【英国 Spiked 北京2008系列 之一】西藏热衷者不会给西藏自由
【英国 Spiked 北京2008系列 之一】为什么西藏事务热衷者不会给西藏以自由[float=right][attach]66522[/attach][/float]【标题】Why Tibetophilia won't set Tibet free 为什么西藏事务热衷者不会给西藏以自由]]k C Ueq
【来源】[url=http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4852/]http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4852/[/url]
【翻译】dakelv"OoPSP5F6`%t
【声明】[color=red]本文翻译仅限Anti-CNN使用,谢绝转载。[/color]
[color=red][color=#000000]【译注】本文是Spike Online 的 “2008北京:挑战对中国的污蔑”系列文章之一。全系列一共有二十篇文章。[/color][/color]
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[color=Black]【原文】[/color][/color][size=4][/size][size=2][font=Verdana][size=4][b]Why Tibetophilia won’t set Tibet free[/b][/size]
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[/font][/size][size=2][font=Verdana]Brendan O'Neill[/font]
[font=Verdana]Westernpro-Tibet campaigning is driven less by a passion for freedom, than bydisgust with modernity - and a view of the Chinese as ‘subhuman’.[/font][/size][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][b]‘Tibet, Tibet!’ With those two words (well, one word repeated),Bjork caused a storm of controversy at her concert in Shanghai lastweek. The Icelandic warbler has joined a long list of celebrities,commentators and sportsmen who plan to use the platform provided by theBeijing Olympics to protest against China’s occupation of Tibet.[/b][/size][/font]
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[font=Verdana][size=2]If Bjork’s squealing of the T-word is anything to go by, these protestswill confirm what lies behind the adoption of the Tibetan cause by manyin the West today: not a passion for freedom, but a distaste formodernity. Tibetophilia is driven less by solidarity with Tibetans thanby disdain for the old ‘yellow peril’ - the Chinese - who are seen astoo modern, too calculating and too materialistic.[/size][/font]
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[font=Verdana][size=2]The people of Tibet, like the people of China itself, should be freeto determine their own destinies and affairs. They need democracy andfull and unfettered freedom of speech, rather than to be controlled and‘looked after’ by China’s authoritarian Stalinist regime (1). However,anyone who wants, truly, to see more freedom in both Tibet and Chinashould steer clear of the celebrity-fronted, Prince Charles-endorsedpro-Tibet lobby - for, ironically, this campaign is underpinned by itsown deeply patronising, borderline colonialist view of Tibetans asinnocent, child-like creatures, and by a desire to preserve Tibet as apure, green, mystical land for the benefit of wealthy Westernersdisillusioned by Western modernity. }]0T1uMhKf
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[/size][font=Verdana][size=2]Pro-Tibet campaigners seem always to be outraged by two things inparticular: China’s incessant modernisation of Tibet, and its refusalto allow the Dalai Lama to return and assume his ‘rightful’ position asTibet’s leader. 3tfY-YSI'h*i,B{#V
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[font=Verdana][size=2]Currently, pro-Tibet activists are particularly agitated by China’sconstruction of the Gormo-Lhasa railway, a spectacularly ambitiousproject that will allow trains to run from the heart of China intoTibet. They claim the railway will damage Tibet’s environment and ‘wipeout Tibetan identity and culture altogether’ (2). They also campaignfor China to engage in direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama, currentlyliving in exile in India, and to recognise him as the ‘spiritualleader’ of the Tibetan people (3). [/size][/font]WY BG-L6Mr,O
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[font=Verdana][size=2]These two aspects of pro-Tibet campaigning show what lies behindTibetophilia. First there is the desire to save Tibet from anythingthat looks or smells modern: from Chinese jobs, industry, railways.Apparently such things are a threat to Tibetans’ ‘way of life’, whichis honourably simple, rustic and rural. This paternalistic defence ofnatural and childlike Tibet from rampant, industrious China isperfectly captured in a poster made by the British campaign group FreeTibet. It asks ‘Whose side are you on?’, and shows on one side aChinese official sitting in a train, surrounded by modern weaponry andpumping out grey smog into the environment, and on the other side,wise-faced Tibetans in traditional dress surrounded by their happy,leaping farm animals. (See the poster [url=http://www.freetibet.org/campaigns/railway/postcardgw.pdf]here[/url]
(pdf): notice how the Chinese official and his troops have distinctlyyellow skin, goofy teeth and slitty eyes, while the Tibetans haveeither pale or brown skin and wear serene expressions. Even in trendy,PC campaigns, it seems, yellow skin tone is used to denote ‘BadEasterners’.) The message of the poster is clear: China is modern, andthus wicked, and Tibet must be protected from anything so new-fangledas railways or factories. [/size][/font]L yp{/X"D_
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[font=Verdana][size=2]Atthe same time, campaigners’ unquestioning support for the Dalai Lamasuggests they see Tibetans as an immature people who need a godlikefigure to lead them. The Dalai Lama was never elected by anybody;rather, in a process that makes Britain’s House of Lords seem almostmodern and democratic (I said almost), he was handpicked by a tiny sectof monks who believed that he represents one of innumerableincarnations of the Buddhist entity [i]Avalokitesvara[/i].
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