I was talking with one of my chinese friends about this movie. He told me he very much liked and added, that it was good because it showed what bad, brutal people Tibetans are. I don't know if he really meant it, because I didn't ask (yet). I'd still like to know if there are many Chinese thinking like that (especially in China), since he's been living in Switzerland for quite some years.
shareI am Chinese and I must say, your friend's comment does not make much sense.
shareI've lived my whole life (37 years) in one of the largest cities in China (with more than 10 million population in the city & suburb). No people here has any negative impression for Tibetan people. They're known for living very simple life, with very strong beliefs (which is very admirable). Other than that, most people don't really know much about them, not even more than any foreigners' knowledge about Tibet or Tibetans.
On newspapers or on the net, people from some provinces are hated for having a lot of criminals that make a lot of troubles everywhere, and Tibet is definately not one of them.
you sure your friend is really Chinese? sounds like you are making this up.
shareWithout generalising too much (Hence don't take this personally.), as a whole Chinese are actually quite racist. It's completely possible that someone would say something like this, though luckily there are many people that don't have these opinions (Same as all Americans aren't gullible, "patriotic" pawns, sorry for the quip ).
Seriously though, if you've travelled China and lived there long enough you'll notice this as well, especially the Southern Provinces.
"Without generalising too much (Hence don't take this personally.), as a whole Chinese are actually quite racist. "
wow, with a statement like that I'd wonder what you would consider to be NOT overgeneralizing. Catagorizing an entire nation, indeed the nation with the largest population on the face of the earth, as generally quite racist, is about as much an overgeneralization one could make.
Are the Chinese any more racist than most other nations? Im sure you'll find that when you get into the hinterlands or more simple parts of any nation that the people who inhabit those places are pretty much what we would call racist. They have the position of not having to deal with people of other ethnic or racial groups on a day to day basis, and so they tend to develop such miopic viewpoints simply by virtue of their limited experience.
Thus, the same can be said for many Tibetans too.
Well said, bealsj.
One should not judge people simply based on his own standard. People on this board at least have internet access (which most of the people in this world do not have) and get to know the outside world. We know there is something called "racism". But people like my grandmother who lived her entire life in a small town without any idea of there are different people in the world. She could do nothing but judging people from her perspective, which by today's standard we call racism. But are you going to blame her? Is it her fault? It will take generations to change. If one goes to any secluded village in any part of the world, there will be this problem.
When China is developing, the "problem" of racism will be less and less. Don't forget, how long it takes for US to reduce this problem to today's level (hundreds of years after independence and establishment of the nation).
China has about 1.3 BILLION people within its borders. I think saying they are racist is really making a stupid statement. How can you generalize about 1.3 BILLION people? That's like saying "all dogs are black" or "all men like baseball."
shareI don't want to jump to conclusions, but judging from the looks and accent, the BAD Chinese guys in the movie are not necessarily Tibetans!
Tibetans looks more bulky, just like the native people in Northern Canada.
There are Chinese from all across the country to do this dirty business so they can sell the fur to other parts of China or even out of the country. Tibetans are brutal, but not necessarily bad, they believe strongly in religion and the environments they live in. I don't think they would ruin their living environment just to make some dirty money.
uh, i hate to tell you this but Tibetans have been at the forefront of alot of the fur trading activity between Tibet/China, Nepal, Bhutan, and India. Don't mistake the religiosity of the monks of Tibet for some overall saintliness of all Tibetans.
I can throw some news clips your way if you want sources, but suffice it to say Tibetans are no more saintly and religeous than any other ethnic group.
these are interesting news regarding the subject.
please read these two news about Tibetans' recent attitude about the fur trade and Chinese government's response.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2006/2006-02-24-01.asp
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=12518&article=Tibetan+Broadcasters+Ordered+To+Wear+Fur&t=1&c=1
interesting.
it doesnt reli matter who r chinese n who r tibetans..... we all r human.s.. n tat noone sud foget.. n we r evil in nature.... n we can be reli good also.. its every individuals conscience whcih makes them evil or good... n again depends on the environment where they were brought up.. so no chinese or tibetan should be branded.. we gotta break it down to pieces..... yall.. every individual has to come their senses first..!!
shareyour friend sounds prejudice. seeing that he's judging others by comparing them to his own living standards, in switzerland.
share[deleted]
when I was visiting Tibet 2 years ago we talked to some Chinese about it on various places along our route. Every now and then you would get someone who would make some remark like "Tibetans smell because they don't bathe" which is sometimes true, being that nomadic herders rarely bathe, and because bathing opens up pores which release precious oxygen from the body, which in high altitudes is not reccommended. Add to that the profuse use of incense and yak butter lamps all over and you get a pungeant (but not what I would personally call "unpleasent") odor that will stay with you for a few days after leaving.
With that being said, our Tibetan friend, upon greeting us at the airport, warned us that Tibetans can be violent or quick to anger at times. This was proven when one day at the market we were surprised to see a man chasing his wife with a hatchet, her head bleeding. We asked our friend what was wrong, and he gave a quick chuckle and said, "he is angry at his wife". Apparently no more explaination was necessary. While it's easy to categorize this kind of behavior as brutish, you have to remember that many Tibetans, due to the nomadic lifestyle, are very independant people, who are not accustomed to taking crap from people.
It really is just a lifestyle difference that gets magnified across distance to become the weird stereotypes that get thrown around.
These are the originations of the negative stereotypes that pop up now and again in China. They have some grain of truth, but it really depends on the person who believes them if they will see them as negative or positive traits.
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What a strange post this is.
sharechinese are racist?? come on... china is made up of 58 races (correct me if i'm wrong, i'm not sure of the exact figure) so which race are you talking about exactly??
and if you are talking about the Han ethnic group, there are Han chinese all around the world, there are Singaporean chinese, malaysian chinese, vietnamese chinese, taiwanese blah, and they sure hate each other like hell.
of course Han Chinese.
BTW..
Quote from one Link
Before the Chinese invasion, a strict ban existed on the hunting of wild animals in Tibet. But in the past 50 years, wildlife on the Tibetan plateau has declined.American explorer Leonard Clark wrote of Tibet in the 1940s, "Every few minutes we would spot a bear, a hunting wolf, herds of musk deer, kiang (wild ass), gazelles, big horned sheep, or foxes.