The China Desk sees my true colors: White, white, and white

Monday, December 01, 2008

The China Desk sees my true colors: White, white, and white

Now, for a little self-flagellation. This is from May. I didn't see it because, at the time, I was in Thailand at the East West Center's Summer Institute for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights:

The Only Redhead in Taiwan [sic!] yet another predictable "China is bad" blog by yet another expat Taiwan independence fellow traveler
You read that right. He really did name his blog "The Only Redhead in Taiwan."

Try not to laugh too hard. I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself.

But I really can't blame you. These 21st century versions of pith helmeted 19th century Bearers of the White Man's Burden really are full of themselves, aren't they?

Note how he chose to define himself in relation to the public on Taiwan? Remember, he chose to define himself in this manner, not me.

He seems utterly oblivious of his own colossal presumption. He actually believes his narcissistic view of himself as some sort of sharp-eyed, worldly wise, infinitely patient observer of the human folly swirling around him.

For these Bearers of the White Man's Burden, everything is about them. They are the leading men in the human drama unfolding on this planet. They are the Masters of the Universe. They are the final arbiters of Eternal Verity.

The "little brown brothers" are quaint extras, local colour, to be lifted up out of backwardness by these White Knights in Shining Armor.

See:
http://thechinadesk.blogspot.com/2000/08/white-knight-third-world-damsel-in.html

I considered taking some time out to rebut his "rebuttal" line by line, point by point. As readers of the China Desk know, I've done that with Taipei Times editorials often in the past. But that would have been a few hours taken away from learning a new aria or show tune.

Would it be worthwhile?

Not really.

Besides, readers are smart enough to make up their own minds, not on debating skill, but on objective merits.

Read "What Do You Want From Us?" Watch the video versions of "What Do You Want from Us?" posted at YouTube.

Then read the "rebuttal" by the aforementioned Bearer of the White Man's Burden, whereby he magnanimously removes the blinders from our eyes.

Ask yourself if he didn't unwittingly demonstrate precisely the point he was attempting to deny, that he and his ilk are determined to "make China wrong" and that he and his ilk "just don't get it?"

Upton Sinclair once quipped that "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Permit me to paraphrase Sinclair: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his self-image depends upon his not understanding it."

As some of you might remember, at the time, I had referenced some posts written by Mr. Chu at the China Desk, trying to make an argument for why I disagreed with him in hopes of starting a dialogue between two people with different perspectives on the same subject. I got emails from a lot of people saying I was wasting my time with Chu--an American whose late father was Tsing-kang Chu, a long-serving diplomat under Chiang-Kai Shek--but I figured I would try.

I didn't expect to change Mr. Chu's opinion on anything, but I supposed that if anyone was going to tell me I was wrong, it would be him. In my search for criticism in what is arguably a green-leaning English blogosphere in Taiwan, I thought I had found the most likely person to school me the hard way in the perspectives of the under-represented. I can't help but think though, that anyone who would files this site under "'China is bad' blog" and me as a "Taiwan independence fellow traveller" has trouble distinguishing anything on the spectrum between black and white.

[I'd love proof of these claims, as (1) for some time I've thought (erroneously) that I was fascinated by China and Asia in general, despite having problems with many government policies--as I do with every other country, indiscriminately, especially my own--and (2) it's news to me that being neither for or against China-Taiwan unification is pro-Independence, unless believing that the Taiwanese should be allowed to choose for themselves automatically makes me pro-Independence, which would mean that Chu doesn't believe the Taiwanese would choose to become part of China.]

Though Chu never addressed any of my arguments and only did so once that I can find when I left comments on his site, I will say--in my "magnanimity"--that I learned a lot from him and the biting comments that conspicuously started popping up on my site after my indirect correspondences with him: It was, after all, through those comments that I began to see a correlation with what I was studying at the seminar in Thailand.

Studying human rights with people from all over Asia, I was concentrating on America's role in many of these issues while also running over the comments about "expats"--who are apparently so similar one to another that they can be easily grouped together--and I got to thinking about all the people who come abroad, hoping to make things better for others, but who rarely are ever anything more than outsiders. It was then that I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to try to change what I can about how America interacts with the world, rather than lending a hand to causes in other parts of the world.

Though I already knew I would apply for graduate programs in international relations this coming January, it was there, in Thailand, that I decided that my studies would focus on American foreign policy and how the negative consequences of past exceptionalist policies--which are now arguably greater than they've ever been--can be minimized. In the end, if I tried to go anywhere else, no matter how hard I worked or how good my intentions, I would always be an outsider. Of course, in whatever I do, I look forward to travelling and working with people all over the world on the problems that transcend the borders and identities we draw around ourselves, like terrorism and climate change. This is my passion, and no one should get the wrong idea that anyone can that.

Anyhow, thank you, Bevin Chu, for doing that little bit of sorting out for me. Feel free to comment any time, send me emails, or write about me on your site, as I always need to challange my perspectives. However, I hope, next time, you'll take me to task on some of the things that I actually said, poking holes in my dogmatism, so that I can see things from your perspective. Don't be gentle, I love criticism of what I say, and I'll readily admit when I'm wrong.

On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of the superficial, personal attacks, but I can take those with a smile too.

Have a good one! ;-)

UPDATE: I neglected to include a link to The China Desk post.

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