I'm From China!

Asherman,

I admit undiscriminating of "censored" and "biased" is mistaken. Sure, that can't be true! Well maybe I just failed to express my ideas properly. What I chiefly wanted to express is in short thus: You cannot get an all-sided information, even no more than an one-sided from nearly every source in the world.

I totally understand your argument for the powerlessness of U.S. administration in public opinions. That's what I couldn't and what I haven't denied.
What I tried to say is, sometimes, even in the U.S., some general opinion for a country can be created, like that to the government conduct in China. even that's false since no single opinion for a diversified country can ever be true understood as a whole. And at that time even with nearly absolute freedom from the GOVERNMENT, media is not free from that OPINION, that BIASED opinion.
And then what you can only do is to be an empiricist, who only trust himself. That won't cost you a lot of trouble since for instance how the hell some demonstraions or arrestings in China matter for the most Americans? It's just prudence keeping you away from ignorance.

In Short:
I agree nearly all of what you said;
I meant no attack on any specific medium. It's a general malaise and sorry for my no-clean-land pessimism;
My organization of thoughts and choosing of words still suck.

JB,
with sincerity

JB,

You are a valuec correspondent, and I'm always interested in your views. Your use of the English language is sometimes difficult to follow, but then my Mandarin is almost totally forgotten now. English is our best hope of clearly exchanging views, and you generally do well at it.

China and the United States are not the same. Our traditions and culture are very, very different. Our system of representational and Constitutional government has almost no similarity to any Chinese poltitical philosophy that has ever existed. Few Americans have the slightest knowledge of China, Chinese history, philosophy, culture or political structures. I dare say that the percentage of those in the PRC who have any knowlege or understanding of us is just as rare. One of the most promising things I've witnessed in my life has been the opening of personal communications between our two peoples ... and look at how difficult it is for you and I to communicate.

I hope we can continue our discussions for many years to come.
**********************

Though your English is pretty good over all, please take the following advice as intended only to help clarify your writing.

1. In English the simplist sentence construction is: Subject, verb, object; i.e., Chang read a bood; Censorship constrains thought, etc.

2. Short sentences of around 14 words tend to work better than long, involved sentences. Its easy to make grammatical errors in long convoluted sentences. If the sentence is longer, then break it into clauses separated by grammatical marks (commas, colons and semi-colons) and common articles such as, "and", "or", etc.

3. The most readable English writing avoids the use of many fancy vocabulary. Simple words with only a few meanings are preferable to words that have highly specialized, or multiple meanings. Complex vocabularies are essential for highly technical writing, but can sometimes obscure simple, straight forward communication.
******************************

Are there any books, or other materials, that we might have access to that could be sent to you without raising flags with the authorities, and ....... censors? If we can be of any help to you, don't hesitate mentioning it to me.

Asherman,

I'm grateful for your very useful advice. That might be the most noticeable problem with my English for the time being. In a narrow sense, that will also help me a lot in the near future, since I am seriously preparing for American college, for which essay-writing play a significant role during the admission. I will address that problem.



I haven't yet dared to buy the books with the titles "Declassified Tiananmen", or "Other Side of Deng" etc, but surely, I have quite amount of freedom do buy books and materials from overseas. See what are on my bookshelves: Stephen King, J.R.R Tolkien, Iliad, Odyssey, Aenead, Shakespeare, Nostradamus, Plato, Jack London, Kafka, Agatha Christie, Utopia. Most of them were 1-dollar-secondhand from Abe. There are also one King James Bible and a collection of American declaration of independance, American Constitution and Amendments, which I bought from "Jiangsu Province Foreign Language Bookstore". Moreover, there are 1 year of Newsweek, half year of Time, 1 year of Reader's Digest, which I either subscribed from Hongkong, or bought from a Shanghai-based trade company (though, hehe, under the name of "foreign citizen"). And also my favourite: National Geographic.

So, you see, China is not that less globalized and free than other world!

Thank you anyway, and your kind help may be needed one day.



Moi aussi.
And I hope we will soon discuss in an smoother manner

JB

That last post was MUCH easier to read, and your meaning was clear throughout.

American college? Being permitted to study abroad must be quite a privilege. Which college do you hope to attend? What would you like to study here? It is useful to do a lot of writing (in English, of course) in preparation for essay type questions. You can, If you like, send writing examples to me personally for review, correction and suggestion. I'll give my Email address to you in a personal message at this site, if that will help.

Your bookshelf contains important writing for anyone preparing for college. Plato, Homer and Virgil are an important part of our traditional literature translated from Greek and Latin. Copies of the Bible and selected American documents should be helpful in understanding the American political system/scene, and the religious background that obsesses so many of our people. Our language has been strongly influenced by the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible. Quotes and allusions to Shakespeare and the Bible can often be found in even the speech of the relatively uneducated. Tolkien, Kafka, London, Christy and King have all been popular reading here. Steven King is a master of modern English composition, and you might want to emulate his writing style which is very pleasant, easy to read and understand.

One of my Chinese favorites is the Water Margin. I understand that the Water Margin was also one of Mao's favorites and that he carried it with him on the Long March. Have you read the Water Margin? Most of my Chinese books, however, were either modern text books/pamphlets used to help us understand China's modern history and politics, or the classics ... Confucian and Taoist writers, of course. Back when I was studying Chinese and China, my principle interest was the growth of Buddhism during the 5th century CE.

If you will be traveling through New Mexico, please consider stopping here for a few days rest and visit. We'd love to show you a bit of New Mexico, and believe you might find a visit to the Pueblo Indian village of Acoma fascinating. A2K members here (Bumblebee, Dyslexia, Diane, Foxfire, Ossobusco, and Butterfly) would love to meet you, and share a meal. We have plenty of room, even if you are not traveling alone, and your visit should cost virtually nothing.

If J-B drops in from China, Roger could surely make it from Farmington.

There's no absolute freedom in the world.

Nonetheless, everyone doesn't have the opportunity to publish his(her) views even in the most "democratic country". That is what I call "the truth".

And I don't know as far as I can experience any instance of being imprisonment only for going online and correspond with foreigners. So no comments.

What can't be done in China is clearly written in the Constitute, which is the common sense of the people as a whole, if you know China better. Nothing beyond that is prohibited. So there is not such a "code" if you agree democracy should be practised under the law. And the law should be one of the criterias must be meet by any "democratic goverment". Our constitution embodies the idea that each individual is capable of making their own decisions in a responsible way. It collects ideas and extracts a solution for our country. And it is amended whenever necessary.

By the way, my friends, would you please answer the question I posted in the English forum? Thank you.

My friend,

I think, if you approach this issue on the constitutional level you are just doomed to fail.
Some questions need your attention:
1. Who made the constitution?
2. Who is going to amend the constitution?
3. Who is going to execute the constitution?
4. Who is making principles which are embodied in the constitution?
5. If the central government violates constitution, for so-called "national security" or other "acts violating constitution", who is going to question, examine, investigate this? And, ultimately, is that possible? Is it possible for lonely individual to question and confront the giant power of state, even state is wrong?

In China, constitution is still contradiction.

But raising these questions I am not saying that this system should be changed. On the contrary, it shouldn't be for the time being. Just as I meant before, China's developement could be seriously damaged, and her problems could be even worse.
All we need now is balance, a flexible administrative idea, and a good sense to find truely right way and compromises.
But, anyway, arguing issue from the point of view "how well we have done" is simply not O.K.

"No absolute freedom"? True. But there are always supplements to make sense in this argument: Some have greater freedom than others; Some have freedom incompatible with what they should have, etc.

Fortunately, I have sensed many optimistic signs concerning democracy in China, everywhere experiments are being carried out, everywhere young people's voices are being voiced and heard. And I don't think samething like 1989 will happen again. Because situation is just so different.

Within years, something significant will happen to this great country, even to the whole world. And we have to ensure this must come peacefully and contructively. Because otherwise, it will be just unthinkable.

I wish I could stand in that "something", and act my part.

JB

your questin in English Forum... That you should understand it requires a really sweet and patient member to do that...wait, don't be discouraged.

btw, great grand-son is the son of grand-son

I'm not so pessimistic. The Constitution is made by NPC, its members are elected by ordinary persons just like you and me. Certainly the system is not so perfect, but it's improving in a very rapid speed.



How to measure the freedom you get is another controversial thing.


This is true, and the members of CPPCC is commercing online hearings which could reach the people more widely.




Nice perspective and I appreciate you.

By the way, thank you for responding to my by-the-way words.