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Tibet: The Shangri-La that exists only in the West’s imagination
By Kevin Deluca
Article Last Updated: 09/01/2008 11:33:21 PM MDT

With the Olympics over, I hope the Western sport of bashing China over Tibet might stop.
Working in Beijing during the Tibet riots and the preparations for the Olympics gave me a unique perspective. Growing up with Western media and Hollywood, I am used to our embrace of the Dalai Lama. Being in China, I saw the Chinese point of view.
Seeing both sides suggests the need to abandon simplistic political stances in favor of some self-reflection and historical context.
Although we should criticize China’s censored media, the Tibet riots revealed some troubling blindness among our own media. While the causes of Tibetan unrest are complex, it is clear that the March riots were started by Tibetan protesters and that they were quite violent. Indeed, they were violent enough to lead the Dalai Lama to threaten resignation if his followers did not stop the violence.
Since "violent Tibetan" does not fit our stereotype, our media fixed the news. While Chinese media showed extensive footage of violence and interviews with Chinese and Tibetan victims, Western media manipulated images and even showed footage from other countries (Nepal and India) in order to paint a picture of ruthless oppression by China’s government.
Chinese media exposed the Western media manipulations, forcing the BBC, N-TV and RTL-TV to apologize. Not surprisingly, the American media has yet to acknowledge
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its bending of the truth. The point is that while the Chinese know their media is censored and do not trust it, we believe our news is objective and end up being righteous while misinformed.
If we had seen the violence of the Tibet riots, our condemnations may be more nuanced. Quite simply, no government, democratic or not, allows such violence within its own borders. Providing peace and stability, even by force if necessary, is what governments do.
Large and powerful countries tend to have regions that were not always part of the country. In America, we proudly call it Manifest Destiny and never trouble ourselves with how we got much of California and Texas from Mexico, never mind the rest of the country and our sordid history with Native Americans.
On the Chinese flag there are five stars commonly interpreted as representing the five major ethnic groups in China. One of those stars represents Tibetans. China’s claim to Tibet spans centuries and it is a claim that the United States and the rest of the world recognizes.
To Chinese people, removing one of those stars is akin to removing one of our states, such as Hawaii. Our history with the native people of Hawaii has been relatively brief and quite brutal and there exists a tenacious independence movement. Still, there is no talk in the mainstream media and among the Hollywood celebrity activist circuit of Hawaiian independence, not to mention Puerto Rican independence or the American Indian movement.
Government repression of these movements also escapes media scrutiny. Before we lecture China, we may want to tend to our own backyard.
Amid cries of "free Tibet" and calls for religious freedom, the question is what does freedom have to do with Tibet? Under the Dalai Lama, was there religious freedom? Was there any freedom? Actually, no.
We would recognize the Dalai Lama’s Tibet as a medieval religious theocracy with a small elite class served by a large and oppressed serf population. The Dalai Lama ruled a region with no religious freedom, no political freedom, indeed, no human rights of any kind. The rulers were ruthless. Torture and mutilation were widespread. Poverty and starvation were rampant. It was Shangri-La only in the West’s imagination.
Richard Gere, Sharon Stone and other Hollywood devotees may be surprised at their idol’s current positions. The Dalai Lama condemns abortion and homosexuality while accepting prostitution. For decades the Dalai Lama secured millions of dollars from the CIA and runs his government in exile like a monarch.
Despite its shortcomings, Chinese rule has provided the Tibetan region with infrastructure and public schooling and provides Tibetans with widespread opportunities and a degree of personal freedom unheard of under the feudal theocracy of the dalai lamas.
China is far from perfect and deserves honest scrutiny and criticism. To expect China not to act like a large and powerful country, however, and to throw stones from our glass house, proves nothing but our own ignorance.
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* KEVIN DELUCA is an associate professor of communications at the University of Utah and author of "Image Politics."

WHY ARE YOU HERE SPREADING YOUR COMMUNIST LIES! THE DALAI LAMA IS FOR PEACE NOT WITH WHAT YOU SAY... Can someone just ban this guy and block him from posting his crap?

Long Live His Holiness!

you idoit. this is the capitalist lies ! published in the salt lake tribune.

CA_Teddy wrote:
WHY ARE YOU HERE SPREADING YOUR COMMUNIST LIES! THE DALAI LAMA IS FOR PEACE NOT WITH WHAT YOU SAY... Can someone just ban this guy and block him from posting his crap?



Long Live His Holiness!

Dude he was posting a damn article? Can you read? Please, do everyone a favor and calm down.

It’s quite clear he was posting the article so we could discuss it.

And stop typing in all caps. Just stop.

Peace profound.

Well... I am new to this group today, and just becoming aware of, and exploring the Tibetan situation. In any disagreement there are always two sides, and the truth almost always lies somewhere in the middle.
As much flak as he gets over this, I am thankful to Andy and his many posts for providing another side to this discussion. It is important that we question and challenge all the information we receive, and not simply accept it blindly as fact.
Things that are true and right will stand up to the test.
Even here in America, it would be far too simple to piece together some isolated incidences of police brutality... including those perpetrated upon relatively peaceful protesters, take them out of their context, and piece them together into a film ’documenting’ our human rights violations. Guantanemo Bay alone is a splinter in our eye that must be removed before we are able to see clearly to remove the beam from our brothers eye.
Part of the Judicial process that helps make this country great, is that it allows a thorough presentation of facts and evidence by both sides before a decision is made. This group, were it not for people like Andy presenting an alternative veiw, would be something so much less.
I, for my part, am glad that he is here to stimulate my brain into thinking and exploring beyond the surface of this situation.

Yoga Punk wrote:
Well... I am new to this group today, and just becoming aware of, and exploring the Tibetan situation. In any disagreement there are always two sides, and the truth almost always lies somewhere in the middle.

As much flak as he gets over this, I am thankful to Andy and his many posts for providing another side to this discussion. It is important that we question and challenge all the information we receive, and not simply accept it blindly as fact.

Things that are true and right will stand up to the test.

Even here in America, it would be far too simple to piece together some isolated incidences of police brutality... including those perpetrated upon relatively peaceful protesters, take them out of their context, and piece them together into a film ’documenting’ our human rights violations. Guantanemo Bay alone is a splinter in our eye that must be removed before we are able to see clearly to remove the beam from our brothers eye.

Part of the Judicial process that helps make this country great, is that it allows a thorough presentation of facts and evidence by both sides before a decision is made. This group, were it not for people like Andy presenting an alternative veiw, would be something so much less.

I, for my part, am glad that he is here to stimulate my brain into thinking and exploring beyond the surface of this situation.

Bump

I’m ready to believe just about anything negative about the Western media. But for all the blatant manipulation of facts the Western media has practiced for decades on just about everything, not just Tibet, I wouldn’t lose sight of the fact that China’s occupation of Tibet and it’s treatment of the people there doesn’t require a lot of exageration. The current Chinese government is the tail end of a regime that has killed tens of millions of people. Next to them, Hitler and the Nazis were amatuers. If you look closely enough, yes, you will find that the Tibetans aren’t walking saints, their history is nothing particularly glorious, they are not a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, but after decades under a regime that seems intent on wiping out their culture, I don’t hold it against them for becoming violent. Who wouldn’t in their circumstances? Craig.