Hiding in Words

On the website of the Government of Sichuan Province, where a ruthless great earthquake happened on May 12, there used to be a piece of news saying that a local government of Ngawa Prefecture (阿坝州, near the epicenter of this big quake) successfully tracked and stopped the rumor in Barkam County (马尔康县) that “There would be an earthquake in the coming days.”

After the earthquake, heated debate aroused around the early signs and predictions of the earthquake. And this news, was quietly removed from the government website.

I wrote a posting on my Chinese blog quoting the tracking of “rumors”, and was ordered to be deleted by the Web police.

There has been signs of “uncensored” reporting and more space of free speech right after the earthquake happened. And the modern communication technologies such as the Internet and text messages helped a lot in the enhancement of the space of free speech. And the government and government-backed “mouthpieces” were really swift in responding to the catastrophe.

And quickly, the Propaganda Section of “the” Party followed in to restrict the media the second day. A friend of mine works at a renowned newspaper in Southern China, and he said, he “saw the photocopy of the document ordering to stop independent reportage and to quote ‘the truth’.”

Now, on China’s TV, you can only see a lot of information. But the highlight is on high-officials like Wen speaking slowly on getting “complete success in the relief effort” (and Hu talks even slower than Mr. Wen, the Premier), despite the innumerable deaths lying quietly in the debris. Like the government media have done in every natural and man-made disaster, every effort and every success are interpreted as the result of sticking to the party-line.

In China, there are 56 (this number is disputed by some) officially recognized ethnic groups, or nationalities in the government vocabulary. You can hardly state the country is a “nation state”. However the majority of the population is Han people; and many of them are totally unaware of the existence of other ethnic groups.

In the Chinese language (which is actually the language of Han people, the ethnic majority), the language is known as 汉语 (language of Han people) or 中文 (language of China). 中文 is the more preferred word in most cases, and 汉语 is generally used when then other ethnic groups in China are mentioned in the context. In this sense, the language of the ethnic majority is understood to be the language of the whole country, and naturally, the existence of other languages and cultures on the same territory are forgotten. In Japanese and Korean languages, similar unawareness also exists. The language of Han Chinese is called 中國語 (language of China), suggesting this language is the one and only language that is spoken in China. The good news is the media are more aware about the cultural diversity in China after recent Tibetan protest (in some cases violence), although this is largely due to the ethnical conflict nature of the series of protests. For example, in the coverage of CNN and French magazine Le Point, ethnicities of Han, Hui and Tibetan are especially noted.

A friend of mine is of Mongolian origins. She had some difficulty in introducing herself to foreigners: apparently she looks Chinese. Being raised in the city, she is quite modernized and she largely thinks, lives and does everything the same way other people do (most of them Han Chinese). Most Mongolian people who grow up in the city don’t speak Mongolian any more. I believe other ethnic minorities would have similar sad language transition as well.

The government policy to keep everyone equal is setting up autonomous regions. The government and many other people think this is a good idea to preserve cultural diversity and protect ethnic minorities. Ironically, Indian reservations in the United States are interpreted as restriction over the freedom of Native Americans by Chinese government. In the five autonomous regions and many other autonomous cities and towns in China, languages of the ethnic groups other than Han are used equally in government agencies and courts. Education for minority ethnic groups is given in their languages. In the street, signs and shop advertising are made bilingual. But this equality between cultures is only made available in those autonomous regions (mostly poor and underdeveloped) and not in other area in China.

To make a real equality between ethnic groups, it would be ideal that all the attempts of ethnic equality are made in all places in China. When a Tibetan or Mongolian needs public service in a mostly-Han area, he or she should be given language service and be treated equally, and vice versa. The “vice versa” thing is really not kidding. I know in many minor crimes, ethnic minorities would be less punished than Han Chinese.

The biggest problem is that the Chinese government is cocky about the GDP it achieved by raising land price and totally indifference about equality of ethnic groups, respecting different religions and freedom of the Chinese people (including ethnic minorities and Han Chinese).