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SloggingScotsman
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 2643
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 Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 11:41 am Post subject: China v Britain like Scotland v England |
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Being a Scot I obviously understand some Scots views of England based on history.
I follow a couple of Western bloggers who live in China and unusually for me I replied to one (which really is unusual for me on YouTube) as I tried to get an American to understand that he chose to live, marry, have children, in China so perhaps he should accept the Chinese ways. (He has been getting frustrated recently at changes in China and how China works).
Anyhow I got what I understand is a common sexually explicit response from a Chinese person.
So I asked the Chinese person why me saying that a foreigner in China should respect Chinese ways is a bad thing.
He apologised to me, and explained that even us Brits have done bad things to China, and I am guessing that he is referring to the opium wars et all. But he also said that we Brits tried to ruin the Beijing Olympics.
Now this is a new one on me. Does anyone know what he might be referring to?
I don’t want to push him, but am curious as to why some Chinese people think so badly of Britain.
Gus, anyone, any ideas.
If you want context it is here:
https://youtu.be/iAL_oaWZEqI
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Whisk
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 8558
Location: London
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:09 pm Post subject: Re: China v Britain like Scotland v England |
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| SloggingScotsman wrote: | he also said that we Brits tried to ruin the Beijing Olympics.
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There's obviously some bad blood there because one of the official Chinese news agencies described London 2012 as the worst Games ever last year, despite everyone else hailing it as one of the best.
Maybe they took issue at all of the stories in the UK press about how bad the air quality was in Beijing?
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Pedro Peru
Joined: 19 Apr 2010
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Location: Leeds
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SloggingScotsman
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Thank you both, that may well explain it.
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GrahamO
Joined: 10 Apr 2005
Posts: 10029
Location: United Arab Emirates or an airport
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 2:41 pm Post subject: |
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Nah, it was;
the UK led drugs in sport crusade which has dismissed a lot of records set in Beijing, as well as the London Olympics being viewed as being far superior in every way to the Beijing event.
I recall as well the press in the UK gave China a hard time because the Chinese tried intimidating the press during the event and the UK press was more than vociferous about Chinese not meeting the obligations of the IOC.
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SloggingScotsman
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Again that makes sense, thank you GrahamO.
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explorerJC
Joined: 20 Oct 2005
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SloggingScotsman
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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Again thank you Ejc.
Understanding these sorts of issues is important to me.
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Gus
Joined: 07 Sep 2007
Posts: 2405
Location: Freezing my nads off in Aberdoom
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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Didn't know about the Beijing Olympics...
But my Chinese mate I did ask a couple of months ago what they thought of the Brits generally - 'nothing really' was the response! Primarily because they see us as relatively insignificant in the world now and we don't feature in their horizon (a bit sad, really).
He did say, though, that the Brits were not popular historically in his lifetime because of the Hong Kong thing - colonialism basically. However, he said after the handover there was a famous picture of Prince Charles, sailing away on Britannia looking devastated which, he said, actually made many Chinese suddenly feel very sorry for the UK - the power of a picture...
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SloggingScotsman
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 5:49 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Gus.
As they say a picture says a 1000 words.
Your friend makes a good point though. Sadly we are insignificant nowadays. Our powers that be like to talk ‘big’ but as has been evident over recent months global powers that be don’t value listening to us much. Or even at all!
Hopefully our next generation of politicians have more ‘weight’ behind their words.
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explorerJC
Joined: 20 Oct 2005
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SloggingScotsman
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 8:49 am Post subject: |
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| explorerJC wrote: | | if the objective is hearts and minds, why this continual call for power??? |
ejc, sorry I don’t grasp your question. Can you be more specific?
Offhand if you are asking why I think we need a more powerful voice in the world. If you mean:
1. The EU, that is to help balance the upcoming difficulties between America and China to help avoid global meltdown. Though Russia could also do this.
2. Britain, because we are in a tricky place with few real selling points beyond our experience of having led the world and falling fast. Our experience in the right hands could touch hearts and minds. And like it or not, with a few exceptions, few who can touch hearts and minds do so in their own generation without power (eg Martin Luther King), most it’s through time in later generations (eg Jesus, Leonardo Da Vinci, etc). Some (eg the Current Catholic Pope) can do it, but he has a huge power structure that enhances his words.
3. Scotland, well Scotland routinely touches hears globally right down to pipe bands in local towns globally. But it seems to struggle to project that forwards.
Anyhow Ejc if you let me know precisely what you are thinking of, I will try to give you a precise answer.
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explorerJC
Joined: 20 Oct 2005
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explorerJC
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SloggingScotsman
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 2643
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| Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 9:40 am Post subject: |
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| explorerJC wrote: | | those who genuinely reach hearts and minds don't need power... |
agreed as explained above.
Power, assuming you don’t fall into its traps, ego, greed, etc, can however catapult the ‘energy’ of your words into more hearts.
The ideal place to be, is behind the scenes, while influencing those in power. For then you don’t risk power corrupting you, but equally you have to accept that power could easily corrupt those in power making your advice useless.
This is especially a problem if you prefer form over substance and can’t be seen to fail.
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