Queen's China Gaffe: Beijing Newspaper Calls British Media 'Barbarians'

Speaking as a "Brit", I can only say that much of the British media is indeed run by "barbarians". Racism in the Royal Family is no surprise. The Queen's mother could not bear Jews, and her uncle was a Nazi supporter. Apparently Barack Obama was talking about a meeting with Chinese leaders and Prince Philip (the Queen's husband) said "Can you tell the difference between them?" (Obama said he could).

The below picture is of the British politician and life peer Lord Taylor of Warwick, who comes from Birmingham (England). When Prince Philip met him, he asked “And what exotic part of the world do you come from?”



Prince Philip's remarks are celebrated by some Brits; one that made me laugh and then feel guilty was the time he said "Deaf? If you're near there, no wonder you are deaf." to a group of deaf children standing near a Caribbean steel drum band in 2000.

I definitely didn't laugh about the time he said "If you stay here much longer, you will go home with slitty eyes." to a British student during a visit to China.

Here's another Chinese one...

"If it has four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." Said to a World Wildlife Fund meeting in 1986.

My grandmother was English. She would say, "You don't look any worse than you did 10 years ago." to acquaintances.

She could be cutting and caustic. a very cold woman.

No cookies at her house, for sure. I never remembered her touching me.

You find those in all nationalities. Nothing to do with being "English".

Personally, I am so disgusted at being English, I am going out into the back garden after posting this, and beat myself up with my new border fork.

Oh, the shame.

A story I've told before -
The head of our department of medicine was taking Prince Philip for a tour of our facilities, including my clinical immunology lab. I do mean my, as I was the only person working there. I went to the ladies room and stayed there a bunch of minutes. This was in California.

That involved varied feelings, shyness (this was mid sixties), irishness by me, pomposity displeasure, and they didn't ask me-ness. A lot of us weren't all that keen on the department guy either, so that was probably in there as a component.
Long time ago, and I'm ballsier now, as far as showing up.

On the other hand, I read a long and fairly painful article about Xi Jinping and his treatment of people in various chinese areas. Probably in the New Yorker, probably a couple of years ago. Not nice.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the Chinese officials that the Queen met were rude as ****.

ok..

To this day the Chinese peddle that "middle kingdom" crapola in which they see themselves as the only civilized culture in a sea of barbarian ape-men. I have zero sympathy with a nation whose self-image is based on an institutional rudeness and contempt for others.

However many American white guys do marry Chinese girls, and seem to be happily married. I am conjecturing that the attraction is not just based on their tendency to be petite, with pretty hair, and a willingness to not have the last word in every conversation, but the unconscious feeling amongst males collectively that an Asian wife is the new trophy wife. Be that as it may, at some point the Royals may realize their island nation is populated with many people with a Chinese ancestor. This was predicted when mother nature made us mammals.

You don't own a wooden spoon?

However, in some nationalities one has to look harder to find it. In others, coldness is almost a source of pride. Did you ever see the Chevy Chase movie, European Vacation? They stop at the wrong house and total strangers see them, upon opening the front door, and the German wife says (in German) invite them in, the children look hungry. Now that would not be a reaction in many countries.

Must you cite fiction as if it were a legitimate source?

For a script to ring true for an audience, there has to be a kernal of truth.

1. It's "kernel".
2. I daresay Der Ewige Jude, Jud Süß, Leinen aus Irland and Hitlerjunge Quex "rang true" for a large part of their contemporary audiences.
3. And especially Theresienstadt: der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt

I understand the spelling lesson, but not your German. The fact that a society is only empathetic to certain demographics was also seen in the way England did not have remorse for the Irish when the Enclosure Act forced them to roam the forests. Perhaps, societies cherry pick their kind feelings, and cherry pick their cold feelings? Let's not continue, even though we both speak English. I think we are members of different tribes, so to speak, in a historical manner.

You put forth the notion that if something seen in a fictional creation like a film "rang true" to a viewer, then it must have a "kernel of truth". I presented a number of films which put forth notions which very probably "rang true" to a large segment of their audience at the time they were shown. The idea was to cast doubt on your rather silly assertion. They were films produced in Nazi Germany that were very popular in that country:

Der Ewige Jude "The Eternal Jew" (1940) - The Jews of Poland (invaded by Germany in 1939) are depicted as filthy, evil, corrupt, and intent on world domination. Street scenes are shown prejudicially, along with clips from Jewish cinema of the day and photos of Jewish celebrities, while the narrator "explains" the Jewish problem. The climax and resolution of the film is Hitler's 1939 announcement that the Jewish race will meet its "annihilation" (Vernichtung).

Jud Süß - "The Jew Süss" (1940) a historical costume melodrama - a conniving, ambitious Jewish businessman, Süss Oppenheimer, snares a post as treasurer to the Duke of Wurttemburg by showering the corrupt duke with treasure and promises of even greater riches. As the Jew's schemes grow more elaborate and his actions more brazen, the dukedom nearly erupts into civil war. Persuaded by the Jew, the Duke all but scuttles the constitution and alienates the assembly by lifting the local ban on Jews in Stuttgart. In a final outrage, the Jew rapes a wholesome German girl and tortures her father and fiancée. When the Duke succumbs to a sudden heart attack, the assembly of Elders try the Jew and sentence him to death for having "carnal knowledge of a Christian woman".

Leinen aus Irland "Linen From Ireland" (1939) shows how Jewish textile company owners are sabotaging the German linen industry by buying linen from Ireland instead of having it produced in "the Fatherland". In Bavaria in 1909 a Jewish employee of a textile company begins importing cheaper linen from Ireland, sabotaging local production and threatening many of the workers with unemployment. Eventually his scheme is exposed.

Hitlerjunge Quex "Our Flags Lead Us Forward" (1933) - the story of Heini, a small and not very strong blond boy. His parents live in a poor area of Berlin. His mother is portrayed as a caring and kind woman. His unemployed father, a socialist, is a bitter and unpleasant man. Heini’s father sends him on a weekend’s camp with young communists. During this weekend, Heini meets a group of Hitler Youth and decides he would like to join them. His father reacts violently to this. The Hitler Youth nickname him ‘Quex’ (Mercury) because he volunteers for the most hazardous missions that the Hitler Youth carries out. While distributing Nazi leaflets he is attacked by communist thugs and fatally injured. His last words are the words of a Nazi marching song: “We march for Hitler, through night and dread – the flag means more than being dead.”

Theresienstadt: der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt "The Fuehrer gives the Jews a City" (1944) A film showing how the kind Adolf Hitler has "given" the Jews a city of their own (Theresenstadt, actually a concentration camp). Shows happy smiling well-fed Jews in comfortable homes.

Maybe a more up-to-date example of a film with a "grain of truth" might be Borat?

Those films rang true to the audience since Europeans learned their two-thousand year lesson well from an anti-Semitic Christian Europe. Nothing was new in those films; the kernel of truth came from the centuries of canards that were believed.

I do not know what point(s) you are trying to prove. Like a Jew, I do not proselytize my beliefs. You may believe what you want.

I agree. Look at the plays of Tennessee Williams and any homosexual will
immediately recognize how that "kernal" of truth relates back to him/her.

Likwise, look at the plays of Eugene O"Neil, "Long days journey into night"for example.

Many of the Irish watching the play ( and others) will recognize the depression and addiction to alcohol, found very often in those of Irish descent.

Also, even those who are not Irish or of Irish descent will recognize in the word of O'Neil the seeds of depression and despair that they also have experienced.

Those, who recognize themselves in the words of the play/book/ movie, do so because they know themselves inside-out.