Yet in the world of retail and business, it’s another tale.

Japan’s Shiseido gets prime real estate on the cosmetics floor of nearly every single department store. Popular clothing retailers such as Baleno now offer a line of Japan-inspired women’s fashions. In the basement of Raffles City in the heart of Shanghai, a blindingly pink, flowery photo-shoot shop blaring Ayumi Hamasaki music videos sits right next to the Japanese Ajisen Ramen shop, where long lines are the norm. Did I mention that Japan is China’s number one trading partner?

This odd juxtaposition of politics in the face of retail outposts and business realities begs the question: what is the place of Japanese brands and styles in China?

Understandably, it’s a rocky marriage to say the least.

Take for example an anecdote in this Business Week article titled China Real Estate: The Japanese Touch:

Japan’s difficult history with its giant neighbor has haunted the WFC. What caused the most fuss was a circular hole at the top of the building that was supposed to represent “heaven” and serve as a way to reduce wind load on the building. But China linked it to Japan’s imperial symbol of a rising sun. In mid-October 2005, Mori caved, and “heaven” was changed to a rectangular opening.

Japan seems to be on the losing end of the car market — or so says this article titled Investing in China’s Booming Automotive Sector: Japanese Cars a No Go:

When we interviewed drivers in Shanghai, they overwhelmingly told us not to buy a Japanese car because the “Japanese are evil.” Investors should not underestimate the level of hatred most people in Asia have for Japanese. I used to live in the Philippines and Korea and the hatred is as palpable there as in China because Japan does not acknowledge its horrendous actions. Regardless of what political regime runs an Asian country, Japan is uniformly hated in Asia.

But while tensions explode over cars and real estate, softer goods such as cosmetics get a completely different reception. This article titled Japanese cosmetics players creep up on global rivals notes that China has driven the success of two cosmetics brands, Shiseido and Kao:

Japanese cosmetics player Kao became a top ten ranked company for the first time last year, knocking German based Henkel out of tenth place, after driving up its global market share to nearly three per cent.

…

Despite Kao being only one of two Japanese company in the global top ten ranking – the other being Shiseido – both firms are thought to have strong growth prospects and are pushing into overseas markets to capitalise on booming markets, particularly China, to continue to consolidate their leads at the top of the industry.

When it comes to brands, China and Japan make for odd bedfellows. Being associated with Japan may be more of a liability than an asset for your brand in China. In this case, your parents had it right: do your homework (i.e. research) first!

---

Copyright © 2012 The Wu Way. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal [Email address: legal #AT# www.thewuway.net - replace #AT# with @ ] so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana]]> http://www.thewuway.net/archives/64/feed 0