5.23 update. I found an article by Louise Blouin MacBain on Forbes. She had visited Tibet just recently.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/23/lhasa-tibet-macbain-oped-cx_lbm_0523lhasa.html?partner=email
I love Ane. She has been my window to China. I have been wondering where I can get some real people talking on the Tibet issue. Today, in her blog, she suggested LianYue’s blog: http://www.bullogger.com/blogs/lianyue/
Recently, Lian Yue has posted letters from different people, from different minority or non-minority groups, different ages, different social positions. They calmly articulated their personal experiences, confusions, and opinions on the long-going Tibet issues. Very thought-provoking.
If you are interested, try using Google or other tools to translate the letters and read them. You can try this link: translated by google Although, Google’s auto-translation can be confusing and wrong, you would get some ideas.
First, I don’t like the phrase “Tibetan” v.s. “Chinese” in the news. It’s like saying “Floridian” v.s. “American”. Before Tibet becomes independent, people there are still Chinese. If you want to create the contrast, please say Tibetan v.s. Han (which is the main race in China and the one that Tibetan wants to expel from Tibet. ) or Tibetan v.s. Chinese Government.
1. Language issue. The native Tibetan language is fading away. A Tibetan girl wrote: “when I was little, there were schools that offer Tibetan classes. But the overall quality of the schools were not good, the rate of enrolling to colleges are low. Parents would choose Han schools, which have higher ratings. I haven’t had Tibetan class since I left the kindergarten. Then I forgot all in elementary school. Then I moved to inland and had even less chance to touch Tibetan. … I tried to learn Tibetan after I grew up, but I had a hard time finding voice training materials. Han friends will look at us with sympathy — so sad, you lost your culture.”
How to preserve a language. Or, is there a need to preserve a language? I think there is a need to preserve. There are so many elements in a culture that can only be displayed through it’s own language. Now, How To is a more difficult question. Before we consider that, let’s first consider Who. Shall we ask the majority race to preserve a minority’s language, or should the minority people insist on keeping their own language? Same issue exists among Chinese immigrants here in U.S. It’s hard to find an American born Chinese kid that speaks good Chinese. I would choose the latter. The Tibetan, or the Chinese immigrants have to either let their language die and blend with the main stream, or scream loud and clear for the need to learn their own language. If it is difficult to get funding or any attention from the government, at least start with contacting fellow that speak the language and form workshops. Start from there and roll it to a bigger community, a learning community. Print and record your own training material.
(I have to add something here. There is a native language/dialect in almost every city, at least every province in China. There is no school teaching dialects, period. However, minority languages are far more developed and independent systems. I do think there is a necessity to teach those local languages in the local schools. )
As to the loss of culture, it’s not just the Tibetans. The whole China is loosing the Chinese culture. Any old countries around the globe are having the problem. The world is evolving forward. Certain culture will be lost, new culture will be added. Hopefully, we don’t just take culture from other counties and discard ours. We proactively learn our culture, and at the same time, absorb incoming culture then find a new balance.
2. Where to position yourself in the society. The same Tibetan girl also wrote, “When I was working as a sales man, my boss asked me to change my name to something that is easy for Han people to recognize in order to get more business. At a job interview, the male interviewer was more interested in asking questions like ‘Do Tibetan really only have 2 showers the whole life’…. Neighbors would comment ‘You are Tibetan? You are so white though’ My family would try hard to hide our identity as Tibetan because we cannot deal with people commenting on us as a race. ”
I am Han, a majority race in China. I was also born and raised in Shanghai. I never felt anything until in college. We had students from different parts of China, even one minority student from XinJiang (Sinkiang) who is the Hui race. The Hui students had their own Cafeteria because they don’t eat pork or any dishes that have pork fat in it. As to being a local Shanghai person, I also felt kind of isolated even when there were more Shanghai students than any others. All the other students formed their social groups based on their origin. Shanghai folks were the only ones that didn’t have a group. Then I went to work in two American-invested companies. Both places, we were asked to choose an English name so that the American client can have an easier time communicating with us. More than that, when we are doing email support to U.S. clients, we shouldn’t even let them know that we are located in China. The ironic thing is once I am actually living in U.S. , people here are actually more interested in our Chinese names and want to pronounce it correctly instead of choosing the easy to pronounce English names.
It’s an interesting role change once I came to U.S. I am an minority and I speak a different language. First, the appearance. Well, guess what, I am so damn distinct that I will never be able to hide the fact that I am Asian. So be it. I will just stick my neck up and proudly announce I am from China. Everything I do of course represents what Chinese people do. I like people to think me as an individual instead of a race. But that can only be implemented through giving people more exposure of the Chinese culture. Talk to them. Tell them stories. Not hiding.