I'm certainly glad we don't blow things out of proportion on the BBS. he he he On this poster, this is the equivalent of collecting old "Red Scare" posters from 1950's America. Here we call it Americana and it is highly collectible. In fact, a lot of black people collect old segregation signs; "Whites Only" and the like, as well as slave-era documents, signs and artifacts. Lots of cultures collect memorabilia and propoganda from their country's past. It is very common.
Actually that poster most likely belongs to an American. They use a CNN executive's bedroom as studio.
Well, the Chinese might be embarrassed about the poster now, but they've gotten pretty rich playing hardball with America while people in Latin America and Africa still work for one or two dollars a day making clothes for Kathy Lee Gifford and paying off debts to the American banking system. As Billy Kwan said in "The Year of Living Dangerously", "Maybe the white man no longer has anything to teach us." Except how to run the triangle offense.
I dont think a big deal should be made of this at all. When I taught English in Lithuania (formally occupeid by Soviet Union until early 1990s) with the Peace Corps, one English text book they had there (left over from soviet occupation) actually mentioned the Peace Corps as being nothing but a bunch of capitalist spies. They only continued to use those books until they could afford modern ones. I wasnt offended at all. I thought it was pretty funny. Besides, being a spy for America sounded a lot cooler than being an english teacher. Anyway, my students knew I wasnt a spy. The book didnt reflect what the people were thinking. So, the fact that some photographer happened to catch Yao with one of these posters doesnt mean anything at all. It doesnt necessarily reflect his ideals. It just means he and the old poster happened to be in the same place at the same time.
I bought the Houston Chronicle early June 27th, 2002 with this picture on the front page of the sports section. This will be a true collectors edition. Anybody else get as lucky as I?
