"Chengdu Diary" from NPR

National Public Radio ^ | May,2008 | Robert Siegel ,Melissa Block

[zhcn]

"All Things Considered" hosts Robert Siegel and Melissa Block are in Sichuan Province covering the massive earthquake. They continue to report on the aftermath and recovery efforts. The hosts were in Chengdu with producers Andrea Hsu and Art Silverman when the quake struck. They were preparing for a special week of China coverage that had been planned for next week. Follow this blog for regular updates. ----From http://www.npr.org/blogs/chengdu/

[zhcn]

You can know something about Sichuan earthquake and panda and China and so on from this site.

[indcons]

The recent earthquakes are proving to be a greater propaganda coup for the ChiComs than the PLA-orchetrated Olympic Torch runs.

Sad.

[BGHater]

What is your rank on the Propaganda machine? And what is your major function? Spam? Graphics? False Flag?

[Travis McGee]

Believe it or not, there are good and decent Chinese who are not communist stooges, but just people.

As a fluke of history, the quake has rolled back the official govt. censorship in many areas. Read with your eyes and mind open, be alert to propaganda, but don’t dismiss every single thing you see because of the country of its origin.

And have a great weekend. China is hurting, and that means ordinary human beings are hurting, because most Chinese are ordinary humans like us. They didn’t choose their government.

[Keith Brown]

“China is hurting, and that means ordinary human beings are hurting, because most Chinese are ordinary humans like us. They didn’t choose their government.”

I disagree. By not doing anything about it they are choosing.

We in the USA didn’t like the british tyranny so we did something about it.

Hypothetically, do you think if the Chinese are conscripted to invade the USA they are going to stop and tell their comissar “No Thanks” or are they going to suit up and come at us in a horde?

[BGHater]

Travis. -snicker- NPR and Pandas? Sign up date May 17 2008. Come on. ChiCom.

NYPD officers confront an angry mob in Flushing, New York, making at least two arrests of individuals assaulting Falun Gong adherents.

[Travis McGee]

What bullcrap. Modern totalitarian dictatorships are revolution-proof. Could Iraqis overthrow Saddam by themselves? Of course not. Soviet Russians? No way. Chinese today? Don’t be foolish. Unless and until the Chinese regime falls of its own weight (like the Soviets before them) they will be in control.

[JRandomFreeper]

I'm much more worried by domestic trash than Chi-coms.

/johnny

[Travis McGee]

Sure, the Chinese regime is masterful at manipulating renta-mobs of overseas Chinese. So what?

[wolfcreek]

What if we didn’t like the US gov.?

Could we take um?

[PLMerite]

“Believe it or not, there are good and decent Chinese who are not communist stooges, but just people.”

Yes, but do they have unrestricted, unfiltered Internet access and are they allowed to post to Capitalist Main Enemy sites like Free Republic ?

[1rudeboy]

What is your rank on the Propaganda machine? And what is your major function? Spam? Graphics? False Flag?

NPR?

[1rudeboy]

Doesn’t it just warm your heart that, in the defense of Liberty, there are Americans who rise-up to exclaim, “Not my problem?”

[BGHater]

No, ChiComm poster. They have been flooding sites lately.

[1rudeboy]

Right, lately. I’ve seen them also . . . instead of sneaking in without announcing their sinister intentions, they have been identifying themselves as Chinese and posting openly on Chinese earthquake threads. Sneaky.

[Keith Brown]

Make all the excuses you want, but you know I am right.

[Keith Brown]

Yes.

[TigersEye]

I guess it’s time to welcome in a big wave of Mexican FReepers and sympathize with their plight. Being under the boot heel of two oppressive governments and all.

[zhcn]

Hi,you know my English is so poor that I can't know what someone said "What is your rank on the Propaganda machine? And what is your major function? Spam? Graphics? False Flag?" ----It's difficult to me:( Maybe let me introduce myself?--OK! I have worked for a PR company which organizes conferences for IBM、SAP、NOKIA、SIEMENTS、DELL、EMC and so on. RICOH/IBM which is a infoprint solutions company had a exhibition at the end of last year for three days and some engineers came to Beijing from America. Some of them was first to China so they told me "wanna to see the Great Wall after the exhibition." "enjoy your time on Sunday" I said to them. Well, I know this forum because this article "Children Killed In China Earthquake"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2014670/posts was posted on bbs.Xunlei.com which is the bigest movie download net in China. Do you know how many internet users in China? Please see it http://cnnic.cn/en/index/0O/index.htm No matter western nets just like CNN、BBC、AP、NPR、The New York Time...or Korean or Japanese nets just like 朝日新聞(asahi.com)、yahoo.co.JP、조선일보(chosun.com)、네이버(naver.com)、daum.net etc. we all can access. So do you often access to Chinese net? Maybe it's difficult to you because you don't know some Chinese characters. It's also 21st century in China not one century later than America. Do you know how many people who come from other countries study or work in China now? I met many foreigners when I took bus or went shopping and I also have good friends no matter Korean or Japanese or others. I talked with them about culture、history、politics and else but no one asked me "What is your rank on the Propaganda machine? And what is your major function? Spam? Graphics? False Flag?" I feel so strange. I know many people posted articles here from other nets. Why did someone ask me this question when I posted this article? Maybe I'm a Chinese I don't have the right to post here?----If it's real I think it's unfair. I abide the rule of this forum even if I'm not good at English. Chinese also live in the earth with other people like American. We're not Martians but some American maybe think so.----I feel very pity.

[Travis McGee]

Don’t worry about it. Some on this forum believe that every living breathing Chinese is a Communist Party puppet. Anybody can post here, from the brilliant to the stupid. It is free speech in action. You must tolerate the stupid to enjoy complete free speech.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Thank you for this website. While NPR is not a reliable source of information on many news topics, I have found the reporting on the earthquake to be outstanding, and enjoyed the opportunity to read reports I had missed on the radio.

[xJones]

"What is your rank on the Propaganda machine? And what is your major function? Spam? Graphics? False Flag?" I feel so strange. I know many people posted articles here from other nets. Why did someone ask me this question when I posted this article? Maybe I'm a Chinese I don't have the right to post here?----If it's real I think it's unfair. I abide the rule of this forum even if I'm not good at English. Chinese also live in the earth with other people like American. We're not Martians but some American maybe think so.----I feel very pity.

Calm down, take a chill pill. Every forum on the internets has flamers, and we all get flamed on occasion. Any one with thin skin needs to grow a thicker skin to post on the internet.

Your problem is that you didn't know that on FR, NPR is regarded as the {{{evil voice of liberal America}}}. (Hint: you're supposed to be scared.):D

Don't stop posting, because we need to hear Chinese points of view; we need to know what you're thinking - all 5 bazillion of you.:)

[Republican Party Reptile]

Yes, but do they have unrestricted, unfiltered Internet access and are they allowed to post to Capitalist Main Enemy sites like Free Republic ?

Yes, FR is not blocked (at least in my personal experience). But don't take my word for it, ask other FReepers who have posted from China. Or, if you are ever in the neighborhood, try it for yourself.

[zhcn]

Thank you for telling. There are many mistakes between Chinese and American because we have different culture and don't know a lot each other. I knew NPR from my Korean friend. We always share study resource each other. You know as Asian no matter Chinese or Korean or Japanese...we all study English hard. We only wanna practise English by listening to American radio or reading news such as CNN、BBC、The Times...and so on. we don't know what westerns thought about these medias. I'll tell my friends who study Englsih. I think they also don't know something about NPR.haha On the other hand maybe westerns should try to read some books about Chinese culture. You know Japanese or Korean culture mostly were effected by ancient China. And Chinese history and philosophy and sentiment etc. all in the culture. Tt's different between American current culture because Chinese history has thousands years. There is stil a wall between east and west even if it's 21st century now. Actually the gap is in our mind. I think listen-think-understand is more important. P.S. Dramatic video of quake damage from CNN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020939/posts I don't know whether you have seen this. Maybe.

[DeaconBenjamin]

I have a co-worker who is ethnic Chinese. We were discussing something from 1890s China, and she said it was from the colonial period. This surprised me, as I didn’t realize the British, French, German, Russian, and Japanese “concessions” were viewed as foreign colonies on Chinese soil.

[xJones]

You know as Asian no matter Chinese or Korean or Japanese...we all study English hard. We only wanna practise English by listening to American radio or reading news such as CNN、BBC、The Times...and so on. we

You shame we Americans, because we are notoriously monolingual. But this is because it is our history as a nation of immigrants from all over the world to focus on one national language, which is English due to a few hundred years of history. We forget our mother tongues to become Americans.

On the other hand maybe westerns should try to read some books about Chinese culture.

I love studying Chinese history and culture. The Chinese have suffered so greatly but always come through. The basic Chinese character will survive even the present communist regime.

You know Japanese or Korean culture mostly were effected by ancient China.

I know that and you know that, but don't tell the Japanese. They don't like to hear it.:)

And Chinese history and philosophy and sentiment etc. all in the culture. Tt's different between American current culture because Chinese history has thousands years. There is stil a wall between east and west even if it's 21st century now. Actually the gap is in our mind.

I'll certainly agree to that, because American history is measured in 400 years or less, and the Chinese culture has been been around for at least 5000 years. There is a little difference between our historical times.:)

[xJones]

This surprised me, as I didn’t realize the British, French, German, Russian, and Japanese “concessions” were viewed as foreign colonies on Chinese soil.

Google search the Boxer Rebellion of 1895.

[DeaconBenjamin]

I did not believe the Boxers were the majority viewpoint.