Yesterday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was giving a speech at Cambridge University in England when a protestor threw a shoe at him. The shoe missed but reminded everyone of when a protestor threw a shoe at George W. Bush, the former American president, last December.
A few chinaSMACK readers asked me if we will report about it. Of course many people want to know how Chinese people will react when it happens to their own leader instead of another country’s leader. One person also threatened our “honesty” if we do not, but I am not sure why it affects our honesty. Wow, do not be so serious.
During most of yesterday Tuesday 2009 February 3, Chinese websites and BBS discussion forums did not allow people to post reports, video, or allow discussion of what happened. Even right now, this is what happens when I do some searches on Baidu:
Search results may not be compatible with relevant laws, regulations and policies, not shown.
Google.cn also does not have as much information as non-Chinese Google. Most BBS discussion topics about the incident were deleted today, but there were still some. For example, the below comments from Youku are from a video reporting about Premier Wen’s speech at Cambridge but does not report about the shoe-throwing incident.
However, it looks like CCTV finally reported about it last evening at 7pm through its daily “Xin Wen Lian Bo” news program.
Video also on Sina.
The Chinese CCTV report shows the protestor’s disturbance and Premier Wen’s response. It also mentions the British media criticizing the protester, apologies from Cambridge University and the British government, and that the Premier accomplished his goals and felt his trip to the UK was still a success.
I think the government wanted to first decide how they will present what happened…and maybe first see how most Chinese people are reacting.
Many people, including Americans, did not like George W. Bush. However, many Chinese people really like Premier Wen Jiabao and he is a very popular official. Many Chinese think he is one of the few good government officials and really care about the people. So, I think most people and comments will be supportive of him and the BBS forums will soon begin allowing people to talk about this.
Comments on Youku:
山城骄子:
I was watching the live broadcast and discovered people making a disturbance. I was very angry, but Premier Wen’s performance was very admirable.
→炎←諦┱:
My fellow comrades who were present, why not use our fist to tell that rude bastard that the price for throwing shoes at our beloved Premier Wen is not something “it” can afford.
淘今者:
To the person sitting in the back 20 or so rows who threw the shoe, do not fucking ever come to China! Otherwise, it will not be shoes thrown at you, but the fists of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor [the Chinese people]!
blesspeter:
How come the most important part was not reported? Such as the Premier having a shoe thrown at him by a student? Just like Bush. When it happened to Bush, there were a huge uproar of reports, so how come there are no reports for our own Premier…I don’t understand!
ko1314
How come they don’t show the shoe-throwing scene?
花篝の運命:
Grandpa Wen always looks so kind~~!!! China jia you!!!
孔令然:
Long live the premier, long live the motherland!
As for what happened,To the heckling troublemaker, the Premier is very kindly and calmly but shockingly replied~
“Humanity’s progress, the world’s harmony, is a historical trend that no force can stop.”
ai22shan44:
Peasants/farmers all being exempt from tax, peasants/farmers doing well, all depend on the party’s Wen Jiabao.
樱和日丽:
[China] Absolutely has the strength to dominate the world, and also absolutely can become the world leader, but absolutely not hegemonic.
kawaidog:
Premier Wen, poor you~~I salute you~!!!
世界没有了我:
Everyday, I hold incomparable excitement watching the news, to see tomorrow, because none of us know what crazy thing will happen tomorrow~because tomorrow will be even more incredible~
国际评委A:
Premier Zhou is China’s foreign diplomacy legend…not everyone can become a legend. ~I also highly regard Premier Wen! One thing. As long as they are working for the ordinary common people, they are good officials! Not according what they’re rank/position is!
韩流行
I love him, love him, and will always love that elder. I sincerely wish you good health when you grow old and can live a long life. That our China today’s is prosperous country and has plenty is completely because of leaders Premier Wen and Secretary Hu, and I sincerely thank you two elders. You two have worked hard. Last year, seeing you at the disaster areas working day and night without eating, my heart hurt so much that I shed tears. I know that me saying thanks is useless because all of my reverence to you cannot be expressed in words.
职业看家:
China does not need to wage war to become powerful. Using force to resolve problems, that is what barbaric races do.
生命中的一次:
My favorite leader is Premier Wen, he is worth our respect.
jiamingan:
Looks like Cambridge University should increase good character education~!!!
罗小猪１:
Our China will never seek hegemony!! It is only a few people who do not understand China who think so!
季lin:
If someone throws a show, it is definitely a foreigner. Cambridge’s foreigners [non-Chinese] truly have bad character, I seriously despise this.
大便活人:
Foreign devils, go to hell.
初次到地球:
Premier Wen is the people’s good Premier!!! So old, these two years, he has truly been tireless wherever there have been natural and man-made disasters! The number one person from the central government is him!!
F东D杰J:
Who still dares to mess with our China?? …America?? Get out of the way…our China is the big man now~! OH HOHOHO~~
Comments on KDS:
欧阳灏骅 oyhh:
五毛党魁 wumaos:
Clearly our Bao Bao used his qi power to suck the Westerner’s shoe into his hand.
[Bao bao is an affectionate nickname for Wen Jiabao]
虎虎 magicsim:
It is on YouTube. ** was too disrespectful to our Premier Wen, “F” them!
麻辣冰激凌 kellyli:
Shameful, get out!
雨影 shadower:
It proves that we are indeed a big/powerful country now, as who would bother with a small/weak country? It is unfortunate I fell asleep after watching the first half yesterday. I don’t know whether or not they showed the last half.
南生 lansuqiu:
Having different sounds is very harmonious.
Not having different sounds would actually be not harmonious.
[sounds = views/opinions]
Esperanza esperanza:
No manners, even insulting others.
I am wondering what would happen if it was a Chinese exchange student [studying in England].
wang wang8621:
His adaptability is indeed lacking a bit…Bush at least said: Hope the shoe size is right…
Does Wen not realize that basically no one in Europe pays attention to his mouth full of fake and empty words?
金蝉长老 lxflashwl:
When Hu and Wen jeered at Bush, they already became the world’s laughing stocks
拆边伐拆卡 darksoso:
So many of these topics have all been deleted, how come this topic has gotten replies until now?
Is it only because Official Bao Bao was referred to as SIR?
Global Voices Online also have a few translations of Chinese netizen reactions from Xiaonei, DWNews, and Youtube. There are also more English language reports on Danwei and Shanghaiist.
See more silly things with government officials:
- What is Wrong with this Xinhua News Photo with President Hu?
- Journalist Throws Shoe At Bush, Chinese Reactions
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Journalist Throws Shoe At Bush, Chinese Reactions 
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Chinese Reactions to President Obama Victory Speech 
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first, would have been nice to see a shoe fight, instead of the shame on you
what ever.
Sooner or later, audiences’ seating in bigwigs’ speech will be arranged according to foot size. People have larger feet have to sit on back row since they wear more deadly shoes.
@USTCer
The size is hardly the most deadly attribute I would give a shoe, have you ever been on a plane or train in China when some grubby hygienically challenged loser takes his shoes off to stretch his toes? That stank by far outweighs my size in deadliness…
@ Rick
How can I forget! I took Chunyun trains TWICE a year when I was a college student in China. However you are luckier than I’m – my roommate in college have the most deadly mass destruction weapon on earth, his shoes and socks were not only stinky but … poisonous. But I see good things(since I have a optimistic personality): 1. We never need pest control. 2. I was always the one who left dorm as early as possible and stay at library until 11pm, and get straight As.
More reactions:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5650397.ece
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iC0lWaABkp1FcBZSBb-sJNsWvMOQD9648AQO2
http://zonaeuropa.com/200902a.brief.htm#005
It never ceases to amaze me when people degenerate into racism after being angered. I’m bothered by the people who slam all chinese and I am bothered by people who slam all westerners. I just don’t understand being THAT angry and immune to reason.
wow that makes me mad…all my family in china says he is a great leader…i was born in the states and bush sucked so i laughed my ass off when the guy threw a shoe at him but this makes me mad…
the whole thing can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ_50VrLUBo at the american version of youtube you can hear the guy blow a whistle then yell “How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator? How can you listen to these lies” then he thwos the shoe, it missed by a couple of feet, you can hear the audience booing him and yelling “shame on you” and “your a discrace” while he is being carried out then a loud round of applause as Premier Wen finished his speech/lecture
They do it for kicks.
http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/c/c9/Theory.jpg
i dont know about you guys, but when i type wenjiabao and shoe in utube
my connection gets resetet.
fukc u propaganda country
@Luther, at least someone is talking sense here. I applaud you.
@izme, think with your toes you’ll find out your computer is F*cked up. Yes, you’ve been targeted and pray for mercy…a balking loser…
It is totally stupid and the person who threw it obviously was looking for attention. I understand when its done to Bush in Iraq there is symbolic meaning to it but for a English country where there is nothing behind it, what is the point.
I honestly can’t understand why someone would do this? Why him?
Why not throw a shoe at the corrupt officials? The culprit probably just wanted to get their name in the newspapers or something.
At least when someone threw a shoe at Bush, everyone knew he deserved it.
Man, some of those responses were freaking insane. In America, we have religious nuts who go way overboard when it comes to worshiping. Since China is Atheist, I guess the equivalent over there is worshiping the country too much.
I hope that those responses only reflect a small percentage of Chinese because these people are embarrassing their country.
We need to exercise the rational that these Chinese posters aren’t, a few voices don’t represent a country. I hope these few FQ comments don’t represent China and I can tell you guys a German guy throwing a show does not represent the UK.
There are reasons why this incident was not reported widely in Chinese media.
The primary function of news media is to report news – factual news. But incidents must first qualify as news – either the subject (the person) was somewhat important or at least one that people pay attention to, or the incident is somewhat unusual – man bit dog, not dog bit man.
This incident was not widely reported in Chinese media. The incident must have failed at least one of the above criteria – (a) important person (b) unusual event.
So, either Wen is not important, at least from Chinese media’s points of view. That is, Wen is just a nobody, not news worthy.
And, may be Wen got hit by shoes almost on a daily basis.
May be both – a nobody who got shoes thrown at him everyday got a shoe thrown at him. Not news material.
Which one of those comments are insane? :O
Joe #2 I’d be very surprised if Wen Jiabao had no corrupt skeletons in the closet. Chinas political system isn’t clean enough that you can rise to the top on your own merits. Remember, scum always rises to the top. I’m not saying Wen Jiabao is a bad man, I’m just saying I think he must have used corruption to his advantage at some point to get where he is, because I’m sure all his competitors would have as well.
Wow theres some hard core nationalists posts up there eh. A lot of pissed off 20 year olds in china I guess.
It’s interesting to compare this shoe-throwing incident with Chinese envoy (Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait vice-chairman) Zhang Mingqing’s visit to Taiwan. Last time Zhang was knocked down by a Tainan parliament member onto ground and his limo was attacked by a Democratic Progressive Party supporter. State media covered that incident too. However, netizens’ response were much more rational. IMO, the reasons are:
1. Though Zhang was ‘famous’ (kind of) in Taiwan, in mainland China almost nobody knows him. The first thing many people said when heard the news was “Who is this guy? Is he a corrupted official? If yes, he deserves it.” But Premier Wen is different, as pointed out by Fauna, has many supporters in China and in oversea Chinese communities (his page on facebook is an example).
2. After Zhang was knocked down, many Taiwan netizens came to mainland BBS and webblogs to explain and/or apologize. These Taiwan netizens gained respect and gave mainlanders a better (and positive) understanding of Taiwan society and Taiwan people’s appeal. Some people in mainland China started to think in a Taiwanese way. What you can’t ignore is, there are over one million Taiwanese in China, it’s like you can go to the neighbor office in the same building and grab a Taiwan colleague and have a conversation in Chinese immediately after a political incident. However between China and non-Chinese speaking countries, communication is very insufficient. I believe most of the angry commenters are not bigots but simply because they didn’t hear what ‘the other side’ said. You can blame the government’s censoring, but keep in mind that most Chinese don’t read English at all – their language skill is the ultimate censor.
Who was the person who threw the shoe at WJB?
It could be a student, treehuggers, bored shitless bum.
@Rick in China
I have been on a bus in south east asia where this dude was wearing sandals, he took it off and slept on the bus. It stank like shit for 4-5 hours trip.
I said this on Danwei.com so I will copy it here:
————————————–
Wen is fundamentally different from other commie bosses, I’d pleasantly throw my semen-soaked panty at Jiang Zemin or Li Peng but never Wen. He openly preaches about right and democracy all the time and thats one hell of a job for a ccp member in a largely conservative hardline party, and behind-the-scene he is pushing reforms that other leaders are just too lazy to do.
internet censorship, tibet, dissent persecution and whatnot have nothing to do with him, he isn’t even in charge of these affairs. so the buttom line is, this idiot targeted the very wrong person, he could study more about China’s politics before untying his shoelace so he could know things aint that simple.
and whats more outrageous is the protestor had a choice to ask questions after Wen is done speaking, which I believe would be more satisfying for him than a dart show.
——————————————-
AND NICE JOB CHINASMACK FOR THIS SHIT SO I FINALLY HAVE A PLACE TO DEBATE WITHOUT ROBOTIC FQ TROLLS.
Taiwan 4 life.
PeterYang, how on earth do you know that Wen is different? I’d err on the side of cynicism.
I wonder how many Chinese spotted the irony in last night’s news reports which quoted Cambridge University’s website saying it is a place of reasoned debate and considered argument. If only students in China’s universities were allowed to have reasoned debate about whether the CCP is fit to rule China. Britain, once a beacon of free speech and political demonstration, is going from Bush’s lapdog to China’s.
I just cant get over the hypocracy of laughing at something that happens to someone else and then getting angry when it happens to themselves. If this really is the case then the Chinese really shouldnt mind if we have a good laugh at Wen right? I mean its only fair?
Nicely said Bozo, however England is in so much trouble they would lick the arse of Somalia right now if they could help.
You think reasoned debate is throwing a shoe bozo?
Definitely an attention seeker who don’t even know what he is protesting about. When the Iraqi journalist throw it, it was because Bush ruined his country, caused the death of a million of his countryman, and also because it actually meant something in their culture. When this guy threw it, he has probably have no deep understanding of any issue. If he understand China and Chinese people and actually want to protest against human rights or whatever, he wouldn’t have thrown a shoe at the most popular Chinese leader and perhaps also the most liberal.
It is also ironic that the shoe is very likely made in China. If only Wen made an awesome joke/comeback of that fact…
Bozo said: “…it is a place of reasoned debate and considered argument…”
————————
right there, see? you just defeated yourself.
I stand by what I said, I never like CCP but I am drawing a huge line right in front of Wen, and I felt relieved when he took office, if it were some other assholes like Li Peng or Li Changchun it would be a fucking disaster for China.
“Cambridge University’s website saying it is a place of reasoned debate and considered argument.”
perhap Cambridge need to Change the website a bit. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad guy come to NYC and nothing happened.
Of all the officials, this guy chooses to throw a shoe at the cleanest and most genuinely kind and admirable one.
We clearly have a ‘winner’ here.
BTW: The shoe was Made in China…size still not verified.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad guy come to NYC and nothing happened.
——————–
a lots things happened. there was protest on campus, the principal called him a “petty dictator”, he was denied to visit ground zeo…
Peter Yang
Personally I think Wen is part of a cynical PR stunt to present a cuddly face to the people of China. And while people like Hu Jia remain in jail, nothing will change my opinion on that front.
I don’t see how the reasoned debate etc comment defeated me. The point I was making was irrelevant to the lobbing of the shoe. I was pointing out the irony/shamelessness whatever, of Chinese state media’s ability to report such facts knowing that students in its own country do not enjoy the right to engage in debate on whatever subject they see fit.
I was at a family dinner last night and my wife’s uncle mentioned that something must’ve happened at the speech, because the broadcast suddenly cut out. I didn’t tell them what had happened as it was much more interesting listening to their baijiu fueled stories about which movie star had the most mistresses. I saw this morning that the incident was shown on CCTV last night, with an explanation that it wasn’t a Brit who threw the shoe, that the guy was arrested and charged, and that the British govt had apologised.
About the search on baidu, I tried to do the search again, typing prime minister got a shoe thrown at him, and lots of lots of articles showed up…wouldn’t the Chinese goverment be so stupid to tell the people that the articles are blocked? if they are indeed HIDING something, wouldn’t it be better to not let any one know it at the first place? just like the western history book saying nothing about the true cause of the opium war and the forced opening of China not so long ago????!!!
CHARTER 8 NEW FUTURE NEW HOPE FOR CHINA
away with the old system !
it wasn’t a Brit who threw the shoe
———————————
then where is he from????
Don’t be so quick to judge the guy. Maybe he just wanted to say China is a 和鞋 society.
And the winning comment goes to bkgunner!
LOL
Well, The Brits can’t say they are civilized and first class citizens of the world.
Next time if the British PM goes for a speech in China, maybe the Chinese should throw some chicken shit fruit, pissing prawns and Sanlu milk to vent their anger about foreign devils and imperialist dogs not giving China a fair go.
Shoe throwing is a sign of uncivilised behaviour (regardless of whether you like / dislike the person) and of all places Cambridge is a sign of disrespect to the institution !! (He should be removed from Cambridge, if he is a student at Cambridge)
To do such a shameless thing to the honorable premier Wen is a sin.
I do not understand what is up in his head ??
sh, yeah locking people up for criticising the government is uncivilised too.
Yeah man, this loser threw the shoe at the wrong guy. He should have thrown it at the old man who painted his daughter naked. Wen is so nice! and he doesn’t paint his daughter naked…with great tits.
Ironic that the shoe was probably in China. Hypocrisy at its best.
For all the “rights” and “wrongs” in this world we should all start looking within ourselves. Go and see for yourselves before jumping to conclusions. I doubt if this shoe-thrower has even set foot in China.
oops, left out the word “made” in China…
ANYONE KNOW WHERE IS HE FROM??????
I think Germany.
ahhh this is going to make big trouble for the gov coz we just bought some railway shit from germany.
@ bkgunner
bwahahhahaha. bkgunner FTW.
For a more intellectual overview of Wen’s speech, and commentary on it, rather than just the Shoe throwing part, this is quite good:
http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2009/02/04/china-in-the-light-of-her-development.html
“I hope that those responses only reflect a small percentage of Chinese because these people are embarrassing their country.”
I’d say it’s not a small percentage of them that think this way, which is the sad part. Try having a convo with them on anything political. Soon it will be like arguing with a child.
Meow, yeah it’s very sad. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve said to a Chinese person, look I don’t disagree with you, I’m just saying doesn’t your opponent’s opinion deserve to be heard as well as yours.
EVERY ONE HERE , PLEASE SEARCH AGAIN ON BAIDU!
A PEOPLE FROM SICHUAN ·CHINA.
I’m sad it happened, particularly to Wen Jiabao.
But I’m so happy to see the same Chinese who laught so loud for Bush, the Xinhua agency who let the Bush/Shoes pictures on their home and their photo section for weeks… So funny!
If someone throws a show, it is definitely a foreigner. Cambridge’s foreigners [non-Chinese] truly have bad character, I seriously despise this.
大便活人:
Foreign devils, go to hell.”
These kind of comments from the Chimatrons make me have no sympathy for “grandpa wen” FCUK him and all the other Da Lu Ren. I with that shoe would have smashed his ugly monkey face
@ STAND UP,CHINA:
I just ran the same search shown in the post here and I’m getting only one search result. It’s a link to CCTV.
@ Meow:
As apt as the characterization is, I’m afraid I somewhat feel children often argue better than many Chinese. Some of the more idiotic threads overrun with nationalism (whether genuine or because there’s some wu mao dang astroturfing going on) is like reading YouTube comments.
Foreign devils, go to hell
“Foreign devils, go to hell”
I didn’t know the Boxers were back in China.
Love seeing how soon some Chinese forget that it was the opening up to those “Foreign Devils” that allow them to be so proud of where China is today.
I just ran the same search shown in the post here and I’m getting only one search result. It’s a link to CCTV.
———————
confirmed here.
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4600/searchkn2.jpg
I also liked the one about “If someone throws a show, it is definitely a foreigner. Cambridge’s foreigners [non-Chinese] truly have bad character, I seriously despise this.”
Guess what? When you’re in the UK, you, the Chinese, are the foreigners you dumb fuck. I usually don’t get annoyed about this sort of stuff but being back in Australia last year with my wife and having all the Chinese we met there referring to me and other locals as foreigners really got me steamed up. WTF does this plonker know about Cambridge or anyone who studies there anyway? Fuckwits the lot of them.
Wow, those over-the-top Chinese netizens are really funny – in a pathetic sort of way. So sensitive! So full of themselves! What wankers!
I don’t like the term “wu mao dang”, most of them aren’t paid to say stuff they are just stupid bored and have no idea whats going on in the world, and the true ones are very easy to identify, they keep posting scripted shits without ever replying, they get the salary for that day and they log off.
and I do NOT agree the notion that this country is overrun by nationalist trolls, I’ve met a lot of moderate and intelligent Chinese and no one I’ve talked to in real life behaved like fenqings, people here do have complicated thoughts and opinions on all matters they choose to care, and ordinary people whine about the governement every day, difference is they don’t take their voices to the streets and since its impossible to carry out opinion poll of national scale, you never know what people really think.
fact of the matter is, most chinese hold favorable perception toward foreigners, and are friendlier to them than perhaps any other country in the world. there was a “give way to the foreigners” sign by a road during the olympics, I mean you’d never see this in other countries. we also don’t have neo-nazis rampaging on the streets like europe and russia. the chinese government has been offering preferential tax rate to foreign investments, our embassies around the world literally give away visas like charity work, while I got kicked out of australian embassy in beijing and had to line up outside in freezing winter some years ago.
so all I am saying is, don’t bother with online stuff really, they dunt never represent the real china, if you wish to visit china by all means do it, and you will get absolutely the warmest if not flattering reception you can ever have.
“so all I am saying is, don’t bother with online stuff really, they dunt never represent the real china, if you wish to visit china by all means do it, and you will get absolutely the warmest if not flattering reception you can ever have.”
@Peter, does that mean the volleyball guys’ family member who got stabbed was extended the great hospitality of the motherland? FCUK you Peter. Chimates only smile when they are cheating you.
I was sitting not far from that guy when this happenned. It was really awkward and embarassing, he asked other people to protest but all the Chinese students were like “Shame on you”. Although his speech wasn’t that interesting, I still have a lot of respect for Premier Wen and really hate the guy who did that.
One interesting thing is that there were some Chinese-looking free tibet people outside who handed hard copies of the speech (or at least that’s what I thought) in english to everyone there, so all the foreigners were reading that, but actually it was a list of lies Wen Jiabao had told. So maybe he just got frustrated after reading that, but on the other hand it must have taken some planning to get a whistle through security.
At the end, another European girl asked Wen a very clever question which he quite blatently avoided answering directly, but what do you expect.
It will be interesting to find out who that guy is, I bet there is already a human flesh search engine looking for him. Once his identity is revealed he’s just going to get raped by all the chinese in Cambridge which will be awesome. He must have been a student or staff btw.
i am so angry bout that embarassing incident. i am in Indonesia and very shock when saw that incident.
i hate the shoe-thrower. what he did just show that he doesnt look like an educated person..a high educated people using their brain and logic not violance..
you know that chinese people spread in all over the world and we have the largest population in the world. so, dont even try to make any trouble with us!!!
the conflict in Tibet is an internal business of China, and thanks for your attention for this problem, but China doesnt need any of your OPINION!
坏蛋！！
…i am in Indonesia … so, dont even try to make any trouble with us!!!…
—————————————–
indonesians made a huge trouble with chinese in 1998, slaughtered and raped chinese women, burnt chinese stores, it was the most disturbing act I’ve ever seen. and the local chinese community literally hid their asses instead of attempting a fightback, and the government here in china didn’t even do their usual “hurting feelings” thing.
so tell me, with this magnitude of cowardice, how would you expect people to not make trouble with you??
HAHA.
Wish it was Jiang Zi Min tho.
But hey, they all suck.
So much love for the political leaders… who the fuck these peeps think they are? Obamatards?
@fcuk da lu ren
you are a fucking idiot, by your logic may I say the bus accident that killed seven chinese in the states were american hospitality?? and that it should suggest every american on this planet is drunk retard?????
your rushing and racist reponse made you indifferent from fenqings. you probly have mental errors, go see a doc before its too late.
“a lots things happened. there was protest on campus, the principal called him a “petty dictator”, he was denied to visit ground zeo…”
but nothing was thrown at him, shoes or otherwise, during his speech
“Love seeing how soon some Chinese forget that it was the opening up to those “Foreign Devils” that allow them to be so proud of where China is today.”
Oh yes! How ungrateful of me! Thank you mister foreign devils for your gunboats, thank you for the opium, thank you for looting and burning our palaces… etc
Oh wait?! That’s yesterday’s news innit? Okay, (think modern…hmmm) thank you for the slave labor sweatshops, thank you for the patronising our massage palours, thank you for all the protest and anti-China histronics… etc
“A few chinaSMACK readers asked me if we will report about it. Of course many people want to know how Chinese people will react when it happens to their own leader instead of another country’s leader. One person also threatened our “honesty” if we do not, but I am not sure why it affects our honesty. Wow, do not be so serious.”
Haha, Fauna I think you’ve gained a dedicated following of trolls that seem to get kicks from Schadenfreude.
More reaction:
http://www.blables.com/comics/?id=7
but nothing was thrown at him, shoes or otherwise, during his speech
———————————
duhh, calling him a petty dictator right after he took the stage is, to me, much much more insulting than shoe flight, at least Wen enjoyed an overall welcoming hall and everyone except that idiot showed due respect, while Ahmadinejad was encompassed by pure hatred ALL THE TIME. besides, no one shouted “shame on you” at the principal, they probly all thought “nice job you said what we want to say”.
srsly I have a growing understanding of why he blasted US everytime he was at UN, I heard that US once even denied visa for his assistants. haha.
I’d like to know what questions the students asked. Anyone know where I can find them? You can guarantee the spineless Chinese media won’t have reported the questions.
Too good not to quote:
“what he did just show that he doesnt look like an educated person..a high educated people using their brain and logic not violance..
you know that chinese people spread in all over the world and we have the largest population in the world. so, dont even try to make any trouble with us!!!”
Right moron. First you argue to use brain and logics,, then in the next line you make a not-so-subtle remark about not messing with “us”. So many abortions and yet sadly you were not one of them. Idiots like you give a bad face to China and the Chinese.
“Love seeing how soon some Chinese forget that it was the opening up to those “Foreign Devils” that allow them to be so proud of where China is today.”
Oh yes! How ungrateful of me! Thank you mister foreign devils for your gunboats, thank you for the opium, thank you for looting and burning our palaces… etc
Oh wait?! That’s yesterday’s news innit? Okay, (think modern…hmmm) thank you for the slave labor sweatshops, thank you for the patronising our massage palours, thank you for all the protest and anti-China histronics… etc
Actually Matt, I think “Fcuk You Foreign Devil”.
And that’s a “Fcuk You Foreign Devil” with added lead paint.
Cunt.
———————————————
ok I have to disagree with two things: opening of china and sweetshops. let me put it out for you.
colonist aggression back in the 18th century was a result of two factors: imperial global expansion and Qing government’s inablility to defend the territory, one has to take both into account when discussing the matter.
not long after emperor Qian Long succeeded the throne the british commercial fleet knocked on china’s door and requested to expand trade route, triggering a debate on the necessity of opening up the coastlines within the forbidden city, certain interest groups like He Shen and local governments in the far south regions were looking for a deal but Qian Long himself strongly opposed to the scheme on the basis that China was mighty enough to sustain itself thus did not require international trade, and that foreign nations and their goods were inferior.
so then the request was denied and existing foreign trade missionaries were expelled from china, coastal borders completely shut down. out of spite, and knowing the vast profit potential china could offer, foreign powers led by britain waged whats called an “opium war” on china, coerced it to agree on undue terms and, because the qing government was so corrupt and backward it had to use cavalries and polearms to counter machineguns, china was defeated within matter of weeks.
china remained a divided and colonized state for the following 100 or so years, some like Matt argue this period represents the first ever true “opening up” but it was in fact more like a “wild west” era colored by power struggles, civil conflicts, extreme poverty, warlord rulings, and a series of humiliating agreements.
then came Mao Zedong, frankly speaking, he succeeded in eliminating imperialism and bureacracy, but in doing so he created a much worse autocratic state characterized by starvation and delibitating political movements, after his death china was once again on the verge of destruction, and fortunately, Deng grabbed power and started his ambitious project which is what I consider the real “opening up”.
if you look at china today, none of the skyscrappers, wealthy goons, flashy cars has anything to do with what happened between 1840 and 1949, and so do the 800 million peasants and poor rural regions.
so I conclude that opium war did not bring opening up.
—————————
sweetshops.
suffice to say, foreign sweetshops in china are probably all run by taiwanese and korean companies, while american and european companies treat their employees much better, with japanese firms somewhere in the middle.
I work in Wangjing of Bejing, it was filled by korean businesses but when the economic crisis came, a lot of them simply escaped and left thousands jobless, I talked to a laid-off driver he told some of the bosses just bought a ticket and flied back home the next day, and many of his colleagues had to line up under my office build looking for cheap runs.
so from my experience, the ranking goes something like this:
1. western companies, large state enterprises.
2. foreign but asian companies, e.g. japanese, malaysian.
3. taiwanese, korean, local privite, small state, family business.
and ya know what, this shoe incident is a good thing, it means Wen is at the same status with the almighty Bush!! CHINA = AMERICA AHAHAHAHAHA LUL.
Showing disrespect to a popular leader who works for the good of all the people makes me wonder if this was not an attack on their country as a whole rather than a personal attack on a leader who helped the poor. As stated above, he took away taxes for the poor.
Leaders like him deserve respect and honor, not a smelly shoe.
you are such a fucking troll Peteryang. (I admit tho, thank you for the knowledge… props).
2008年扁台独势力联合美日密谋5.20台独政变，而中国政府顶住了台独的压力和抗震救灾具备同时打赢两场战争的实力。美国用地球物理武器攻击绵阳，接着四川的大地震则更加表现出强烈的时空目的性。美国定的中国地震闹钟定了8个8 ：5月12日汶川8.0特大地震正是距密谋5.20台独前8天距2008 年8月8日晚8点北京奥运会开幕式前88天，震中在绵阳北的汶川、北川一带。而绵阳正是中国国防工业的核心区，不但是中国的核武器研究基地所在地，也拥有亚洲最大、世界第三大的风洞群，自然也是中国航空航天研究的中心。小到导弹、大到登月飞船都要在这里进行研究测试，触及了西方战略利益的、刚刚挂牌的大飞机项目以及登月项目自然也需要这里的技术支持。该地区集中了中国大约2/3的战略国防工业设施。
can someone translate this for me? I’m still a beginner chinese student who is studying for a test tonight.
@Peter,
I hear you Chimatrons saying this now. Do you really think you are equal to the US? Really?
On one hand you demand that we respect you saying that you are this and that and that you are becoming a world power.
On the other hand you beg western nations to come together to help maintain the stability of China by buying products made in China (jobs built for Chinese by foreign companies).
You chide America telling you to stay out your business but are the first country to “slam” anything that another country does that you don’t like (more often than not, its not praising you)
What have you done for the world? Say what you want about the US, but NO country in the world has done more for the world (saved all your asses in WWI and WW2), created things the world uses (including the internet), and been on the forefront of freedom making dreams come true (see black president)
You are NOTHING compared to the USA. Go ask a peasant in Gansu if he feels like he has a shot at life. Or even a fudan uni grad who will probably never have anything more than house if they are lucky (probably bought with money they scammed from the foreign company that employs them).
I grew up in a predominantly black lower income are and have achieved an MA, make 6 figures, and have seen the entire world, owed mostly to my own hard work, but also to a country that has given me the opportunity to have a CHANCE.
Don’t ever put yourself on the same level as the USA. You have done nothing for the world except for SARS, Melanine, and Destroying the whole world’s environment.
And before you launch into the whole: IRAQ, Economic Crisis, or whatever other Chimate pre programmed message you have, stop and thank me for the fact you don’t speak Japanese right now
Personally, I admit that there are forgeiners that come into China and give the rest of us a bad name.
I have always been respectful towards China, and her country’s laws and customs, and too throw a shoe at a government official, ANY government official is a clear sign of disrespect. That person should be forcibly removed from said country and barred from any entry.
I come from a culture that respects our elders, and having dated a Chinese man for two years I can say, it is clearly reflected in this culture aswell.
Please don’t judge the rest of us so harshly.
when the fuck did I say china is on par with US??????????????
and when the fuck did I “beg western nations” or “chide america”??????????
you will point out the phrases, words, sentenses that remotely suggest I mean what you perceive I mean, or else you are just putting words into my mouth.
and no thanks I am more aware of china’s problems than any of you wankers here, I went to australia in 14 and got my degree there and have been working for 3 years now, I keep reading news from foreign medias and blogs every day, I’ve been to many places across china either on profession or vacation, I take special interests in study domestic and international politics and always keep my eyes on major events, so I probably have more ideas whats going on in this world than you moron.
and “programmed message”, oh my mao, at least my comments are diverse enough and cover all aspects, while yours are only about how screwed china is.
go suck a baton or something.
can someone translate this for me? I’m still a beginner chinese student who is studying for a test tonight.
——————————-
its some funny conspiracy theory I found on the web, I thought it may entertain you lot.
mtm,
Some would say what Mao did, killing all those Chinese was wrong, but China wouldn’t be successful today if he didn’t do what he did and kill millions of his own through famine and execution.
I don’t know if you agree with that, but foreigners haven’t even come close to doing what he did to China’s people. Yet he is recognized as such a great leader.
Sure, there are many very bad parts of opening up to foreign business, but how can you say that Deng deciding to open up China’s economy to foreign investors did not directly result in China’s economic success? If foreigners did not help make China great, who did? What is driving China’s economic boom?
Call me names all you want. Must kill you to leave your rock and see all those foreign devil goods that people want everywhere.
Premier Wen was not in China, he was in London and it is natural to expect a more diplomatic response from him even if a shoe was hurled at him. Nothing great about that.
However, if something like this would have happened in China, I am pretty sure the person will firstly be reprimanded, then without any trial, he will be a labeled anti-national, a reactionary who will be sentenced to long term imprisonment. And tortures and forced political re-education will be part of that package.
I don’t think Chinese who watched just the CCTV footage should not feel fooled by what they see on the TV.
Wen did fine at PR, not super but fine. he could have responded more gracefully, if I were him I’d say something like “give the shoe back to him so he can walk home”.
ANYONE KNOW WHERE IS HE FROM??????
According to the BBC, the police have declined to identify the individual, beyond saying he was 27 years old. Cambridge has, as well. I’ve looked around at all the other major news sites but so far I haven’t seen a single mention of his nationality, which makes me assume he lived in the UK.
News reports say he was described by witnesses as a goateed European with a thick accent. Maybe that’s where the notion he was German comes from, but I doubt we’ll ever know for sure unless by some strange happenstance he pleads not guilty and it goes to trial.
there was a “give way to the foreigners” sign by a road during the olympics, I mean you’d never see this in other countries
It’s also much harder to tell someone is a foreigner in many of those other countries.
One person also threatened our “honesty” if we do not, but I am not sure why it affects our honesty.
Not that I agree, but since chinaSMACK mentioned the Chinese reaction to Bush’s incident, this person probably felt you should do the same for Wen’s.
I disagree with that appraisal, though, since Bush’s incident was popular on Chinese message boards and forums (and everywhere in the world). Wen’s incident was unoriginal, uninspired, and most likely unwarranted, and although it was mentioned sooner, it certainly didn’t receive popular attention outside of China either.
Wow, talk about insane reactions. I think most Americans laughed when the shoe was thrown at Bush, but Chinese… y’all seem to get pretty serious. But why? Every country with a visible international profile is going to get criticized and leaders like Wen, who do oversee human rights abuses unacceptable in other countries, will be subject to such stunts and criticisms, you guys are going to have to learn to deal with that in a more level-headed way, because you just embarrassing yourselves. In any case, I’m willing to bet that at least half the comments were just a couple fifty-cent party goons (china’s internet propaganda enforcers) making up a bunch of dummy names and posting…
Some of you guys should also thank the ‘foreigners’ for jacking/preserving your cultural relics as they would of just been camp fire fodder for the red guards anyways.
Also, some of you nationalist clowns need to loosen up and stop ’slamming’ and ‘regretting’ every minor criticism and just brush it off. By overreacting and trying to act ‘hard’ collectively there is no respect to be won there.
I’m sure the Chinese would like to thank you graciously for “perserving” all those relics. I’m definitely sure the millions of people you slaughtered so that you can humbly “perserve” those relics also thank you as well. ^_^
If obama had a shoe hurled at him, so many americans would get they panties in a knot.
Peteryang
Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 10:48 am
and ya know what, this shoe incident is a good thing, it means Wen is at the same status with the almighty Bush!! CHINA = AMERICA AHAHAHAHAHA LUL
That’s when you said it dousche nozzle. If your country is so fcuking great, why did you go to Australia for 14 years? I’m tired of you fcuking monkeys spouting about your greatness, you have done some cool things for yourselves, but for the rest of the world NADA.
！
about the relics, the most valuable ones are all in taiwan’s 故宫博物院, those in europea and left in the forbidden city are trash.
communist party has made many requests to see them but is still denied entry, I guess they will crap their pants if they see the real shit.
That’s when you said it dousche nozzle. If your country is so fcuking great, why did you go to Australia for 14 years? I’m tired of you fcuking monkeys spouting about your greatness, you have done some cool things for yourselves, but for the rest of the world NADA.
—————————————–
wtf you even fail at sarcasm, wow, whats your brain made of?? scrap metal???
@ Peter,
the riot in Indonesia was in fact planned by Indonesian government and there was nothing the local Chinese community can do. After the incident, the Chinese government signed a secret peace agreement with the Indonesian government. Forced by the pressure, the Indonesian government had to sentence hundreds of Indonesian Military officers who were involved in the riot.
Peteryang,
I know you were being sarcastic, but actually there was some truth in what you said. The more successful China becomes, the more its going to be loathed in the world. Its just part of the game. More success, more criticism.
Some Chinese are going to have to realize that its impossible to be loved and powerful at the same time and shouldn’t take it so hard when they see protests against its actions.
Maybe Americans were overreacting like this too when they began their accent on the world stage? And from some of the responses, it seems that some still are.
Patriotism is fine, but if it keeps you from seeing the faults of your own country, then there is a big problem.
@Matt
couldn’t be more true. I think china is definitely learning to be an international player, eariler last year the government fanned internet mobs against foreign medias but all that had accomplished was even more criticism and negativity, this event taught them a lesson on global PR so this year they are going to invest some 40 billion yuan in international propaganda, I know it still sounds stupid but its a sign of learning and adapting. we are still a young socialist nation, and so is our diplomacy.
and I think the chinese leaders could surely use some finesse at handling protests, too.
we love the premire
@ FDLR:
Dude, Peteryang wrote China = America on the comic basis that both had leaders who had a shoe thrown at them. I don’t think he was being serious to the point that they’re actually equivalent or near equivalent in terms of geopolitical power. You’re reading too much into his joke. He even added a LUL too.
@ Matt:
Before China thanks foreigners for its economic development, it has capitalism to thank. It is capitalism that promotes development by harnessing human self-interest. China reformed and opened up to foreigners out of self-interest. Foreigners came to China and invested in China out of self-interest. Both sides did what they did for their own perceived good. Without capitalistic foreigners, China would not have benefited from foreign investment. Without China, capitalistic foreigners would not have had a market to invest in or Chinese resources to exploit. Foreigners would not bother with China if China had nothing to bring to the table in exchange.
Foreigners helped make China great, but the Chinese helped make themselves great first by being willing to open up, work with, and make deals with others. It is as simple as that. It took and takes two to tango. Neither one is to be thanked more than the other.
@ Stephan Larose:
Some of the insane reactions are just your normal knee jerk hypocritical outrage. Some of it is genuine ignorance. Almost everyone knows that Bush was almost universally disliked. Not everyone knows that most Chinese actually think quite highly of Wen. More importantly, not every Chinese person realizes that most foreigners might not really know who Wen is other than being a high government official or that Wen is fondly regarded by the Chinese themselves, unlike Bush.
So, for some of the upset Chinese, they’re thinking,”What? Wen is such a good guy, why would anyone throw a shoe at such a good guy?” without understanding the reasons behind foreign antagonism towards China, or representatives of China (or China’s political system). Just like infly said, many Americans would also be far less happy with a shoe thrown at Obama than they were with the shoe thrown at Bush. Wen to Chinese is similar to Obama to Americans (at least for now).
There was a survey last year that showed that most Chinese actually believe the world looks fondly upon them. The rest of the world is baffled as to why the Chinese would be so full of themselves. It isn’t necessarily arrogance but just ignorance, partly due to the lack of information and enough cross-cultural exposure and experience.
You can see that some Chinese are beginning to understand that as a country’s power grows, so does the scrutiny and backlash it faces. That’s why some of the comments express a certain acceptance of the shoe throwing because of China’s growing power. It’s kinda like, “well, at least this shows we’re important.”
@Kai
Absolutely. I don’t think I ever said Chinese should be thankful to foreigners. I just found it kind of weird to be anti-foreigner without realizing that laowai helped make China richer. But yes, of course China deciding to reform is just as important, if not more as the foreign contribution.
Wow, we have gone off topic huh? What was this post about…something about a shoe? :P
china should be thanking adam smith, thomas jefferson, benjamin franklin, etc. and all other individuals who sacrificed life and liberty to create a nation that, for over 200 years, has served as a beacon of light for china and the rest of the world.
:)
One thing is for sure, it didn’t happen on German sole! And who says the guy is German? All that anybody knows is that he seemed to have a German accent, even then he could have been Austrian or Swizz … just as an English speaking person is not neccessarily American.
Should he really have been German though I am ashamed for my country men. Men who (which is fine in my eyes) aim to control their own country – Wen Jiabao – and men who aim to control the whole world – Bush – should not get the same reception.
@Kai or Fauna
Hey, can the mods delete the last 3 lines on my previous post? Or just switch “Matt” for “fcuk da lu ren” will be even better.
洋鬼子 (洋= foreign, distant etc; 鬼子= devil, ghost)
In a babelfish straight out of a dictionary translation, I would expect it to be render as “Foreign Devil” but I think there is an even better English equivalent that conveys the concept of 洋鬼子 much better than it’s commonly used clumsy babelspeak derivative: “Alien”.
And apparently, Americans feel it is acceptable term to for foreigners.
Matt said
“Call me names all you want. Must kill you to leave your rock and see all those foreign devil goods that people want everywhere.”
Look cretin, what actually irritates me, is your arrogant presumption where you attributed China’s current progress to foreigners. You just seem to have overlooked the factory workers who actually did the fcuking work. Also explain why this growth is happening faster in China than other 3rd world countries. There are plenty of English speaking 3rd world sh!tholes out there with rule of law and democratic election too, but they are still sh!tholes. So why oh why do “foreigners” insist of bestowing their investment in Communist China?
Answer: (drum roll) Because they make more fcuking money in China, thats why. Why else do you think Mr “fcuk da luo ren” tortures himself everyday breathing our polluted Chinese air for??? You think he rubs shoulders with SARS infected “Chimatrons” for fun?
ps, ML China’s most important source of “foreign” investors during the 90s was easily HongKong and other Chinese “foreigners”.
dace said:
“Guess what? When you’re in the UK, you, the Chinese, are the foreigners you dumb fuck. I usually don’t get annoyed about this sort of stuff but being back in Australia last year with my wife and having all the Chinese we met there referring to me and other locals as foreigners really got me steamed up. WTF does this plonker know about Cambridge or anyone who studies there anyway? Fuckwits the lot of them.”
Strong words, sir. I assume you speak Chinese, right? Why don’t you suggest an alternative Chinese term that covers the same meaning and is sufficiently politically correct for your oh-so delicate fragile sensibilities?
I mean you surely wouldn’t want someone on some Chinese BBS snickering at your post with something like:
“Wow, those over-the-top whingeywhitefag netizens are really funny – in a pathetic sort of way. So sensitive! So full of themselves! What wankers!”
In my humble experience, Westerners dish out criticisms a lot better than they can take it.
since china has a market economy now, and we ain’t part of the powerful elite bunch, and we ain’t running charity house, there’s really no “contributors” or “losers” here.
suffice to say, foreign investments can always have HUGE return from china, the kind of return unimaginable in their home country, thanks to preferential tax rate, cheap labors and government’s unqie love for foreign enterprises. they sold a big share of Hainan Airline to Soros for like a free gift, and foreign hot money, with the help of our corrupt and incompetent regulators, has literally robbed domestic investors. and when the US found it slightly difficult to pay back debts, they devalued the bucks. and of course the chinese government is equally blamable, they shouldn’t have purchased too much US debts in the first place, and the people’s hard-earned wealth should have been redistributed back to society instead of being used like a toycar.
I suppose Matt now has a basic overview of how things work in china, yes foreigners took a significant part in china’s accomplishment, but in doing so they also got their share of profit, a share thats probably never accessible to people like me or say a poor peasant.
so I particularly dislike crediting our nation’s achivement to certain group, there are idiots who think “every chinese owes their life to the chinese government because it single-handedly created the reform so they can enjoy the life they live today” — quote from his comment. and there is Matt who is at the other end. its the work of 1.3 billion people.
MTM,
Ill just ignore the name calling and actually try to pay attention to what you are trying to say.
Do I think that only foreigners are responsible for where China is today? Of course not. I don’t know where people got that idea from. Read my post before this. Credit also goes to Deng for making the decision to open up and of course, like you said, the workers for working in poor conditions in these foreign factories.
It actually good to see somebody care about them instead of saying “They chose to work there because its better than working on the farm.” I never overlooked them.
That being said, many of these workers are working in foreign companies. You make it seem like foreigners are forcing Chinese to let them do business in China. It was China who set up this situation. China is supposed to take care of its own people. If they wanted to, they could make a law to improve working conditions. Why after 30 years are conditions for workers still so bad? Not foreigners fault. They are obeying Chinese rules.
Foreigners are drawn to China because of the virtually limitless workforce and less rules and regulations then in their home countries. Businessmen couldnt care less about trivial things like air or government, as long as they are getting rich. Just like you said. So, whats your point? Getting rich is glorious.
@ Matt:
Word. There are legions of Chinese idiots who don’t understand how the world works and delight in blaming their problems on others rather than trying to figure them out. They’re really not too different from American idiots who blame outsourcing for losing jobs yet demand lower prices at WalMart that can only be achieved by outsourcing. People want to have their cake and eat it too. Idiocy is idiocy and the sheer size of China’s population just makes Chinese idiocy all the more difficult to bear.
@ dude8:
If he is German, you shouldn’t have to apologize for him but everyone does appreciate your gesture just as the Korean community didn’t have to apologize for the Virginia Tech murderer but did anyway or Americans who routinely hang their head in shame when the topic of Bush comes up abroad. I’m pretty sure a seasoned diplomat like Wen knows this comes with the territory. Its the peons who don’t.
@ mtm:
I’m not a moderator (but oh how I wish I could be). You’ll have to ask Fauna yourself. She’ll probably do it since she does seem to read the comments or you can e-mail her at fauna@chinasmack.com.
BTW, to be fair, the vast majority of China is probably still rather “shitholey.” But absolutely, China HAS done an enviable job relative to many other aspiring developing countries with their modern economic development and growth. There’s still much to go, but at least China has come this far, which is more than can be said for others.
To corroborate the example you alluded to, many Westerners often do compare authoritarian China to democratic India. While India hasn’t done too shabbily for itself with high rates of English literacy and proficiency (well, that may be a bit subjective) and is on the receiving end of a lot of outsourced customer service and tech sector jobs, India arguably still envies China’s stats even as both places still have high levels of abject poverty.
But yes, as much as I’ve come to like FDLR because I know he’s actually kinda squishy deep down inside, your retort putting his presence (and by extension the involvement of foreigners) here in China was pretty damn hilarious. LoL.
@ mtm re: dace:
LoL, funny response but come on, you yourself must be at least a wee bit sympathetic with how “laowai” etc. is used by Chinese irrespective of where they actually are. It does convey a bit of Sino-centricism that can grate just as much as Chinese people grate at examples of US-centrism or Euro-centricism. It’s actually quite similar to non-US Americans being annoyed with Americans always being associated with people from the United States. Minor thing, but understandable.
who the hell they (whites) thinks they are. they can do any dirty thing and declares that they are the high class society in the world( culture). fuck ur culture.
we have different cultures in asia like INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATION, MONGOLIAN, MESOPOTAMIAN, HISTORY OF CHINESE…etc.
pls tell me the ORIGIN OF THESE PEOPLE, ENGLAND,AMERICA..ETC. they don’t know their origin. in short they don’t know their father… “REAL BASTARDS”
See the thrown here.
footage video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ_50VrLUBo
mtm:
“Why else do you think Mr “fcuk da luo ren” tortures himself everyday breathing our polluted Chinese air for??? You think he rubs shoulders with SARS infected “Chimatrons” for fun?”
This is way too funny!! ahhahaah… :)
This explains why English people are so bad at cricket.
wen jiabao doesn’t deserve to be thrown shoes at but these other chinese morons who laughs the loudest (and most irritatingly) when it was the previous president bush’s turn to be thrown shoes at.
i just can’t figure out how these chinese (i believe not all of them) react so negatively to the point of making it a “big” racial issue when their name got involve with some ruckus and yet they were the biggest racist in the entire universe.
oh and yes, maybe it’s because racist hates to who dare “out-racist” them. hahaha. so not funny, i could simply puke in their faces.
action figures star wars said:
“…biggest racist in the entire universe”
Oh the inhumanity! How can anyone stand it?!
http://timesonline.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/charisma_man_strip_3_1.jpg
Whine whine whine…
luckily you can take refuge amongst your enlightened liberal minded buddies at Stormfront where they won’t take any sh1t from some uppity yellow bucktoothed slanteyed small pen1s chinky brainwashed chimatron commie drones for sure!
Yeah, us Chinese are sooo “rayciss”…
@ kai
Carry on wishing. You are too anti-Chinese to be a moderator. You can be at best a whinner and at worst a troll.
India was colonised by the British for 2 centuries, so that’s how they picked up the language, and now they are saying that they speak and write English better than the Brits. By the way, from the way you wrote, you seem to know too little about India.
dude8, “hang their head in shame”?? I think not!! None of us who are against him voted for him; those who voted for him are not of the mentality to “hang their head in shame.” Instead they are in denial and pretend he was right.
So be careful about over-generalizing . . . your argument is not factual!
As for the Wen Shoe, don’t be so sensitive, please, when it happened to Americans you all jeered and laughed–even Wen and Hu jeered.
Wen announced 12 million jobless, even tho the previous day Chen Xiwen announced 26 million jobless. Obviously these economics students were upset by the “glossing over.” In these dangerous economic times, we can’t afford the old-style “coverups.”
@ SayLaan:
I think you meant to direct that comment at me.
Saying that Americans hang their head in shame was a generalization in that not all Americans do. Moreover, it was an exaggeration of how some Americans they sometimes feel, because not all of them feel so strongly as to “hang their head.”
However, my point wasn’t to generalize that all Americans do so or to exaggerate how they feel, but rather to offer an EXAMPLE of how some Americans DO feel embarrassed for something they may helplessly be associated with, whether or not they voted for Bush, similar to how the Korean community felt they would be associated with the Virginia Tech killer or how “nice guy” Wen will invariably be personally targetted by those who are actually protesting against China as a whole.
I don’t see how this is “not factual.”
Okay Kai, that makes sense
I’m often amazed at how respectful of their leaders the Chinese are. Are they really this sheep-like? Western Democracies have no delusions about their leaders, they know that virtually all political leaders are self-aggrandizing narcissists.
I once employed a young chinese computer programmer. One day at lunch I asked him about the Falun Gong. He immediately blurted out “Falun Gong very very bad”. I suddenly became aware of how programmed by his government he was! In the US, religious and political fringe elements are tolerated and rarely given a second glance. In China, if the Hu or the Wen says “Wut” then everybody says “Where” and “How”?
@thesailor Are you seriously equating an anecdote to how a billion people think? You’re on Chinasmack, look around the posts, bashing government is the favourite past time of the people lol. And to be fair “fringe” groups get quite the support, just check out Foxnews. I suggest you try and get a holistic view of your own country before you write another comment.
I have taught and produced multimedia teaching materials at China Central Radio and TV University and Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beiwai) for a total of 10 years.
Despite these years of experience in the country, I do not regard myself as an expert on China, or “an old China hand”. I am certainly not an apologist for the Chinese government or its policies, though I have enjoyed and reciprocated much friendship and mutual respect here.
Last summer I was asked if I would join a select group of Chinese and international teachers from Beiwai to teach a group of senior government officials at the China National School of Administration. The course – intensive English training program 3 was an immersion language program designed to assist officials to communicate in English during their representational duties as vice-ministers or vice-governors, first initiated in 2001 by the then vice-premier Li Lanqing, and now continued under the sponsorship of Li Yuanchao, minister of the Party’s organization department.
If you had asked me before last September whether I would enjoy teaching a group of senior government officials, I would probably have given a guarded answer: “I don’t have to enjoy students. Teaching is my job, and I teach all students with as much professional competence as I possess.” If you had persisted further and asked me whether I thought I would actually respect and like such a group, honesty would have forced me toward skepticism.
Westerners have a generally cynical view of politicians, and here in China sometimes the phrase “officials” is more often described with adjectives like “greedy” and “corrupt” than “sincere” or “diligent” in some newspapers. I did not expect to be touched at the emotional level by a group of trainees at the National School of Administration.
Three months on and I feel ashamed at my previous cynicism and prejudice. I think I have learned more about China and the Chinese in the last three months than I had in the previous 10 years as a teacher in China.
When you live and work in close proximity with a group of people, you learn a great deal about them. Sharing three meals a day, teaching and discussing in small groups, holding one-on-one tutorials, attending banquets and cultural events together gives you insights into individuals that normal university lecturing never can.
It exposes you to the full spectrum of their personalities, and you are able to make judgments about things like honesty and sincerity that you would not be able to make about students that you meet only once or twice a week.
The group comprised 12 individuals who were as varied and distinct from each other as you would expect from people gathered together from all over China.
One characteristic that was shared by them all, however, was motivation – enormous, intense, 15-hour-a-day motivation to work hard and learn English.
And this motivation was itself driven by a genuine desire to develop their language skills not for reasons of personal satisfaction alone but because they sincerely believed it would make them better able to serve the people of their beloved province and enhance the image of the China of which they are so proud. I was not mistaken in this, and I found it admirable.
I also found myself liking them enormously. When you come to admire people for their working habits and respect them for their moral positions, affection follows closely behind.
I think my fellow foreign expert and I were privileged to gain an insight into the quality of some of the people who govern China in a way that only a few foreigners share, and that the West in general is completely ignorant of. These were valuable men and women. They were cultivated and honorable, diligent and sincere. They represented truly the ideal of the good public official.
Furthermore, in being privileged to meet ex-vice-premier Li Lanqing and Minister Li Yuanchao, and to listen to them discuss – in excellent English – the importance of learning a foreign language in order to represent more accurately to the world the true character of China, I came to a closer understanding that this belief in education for its ministers is a central tenet of the Chinese government.
They demand excellence in their officials, and they are prepared to invest heavily in it. There is no analogue to this practice in Western democracy that I know of. I think China is the stronger for it, and the West the weaker for its absence.
Indeed, I think China is the more democratic by virtue of this training of its officials, because they have a very real sense of and belief in their role as representatives of the people. The West is skeptical of such beliefs, where it knows of them, but is generally in ignorance of them. The skepticism is a possible weakness in Western understanding, while the ignorance is a possible weakness in Chinese public relations.
I firmly believe that the communication skills gained by the trainees during the course will contribute to a better understanding of China in the West, and a better understanding of the West in China. I feel honored to have been a very small part in such a momentous process.
The author is a British teacher living in China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandes_%C3%A9coles
i’m chinese, i think more shoes should be thrown at world leaders
Here here! At least three times a year. Even the good ones. That should keep them on their toes.
shoe must have belonged to one of those free xizang idiots. I wonder what would think if Wales decided to become a independent state with a religious government. Probably not too happy, stupid hippy fcuk . . .
Do the Chinese people know that the ’shoe thrower’ was a German citizen a visiting patholgy student! He was not English at all. His act was cowardly insulting and stupid. No true English would agree with this. Wen has a good press here in England!
Personally, If I ever felt stongly enough that I would want to throw a shoe then it would be a good expensive leather one, not a street market cheap smelly trainer!
If you threw a nice one, it’d end up getting pirated. Then you’d get bombarded by cheap knock offs that break apart in mid-air.
jones. in the dark freezing cold of England you gave me the first ‘chuckle’ of the week! Thanks!