I have a friend, Global Expert, here at our University who is more of an expert than I am on things related global affairs. Global Expert is particularly expert in things related to China. Global Expert was telling me this story and I wanted to share it with you. Global Expert was kind enough to write the following post:
I had a very educational conversation with a good woman recently and I want to share what I learned. This woman has been teaching English in China for a full two years. We met on the campus of the university in China where she was teaching.
She shared with me that there was an undercurrent of anti-American sentiment in China. This surprised me. I was not surprised to find anti-American sentiment overseas: everyone is jealous of our freedoms and they express it in various ways. It surprised me because I expected this woman to be among the last people toward whom anti-American sentiment would be expressed. This shows how bad the situation has become.
Let me tell you a bit more about this woman. Even though she knew no Chinese when she went there, she had such a heart for the Chinese that she went to teach them English. After two years, she had never asked for anything in return, except her pay and housing. She only gave. She never asked anyone to teach her any Chinese. She didn’t bother Chinese people socially, either: she only associated with other foreign professors. She never presumed on their hospitality. In her two years there, she had never entered the home of a Chinese family. She was there to give, not to receive. She taught them English through a curriculum that also included exposure to American culture, capitalism, and (secretly) conservative evangelicalism. I have rarely seen this kind of love for a group of people who have only hate in return.
You would think that this woman would get nothing but appreciation and admiration from the Chinese. Yet, even she picked up on the anti-American sentiment.
I asked her to tell me the details: how did this anti-Americanism expressed itself. She answered me in a somewhat hushed tone (even though I was the only person around who spoke English) that I should have someone translate the inscription on the recently-constructed monument on campus.
I was in China with a Christian group so I had some trouble finding anyone who spoke Chinese but I did manage.
The inscription was about the history of democracy and “justice” movements among students at the university. (You’ll see why I have “justice” in quotes in a moment.) It summarized several examples of demonstrations and other activities that students there had organized and participated in.
One of the examples was during the 1940s when the US had people stationed in China fighting the Japanese. An American soldier raped a local Chinese woman and people across the country apparently held demonstrations because they wanted him to be prosecuted.
Just soak that in for a moment. They call this “justice”! What it really is is anti-Americanism. At the risk of stating the obvious, we were at war! Of course our soldiers are going to rape people! We’re there to help you get rid of the Japanese and you protest the fact that there is a war is going on?!?!
OK. I need to calm down and get back to the point.
So, here is what I learned from this. I guess the lesson is obvious. When you go overseas, be aware that “justice” is just a word people use to mask anti-Americanism. I’ve noticed the same thing about the way foreigners use words like “peace” and “love”. It’s all just nice-sounding words that mean, “I hate America.”
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