If you want to Free anyone in Tibet, you need to know something about China’s diversity….

United Nations for Free Tibet (UNFFT) forum discussion inspired me to write this. Over the years I have noticed certain types of posting that usually starts with “The chinese are….” followed by  conjectures (at times very interesting & informed) about what the “Chinese” are like.

Inviting all Activists to understand a wider context without compromising your mission!

There is  a divine opportunity to capitalise on China’s diversity in your Lobbying effort! Don’t waste it on speculations!

Don’t  ignore  diversity of  opinions within a 1.6 billion population and believe in generalisations  such as,”Oh, the chinese don’t  think for themselves and are just agreeing with their governments like sheep?”

This month alone, many  from Canton province in China,  had to defend  “ALL Indigenous dialects & cultures” from erosion by Top-down Central Beijing government education policies, imposing its own special version of Simplified chinese ( Pinyin) and its preferred  dialects  ( Putonghua).

Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Yearly Demonstration

For those wishing to protect the Tibetan language & culture from being absorbed, please consider that over 400 chinese language dialects are under threat in 2010. Canton is under a cloud of discontent because Hong Kong TV channel’s subsidiary Canton TVB started to broadcast  higher % of its content in Putonghua and not in Cantonese!

This is a  YouTube video of the protest about ” Beijing’s intolerance for linguistic/dialectic & cultural diversity” in the Southern & Richest province of Canton! People are Passionate about their Rights!

Bone Script is the start of Traditional chinese script (1700B.C)

Cantonese is in fact one of the oldest dialect of Chinese and the original written dialect for 99% of ancient chinese scriptures, poetry & treatises (including the famous Sun Tze’s Art of War & Peace).  Even Northern scholars whose mother tongue are Mandarin must learn Cantonese or some other Southern 9 tones dialect of chinese to fully appreciate 3000 years of chinese literature!

To suppress  the Cantonese  language  is effectively censoring people like Dr Sun Yat Sen, along with many Hong kong based Pro-democracy lobbyists trying to get the right to a democratic election for the 7 mil Cantonese speakers in Hong kong!

The father of Modern China, Doctor Sun Yat Sen  actually wanted Democratic processes for China(away from the Manchu Northern Emperor & Dynastic system). He was a  Southerner whose native dialect was Cantonese.  This is a rare footage of Dr Sun’s speech for a modern china, recorded in Shanghai, spoken in Cantonese in 1924 talking about the ways to Save China from Internal & External oppressions (there is no subtitles, but you get the gist of the sound of the spoken language):

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Hong kong citizens take to the streets of Hong kong to demand our Right to Vote!

Think what it will mean for Tibet SAR,  if Hong kong (China’s Golden Goose) SAR & its demographically Richest area, Canton cross-fire on the Central Government’s problematic policies ?  Of course, this is purely a Machiavellian approach, the end in the long run is for Democracy ! Hong kong is fighting for that every day since 1997!

Consider opening a Tibetan-Chinese dialogue for Freedom like this one? (Chinese-Tibetan youths meet )

The “chinese” did not  get a cultural continuity of 5000 years by sheepishly waiting for the wolves!

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