Plum Blossoms

When I read this Simon World entry about the blogging ideological divide, it got me thinking about why my transformation occurred. It's fair to say that, to some extent, the people I read who blog on China affairs or Asian affairs in general have a few common beliefs:

• The PRC Communist government is bad. It abuses human rights and engages in press censorship.

• On the other hand, it is not the big evil monster some like to portray. Things are, arguably, better on the mainland than they have been in decades.

• Hong Kong's government has been pretty crappy. Tung isn't that great of an administrator. The government has lacked leadership and taking the easy way out of things hasn't worked for them. Plus there's all those mainland fingerprints all over everything political in Hong Kong.

• The pro-Beijing groups in Hong Kong are all brown-nosers.

• The pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong may have benevolent intentions, but are dumber than bricks. Their lack of political sense is arguably a factor in the slow if existent progress toward democracy in Hong Kong. People like Albert Cheng and Long Hair are probably not good role models.

• Opinions on Taiwan are a bit broader, but suffice it to say that the average opinion is more moderate than the more extreme North American conservative views, who are very much in favour of clear support for the A-Bian administration, if not independence itself. Most commentary in North America treat Taiwan as a separate nation; most Sino-blogs either acknowledge a grey zone or at least recognizes the Chinese cultural character of Taiwan, if not the political.

I think that's a pretty specific set of opinions. It doesn't include things like Tibet, China's foreign affairs, or Sino-Japanese relations, because I think there's a larger degree of difference of opinion on these matters. But there's a certain degree of common ground. The thing about that common ground, though, is that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to pigeonhole using North American left/right categorizations.

And that is perhaps what's at the root of my own changes. To discuss affairs relating to Canada, the United States, and to some extent, the world at large, would be adding one drop into what is now a very big bucket. I have a certain set of values that many would call “conservative” or “right-wing,” and when faced with pretty much the same news sources as Instapundit or Belmont Club, the conclusions we come to will be somewhat similar.

After the US Presidential elections last year, I think I hit burnout: there was a whole lot of politics happening, and it was too much and inconsequential to keep up with it all. Explaining just how impressive was the scale of President Bush's victory against the detractors was an important task and I did it with enthusiasm. But the appeal of politics on this side of the Pacific dwindled, as the topics became more mundane and the sheer stupidity of it was too much to handle.

For example, I've yet to comment on the Terri Schiavo case, because I wasn't sure whether I should support the group of people who were willing to rally behind a man whose moral case for being Terri's caretaker was riddled with holes, or the group of people who ran over all sense of restraint in holding back the coercive power of the state.

But on the topic of what's happening in China at large, I have seen and read a lot more than many people in North America. A lot of stuff gets lost in the translation, if it ever gets translated at all. And while my voice agrees somewhat with the common ground mentioned above, it still has many independent opinions, and it being a smaller crowd, my voice is relatively louder.

And let's face it, I'm a patriot. There's something that's being filled in my heart when I write about what I affectionately call the motherland. That is why, though, I feel extremely uncomfortable when Glenn Reynolds (via Simon) writes such things as:

If I were the Taiwanese, I'd be looking to buy nuclear weapons from North Korea . . . .

Macchiavellian plan: Give nukes to Taiwan. Have Taiwan explode one in the Pacific as a "test." Have Taiwan announce that it got them from North Korea and Iran and will acquire more. Watch China deal with both countries . . . .

It's likely that he writes in jest, but as Simon wrote in response, “what worries me are those who read and think it a good idea.”

I don't believe that I've lost the values and beliefs that got me to this point. Old Glory still hangs from my bedroom window, capitalism still works a whole lot better than the alternatives, the war in Iraq is worth it, and hippies still stink. But a lot of people can tell you about these things, in much more eloquent and intelligent ways than I can. But there's a whole lot of things where I still feel I can make a difference.

Plus Asia's Instapundit is still free enough to reply to my e-mails.

I'll end with some links to blogs about China, most of which are already on the blogroll (or will be after this), but worth re-iterating:

• Simon World
  There are good reasons why I almost always start my day here.

• EastSouthWestNorth Blog
  A treasure trove of Chinese media tidbits gets their fair English spotlight here. Sure there are the ideological differences, but I can live with it.

• Angry Chinese Blogger
  Emphasizes the mainland, and shows to the world how irrational Chinese people act sometimes.

• Peking Duck
  Ideologically I don't agree with him much, but I can't argue with quality.

• Danwei
  Culture, politics, random silliness, you name it: if it's happening in the mainland, it'll be covered.

• Chatter Garden
  A Hong Kong group blog project by journalism students at the University of Hong Kong. Doesn't post as often, but their efforts should be supported.

• betterdays
  Cool cultural snapshots of China. Plus it's the first Asian weblog that I knew linked to me. :)