Reason Number 9 - The Largest Box of Toy Soldiers in the World
Selasa, 29 Juli 2008
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ChinaBounder comments:‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great.’ Excerpt 17.“`The Chinese army started its IT revolution in the 1990s’ said media in 2007. ‘Digital technology allows commanders to electronically monitor the borders right around the clock even while cooks in the barracks are rustling up some tasty grub using a recipe from an e-Book consulted on a scr'een in the kitchen.’‘With regiments … far from towns, soldiers used to have to travel a long way just to buy a tube of toothpaste. But in January 2007, an online shopping site appeared on the district’s military LAN -- and now a soldier staring out at the hillside in a remote border post can simply click on a website to whistle up his favorite brand of rice cakes’ said reports.
But perhaps worried that too much hi-tech would corrupt the troops, state media also announced that ‘the tradition virtues of frugality, discipline and readiness to serve the people remain unchanged among the troops.’ One can almost see young lads vying for the hard-to-acquire ‘frugality’ merit badge.
To remind new recruits of the importance of these virtues, members of the PLA are shown the ‘classic’ Chinese film romantically called ‘Guards Under Neon Light.’ This film, made some forty years ago, details the virtues of the PLA’s Eighth Company while stationed on Shanghai’s famous Nanjing road. The film shows how the ‘soldiers who patrolled on a dazzling road of Shanghai…resisted various lures of the booming city and remained frugal, well-disciplined and ready to serve people.’"
The Communist Party’s attempt at bait and switch. Worried about the tens of billions of dollars the CPC is spending on the Chinese army? Worried that the troops are being used in Mini-Tiananmen Squares all over the nation?
Hey! We got rice cakes! We got the internet! We got stirring, patriotic films!
So that’s all right. Let’s forget about the other stuff, shall we?
It’s all part of the way the CPC frames what passes for public debate in China. Trivial. Infantile. Bipolar. Such and such is bad. So and so is good.
There are no shades of grey in China.
But indeed sometimes it’s good be stark, to be emphatic.
So here’s a stark tale.
The classes I teach are pretty poor value for money, I have to admit. I spent, say, six months or a year refining my class style, finding the routines that worked best; and after that I have always just done the same shtick, every class. I always begin with the same routine, coming into the first class and doing a whole thing about ‘Why is no one here talking English?’ In eight years of teaching I have never once walked into a class and heard the students practicing English with each other. Chinese language all the way. It just never occurs to students that, given they are in a class to practice spoken English, every else in the class will have a certain level of spoken skill, and thus be a great practice partner.
So I give ‘em a little lecture about that. I tell them the truth, which is seldom wise – but here it is, for what it’s worth. ‘If you just spent an hour each day talking English to a friend you’d improve fast. You don’t need to come to this class. You don’t need to pay this school’s high fees.’ That’s the boiled down version, by the way. In class I make it at least five times as long as that, just to run down the clock.
Then I talk about how to improve written English, and I use newspaper headlines from China’s English language media as talking points, showing how to get a conversation going on that basis.
Naturally, I focus on the headlines that interest me – the stories of corruption, pollution, politics. And I often work on death penalty stories, a fairly common item in the paper given the glee with which China’s government washes its hands in the blood of its people.
So the story will be of some hapless guy being put to death by the state, and I lead the conversation into a discussion of the rights and wrongs of the death penalty.
Most students are bloodthirsty. The death penalty’s fine by them – helps keep order in society, they say, suggesting that without the death penalty Chinese society would degenerate into violence and chaos.
Then I say, “Here is a statistic for you..” and write up on the board, “In 2006, China executed more people than the rest of the world put together.”
“What do you think of that?” I ask.
Some students look uneasy. Some point out “But China is so much bigger than any other country, and not all nations use the death penalty.” True enough.
“What do you think of that?” I ask.
Some students look uneasy. Some point out “But China is so much bigger than any other country, and not all nations use the death penalty.” True enough.
Then I say, “But in fact what I just wrote on the board is not completely true…” and here I will often observe one or two self-satisfied smiles, as if to suggest “He is about to admit this is more Western anti-China propaganda…”
On the board, I add to the end of the statement “In 2006, China executed more people than the rest of the world put together…” the words, “…in the previous five years.”
This, at least, creates a deeper ripple of discomfort, yet even so many of the students will still support it. They know the government is corrupt, the police are corrupt, the courts are corrupt. But they still support the mass executions, the show trials, the public executions.
And so to the point of this entry.
On the board, I add to the end of the statement “In 2006, China executed more people than the rest of the world put together…” the words, “…in the previous five years.”
This, at least, creates a deeper ripple of discomfort, yet even so many of the students will still support it. They know the government is corrupt, the police are corrupt, the courts are corrupt. But they still support the mass executions, the show trials, the public executions.
And so to the point of this entry.
A couple of years ago, at the end of one class, a student stayed behind to talk to me. Turned out he’d been in the armed services, though whether it was the People’s Liberation Army or the People’s Armed Police Force I confess I cannot now recall.
He told me he had participated in an execution.
“I got about half an hour’s notice” he said. “My superior came into the dorm and told me and the other guys to get ready for the duty. We prepared and went to the place where it was going to happen. They brought in the guy. He was utterly terrified. We lined up and each of us aimed our gun at him. We were given the order to shoot, and we shot. He collapsed, but he did not die. So then my commanding officer told me to use the … what it is called, knife on the gun?”
“Bayonet.”
“Yes, bayonet. He told me to use my bayonet to kill the guy. So I went up to him and stabbed him in the neck and then the chest. Then he died.”
This student was around 26 or 27. He told me this story with no more emotion than he might have recounted killing a chicken at the market.
“How did you feel about it?” I asked.
He told me he had participated in an execution.
“I got about half an hour’s notice” he said. “My superior came into the dorm and told me and the other guys to get ready for the duty. We prepared and went to the place where it was going to happen. They brought in the guy. He was utterly terrified. We lined up and each of us aimed our gun at him. We were given the order to shoot, and we shot. He collapsed, but he did not die. So then my commanding officer told me to use the … what it is called, knife on the gun?”
“Bayonet.”
“Yes, bayonet. He told me to use my bayonet to kill the guy. So I went up to him and stabbed him in the neck and then the chest. Then he died.”
This student was around 26 or 27. He told me this story with no more emotion than he might have recounted killing a chicken at the market.
“How did you feel about it?” I asked.
“It was my job.”
“What did the guy do? What was his crime, I mean?”
“I don’t know. They never told you that.”
“Didn't that bother you?”
“No. They told me to kill someone, I killed them. That was my job.”
“What did the guy do? What was his crime, I mean?”
“I don’t know. They never told you that.”
“Didn't that bother you?”
“No. They told me to kill someone, I killed them. That was my job.”
‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great.’ Excerpt 18.“A more truthful ‘healthy’ view of the PLA might be to reflect that since 1949 over 300,000 members of the army have died on active service. This is according to government figures which are, naturally, much lower than outside independent estimates. According to Beijing, for example, the official death toll in the Korean War was around 140,000 deaths. But the historian Jung Chang, citing an unofficial statement by Deng Xiaoping, puts the number at 400,000.When a soldier dies for his country it should mean something, serve a purpose, or gain freedoms. What do China’s 300,000 military deaths mean? What purpose have they served, what freedoms have they gained?China still vilifies Japan for its military past. But it can be suggested that Japan’s recent military history since 1945 is far more successful than China’s. In the same decades that China has lost at the very least 300,000 soldiers, Japan had no military casualties at all.
None.
Zero.”Traveling to China soon? Have a real impact -- 'T' for Tibet and 'X' for Xinjiang. Every time you're near a camera, don't forget to make the signs.
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Judul: Reason Number 9 - The Largest Box of Toy Soldiers in the World
Ditulis oleh Unknown
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