Chinese nationalism

The Olympic flame reached Australia. There were pro tibet protests, as has now come to be expected. Even if there were hardly any, they would stilll have been be reported. I’ve been to demonstrations with 10,000s that don’t either don’t or only barely make the press, but the pro-Tibet /anti China protests do enjoy a media privilidge. More interesting though were the pro China protests from chinese people leaving in Australia, most of them students. They had gathered from across the country with red flags to defend for their country. I have to say, nationalism is ugly in whatever form it comes, and I can never disassociate it from a ‘war-enabler’ – you can’t fight a war without nationalism (or another strong identifier, such as religion).

But something other than my blanket distaste for nationalism struck me, the frustrating contradiction of Chinese people demonstrating in support of a regime which violently bans any … demonstration.

Chinese Nationalism