Welcome to all of our new international friends. Good to see that we have love for the rocks all across the world.
Wow. Welcome windandsea. I thought this was a great thread until I read this...it may now be my all-time favorite. What you did in 1989 was spectacular. Impressed the World.
here's a good site for translating chinese to english and vice versa... http://babelfish.altavista.com/
Not to turn this too overtly political, nor to detract from what the idealistic students (of whom windandsea might be one) tried to achieve at Tiananmen... ... but speaking as a Chinese citizen myself, many of "us" have different interpretations of what happened on June 4th than many of "you" (meaning Western citizens).
How, might I ask, would you characterise those 'different interpretations'? Also, while I agree with your desire to not to make this a political thread, I wonder how you think the average Chineese individual might react to the general concern by many Americans about what we would call 'an opressive regime'. Again I agree that this should not be a political thread but, I have to say, your statements have given me much to contimplate. Perhaps a new thread in the BBS Hangout would be an appropriate place for such discussions?
I'm a newbie, so I'll let you guys decide if/when it's appropriate to throw a new thread out there. Let me just say speaking to any one Chinese about his perspectives on government/life is no different than asking any one American; his viewpoints are not necessarily representative. A 50 year old from Shanghai will have very different opinions from a 15 year old from the backwoods of Yunnan... just as a 50 year old from Texas will have very different opinions from a 15 year old growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Just to recap really quickly a "popular" view amongst most Chinese today: - There is little doubt that the students at Tiananmen were the best and brightest, and that they were working for the interests of China according to their ideals and principles. And that every single one dead is a loss for the nation. - But, there's also little doubt they were *young* and *idealistic*. China had gone through that route 20 years previously during the Cultural Revolution. The students at Tiananmen were welcomed in the West because they happened to use terms popular here (democracy, freedom)... but the Red Guards 20 years prior were equally idealistic and used great-sounding terms of their own (equality, utopian society), and they managed to drag China into a decade of madness. The action at Tiananmen isn't seen as the repression of students seeking democracy and freedom, but repression of political extremism. The path of development in China is already obvious, and it's very close to what the students wanted... but it's this slower pace that the rest of society can accept. - The PLA ultimately pulled the trigger. But the student movement had been taken over by extremists, and they were not going to go away until they had either forced the PLA to take action or overthrown the government... despite serious CCP pledges to look at their agenda for reform. And their supporters (mostly non-students) were behind equally brutal acts of violence on the night of 6/4... disarming, and eventually disemboweling and burning PLA soldiers. - The Chinese Communist Party is like a cast around a broken limb. It is "oppressive", and sometimes it is itchy where healing is starting to occur. But most Chinese recognizes CCP-rule and the current status of the PRC as stable and comfortable. The CCP will remain in place while the nation grows richer and stronger, and civil institutions (rule of law, increased education) develop. And if/when it's safe, then China can get rid of authoritarian rule and look elsewhere. For now, it's the best of a bad situation that the Chinese Communist Party inherited. I don't believe China is ready to implement wide-scale democracy when the average level of education is junior high level, 3% of the population are college graduates, the lawyer per capita ratio is 1/50th that of the United States.... Those are my feelings. I have no idea if Yao Ming shares them.
I don't want to think, or talk about the politics again. This is a bball board, right? I am gald to find that more and more Chinese fans join this community. This thread has neen reviewed over 2200 times in one day. This BBS is very good, and it will attract more people. But the bottomline is: draft Ming. Let's talk something else. I heard that Chinese had found some 14 years old, 7 feet boys with bball talent. They are accepting strick training at basketball schools. A few of them are regarded the future superstars in NBA.. If this is true, do your guys want to wait for another eight years to draft one of them? Don't wait and draft Ming. Then the Rockets will never have the chance to be in the lottery. They will be at the playoff every year.
windandsea and heech. Welcome to the bbs. Did you know there is a parallel board, the hangout board, where we often discuss politics. I personally would enjoy your input on the political situation in China and politics in general, especially if you did it on the hangout board.
Let's just do this... there are several existing places where you can discuss Chinese politics in detail, often with severely dissenting opinions: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn ... has an English-language forum where many average mainlanders show up now and then. http://www.deja.com ... and go to the newsgroup soc.culture.china.
