I am a Chinese, because I will go to the US this summer for my university, so I practice my English by reading articles from rd.com. Occasionally I find this article, I feel sorry about all of these authors because I see how stupid and rude people can be. I am a native Chinese. Well, I haven't been Beijing for a long time but I used to live there for a couple of months. I don't want to judge what Beijing is look like now because I am not there. If you guys are not there, either. How can your opnions are convictive? I think everyone should treat Olympics from a unprejudiced way. We get the host right of Olymipics, that means we are able to host it. We also should have a fair perspective to the Tibet problem. Tibet is one part of our country, what it cause is our own business, we are trying hard to work things out. However, some of so-called experts are shouting that repel BeiJing Olympics because of a series of unrelated problems. That is funny, I can see how boring you are and what purpose you want. Please focus on your own business, if you really want to do our business, you can give us advices how to make it better. NOT annoying people, pronaunce some jacobinical statement to make things worse.

We are trying to be friendly to all over the world, not showing you we are flabbiness！

Anyway, I will especially thank the people who stand by the unprejudice side. I thanks for you help, thanks for your commitment. You are the reason I go abroad, because I see friendly from you and we have similarity.

I also have to thank your criticize, which represent your attach importance to us. Oh, it also reflects a little bit of your fearness.

Welcome all of you to China, because we are confidently believe, Beijing 2008 will be one of the best times you ever had.

LOL your skin is too thin. Gotta get tougher if you want to study in America or you would be offended every single day. People have freedom of speech in the US and tend to say whatever they think and feel, pretty much all the time, especially in college - if something offends your feelings you have to learn to let it go.

I am very appretiate about your suggesstion. I will try to make myself stronger and ignore whatever they said.

and it might be useful to consider that--as you witness here with Jasmine, people who 'blog' on the internet can be especially angry and hateful with their posts, probably much more so than they are if you met them personally. I have still not fully appreciated the reason for this, but you will see for example, some "chat room" about say Amy Winehouse being arrested, and there will be multiple posts saying things like "I hope she dies." Sometimes on the site for American Idol, you read the worst insults you can imagine directed at children no older than 16 or 17 years of age. You sort of see this syndorme now with the Beijing Olympics. If an individual has any hidden animousity towards China--or even towards Asian people in general, they may decide to use the olympics as an excuse to vent their anger and hatred at you on the internet. I HOPE you don't take it personally.

Well, I see. Thank you!

Anthony,

You say that you haven't been to Beijing recently and that "you guys are not there either"...did you consider that the people who wrote the article and who were interviewed for it, HAVE been to Beijing more recently than you have?...instead, you just attack the authors rather than bother to think about the criticisms.

The article points out many potential problems. These are real problems in your country.

I lived in China for several months recently. Your defensive stance is typical of Chinese men (women in China are, in general, much more open-minded, and frankly, much smarter than men). Rather than accept any hint of criticism, you say "it's our business" and call people "stupid". Well, it *is* their business if they are forced to eat food full of chemicals and breathe toxic air. It is their business if they try to see China and have their visas denied for nonsensical reasons.

Your fear of criticism and immature reaction to it is, sadly, the typical male behavior in China.

That said, i hope you enjoy your stay in the US and find it a rewarding and educational experience. I loved the time i spent in China.

yeah, but come-on Orpheous, locusts?? the plague? the death of your first born? give me a break. So you liked being in China. Well, good for you. Maybe the next step in your evolution is to allow the yellow peril the right to defend attacks made by snooty white folk with an agenda? White Jasmine-tea believes for some reason that the gong chang dang will make no efforts to improve the pollution problem from last year--as frankly, L.A. did in summer 1984 even without the communist thing. Who is being unfair? and your male-bashing generalizations? Kind of paints you as a man-hater. You might want to take some therapy for that, forgive daddy. Maybe he tried the best he could but couldn't send you all the money you wanted in college...

and re: the "it's our business" statement by Anthony was about Tibet, and happens to be true. I know there are truly a lot of westerners who liked Rage Against the Machine say very much and if they saw a show such as "Touched by an angel" or listened to Richard Gere and Woody Allen's ex-, they believe that China has no rights to sovreignty over Tibet, despite history. You will never ever see anyone in the world propose a boycott of any U.S. olympics because of 'what they did to the American Indian' nations, or 'to force them to give back Hawaii...or Alaska, or even Texas and Oklahoma.' NEVER. Which country right this second is occupying a foreign country--IRAQ--against the wishes of the vast majority of its citizens AND of the citizens in the country occupied? No, it's not China. As Anthony very very correctly pointed out, sorry Richard Gere, sorry heavy-metal concert goers, is that most Chinese in the PRC believe as he does--including the "smarter" women--Tibet is part of China. Should we protest the U.S.'s involvement in a sporting event because of this? You see, the number one shockingly conspicuous trait of Americans speaking on World matters is not superior knowledge, or even freedom of speech. You kidding? It's hypocrisy.

-- i didn't say i support any protests...nor did the writers of the article...they merely said that they are likely to occur and effect the games

-- i didn't say a support a boycott (i don't), nor did the writers of the article...

The things which the article points out as the same things that people in China are terrified will disrupt the games.

i agree that locusts part was a bit over the top (though quite funny)...

but i didn't think the article was all that political...i don't think anyone needed to "defend" against it...the immediate rush to be defensive out of fear of being shamed is one of the most annoying things in China because it prevents people from learning and from dealing with problems constructively and rationally. The article merely pointed out a lot of very real problems that may or may not get dealt with properly.

And, i wasn't bashing men in general, just Chinese men in the PRC (not all of them, of course, but the great majority and baseline way of thinking). If you haven't lived there and seen just how just how ignorant and close-minded the majority of men are in China, then you really don't have much to offer on the topic.

p.s. my dad is a great guy, thanks for asking.

I think Chinese men are good guys. BUT, I will await the results of your careful, thoroughly researched sociological study of the 'vast majority' of the majority sex of people in the Earth's most populous nation. I forsee Nobel peace prize for you, Orheus. I can say I 'knew her when...'

Slim, i'm a guy, not a gal.

My opinions are based on the hundreds of people i met over several months in China. Thousands of conversations and interactions with women and men. But they are just opinions. And i'm happy to hear others.

Yet, on the whole, i found that Chinese women tend to agree with me on this, although some of them consider the situation more hopeless than solvable. As i urged many of my Chinese female friends: "You can improve your country by doing these things: Don't date men who chainsmoke, don't date men who spit. Don't date men who refuse to use condoms. Don't date men who yell at waitresses. Don't date men who don't bother to listen to what you think You'll make things better for everyone." The typical female response was something along the lines of "But that's every Chinese man!"

well I do think you have proven that some women enjoy having their behinds kissed, or the "typical ones" do, or at least pretend they do when they are addressed by pale visitors who are trying too hard. It's the least they can do. Being a good host, you know. Is it possible that THEIR response, 'but that's ALL Chinese men' was ironic? You know, like when the female tour guide teased misanthrope Paul Thorough in that book about the Chinese Train, until he 'wanted to punch her'? When is it ever 'smart' to agree with white men, that's what I want to know? ha

However, please persist in your endeavor to save the female in China from extiction. They MUST find appropriate mates before it's too late.!

no, these were, in general, things that they complained about unprompted...and/or things that are apparent while you live in the country, have discussions, hear people's stories first hand...(or when you look at the death rates from smoking, AIDS, etc)...

when you do meet a Chinese man who is open-minded, polite, and ready to discuss (including to disagree) in a constructive way, it's incredibly refreshing...it's a great thing...but it's quite rare...the typical guy's behavior is similar to that of our friend Anthony here, who immediately calls everyone "stupid" and more or less proves my whole point.

I like Anthony and agree with him. On the other hand, you are very hypocritical, bringing up accusations about being 'paranoid about terrorism' but then offended when your same points are applied closer to home; and accusing others of (mis) framing the subject's debate with the experiences that informed their opinions, while you do the exact same thing with these stories about all the thousands of poor Chinese women and brutish Chinese men you met over several months in China. (er, did you call them 'Peking men' to your other dumb-white expat friends? I bet you did). groan. You see some of us don't call white men stupid, 'immediately.' We base this observation on first person experience.