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In her August 31 appearance on the Taiwanese talk show Red Storm, Meng commented:
"Many mainland toilets don't have doors and even when they do, most people don't even shut the door!" Meng said.She regaled the host with a story about a toilet in a Chinese city where she had seen "hundreds of pale bottoms all lined up in a row."
Clearly, there is nothing like public sanitation to rally the national spirit of indignation. Dubbed “Toilet-Gate,” the incident has generated more than 1 million posts on Sina.com, and elicited searing criticism from viewers. "If you are still Chinese and you have any conscience, you must apologize!" fumed blogger Gu Siqing.
However, the China Daily is running a more critical version of the story, and in addition to humiliating the Chinese in the bathroom, Meng apparently displayed an arrogant attitude, criticized CCTV and Mainlanders’ English usage, “citing an example of the word 'dried food' in Chinese being translated to 'fuck goods' in English by translating the characters separately, instead of their meaning together.” However, according to the state-owned daily, her most serious transgression was her suggestion that the Nanjing massacre is "a historical affair" and "should not become the basis of opposition between China and Japan."
The article cites what is obviously an unbiased, scientific, and statistically meaningful internet poll in which “51.61 percent of the surveyed web users 'previously felt good about her (Meng), but disagree with her about this,' and another 48.39 percent thought 'she is stupid, and deserves criticism.' No one in the web survey supported Meng's opinions.”
Okay … 51.61 + 48.39 = 100%. Well, that’s everyone!
You can imagine how this question might have appeared in the survey:
After her recent appearance on Red Storm how do you feel about Meng Guangmei?
- I previously felt good about her (Meng), but disagree with her about this.
- She is stupid, and deserves criticism.
Clearly, the interest of this poll is in determining the truth about the viewers' feelings in light of the complex social, historical, political and economic causes of viewer outrage, and in no way was it being used to as blunt instrument to condemn Meng as a foregone conclusion. The article further comments that some postings indicated that all of Meng’s views on toilets, Mainlanders and CCTV are forgivable, but reliably, they “would never forgive her for frivolously talking about the Nanjing Massacre.”
In response to the angry public reaction:
Meng posted an announcement and a video record on this issue on a website, saying she has been living and working on the mainland for nearly ten years, and never meant to laugh at mainland people. She appeared very excited and emotional in the video, calling for a stop to the attacks on her words, claiming she made grammatical errors, and declaring she is determined to find the troublemakers who started it all.
Reuters adds:
Meng said she was hurt by the online assault and that her name had been smeared. "I could never have imagined such slander, inflammatory remarks and distortions could be used to attack me," she said.
Given their mutual fondness for toilet-themed restaurants, one might think that the two sides would find understanding and mutual benefit over a toilet somewhere. But alas, in a region where speech and symbolism matter greatly, almost any conceivable issue can evoke an exaggerated public response — especially when you offend the wrong people.
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My my, skin so thin you can see right through it. You would have thought people would've have gotten the message about those cruddy bathrooms after 10 years of subtle disgust from the foreign devils.
And this just provides more "rallying" fuel for everyone's favority par-dee.
The main issue of this flashing news piece is not about the toilets or lack of tan of certain bodily parts. It's her "other" comments as noted in your post. Same as the recent mob rash towards the china blunder or whats his name. The statement here is pretty clear: you want to have sex? Fine. Want to have clean toilets? Fine. But DO NOT mess with what should not be messed with. Every expat or foreigner should get the this or they might find themselves in problem. This is how it is here, and the rich and famous who tend to live on their own cloud eventually are hit by the reality. Personally, I support the powers that be on this decision, otherwise this whole thing simply cant work.
There's plenty of shit in the world, no need to mess with the social and cultural fabrics of China. Let them be.
The hero of this farce is not that stupid broad or a few mad cyberspace losers, but the omnipresent Chinese Insecurity. The fact that so many people are so wound up by a few silly throw-aways by a careless Taiwanese starlet indicates a deep-rooted psychological trauma in a whole generation of otherwise intelligent and functional Chinese.
Public outrage is provoked way too easy in this country.
Chinese don't seem to realize that it is precisely this kind of inferiority complex that inspires contempt in the rest of the world for them. If China wishes to have more respect from its neighbors, and more love from its ethinic kins, and greater clout in the international stage, it must learn to behave like an confident grown-up.
Otherwise, people do have a name for a giant with the brain of a young chimp: King Kong.
Every time a reaction like this is reported, it has such a negative impact on the image of China, worse than the 'revelation' that, yes, most toilets in the country as a whole are stinking shitholes. However, I'd like to know how much this is being blown out of proportion, and just what percentage of locals on the street are genuinely offended.
...seems the offense is more about her saying that ChineseJapanese relations shouldn't be based on the Nanjing Massacre. The reaction hints that many locals don't particularly want to even consider 'moving on'. Oh, does the American (?British) director of the new movie about the Nanjing massacre know the level of nationalistic, anti-Japanese fury that's he's going to stir with the movie? :/
I think the real issues is that she offended someone in the media, and they attempted to destroy her via the usual channels.
The real issue is that she criticized life "with vibrant Chinese characteristics". I doubt the chinese press spent much time bullet pointing her specific criticisms and spent more time painting a big picture of an arrogant, unpatriotic, spoiled Taiwanese actress who doesn't appreciate the loving embrace of the pardee and looks down on Chinese people. Many newspapers coveing this probably made hints about "liberating the people's army to crush the taiwan pest" and make that actress do her daily makeup routine in a public chinese toilet.
Can't wait for the olympics!
That's silly. I don't think the film-makers' primary focus is how some audience who confuse past with present will react to the movie; nor should it be. What we look forward to is a fair and objective portrayal of history. The rest is irrelevant.
"Oh, does the American (?British) director of the new movie about the Nanjing massacre know the level of nationalistic, anti-Japanese fury that's he's going to stir with the movie? :/
-
Posted by: Bob Holness"
"Many newspapers coveing this probably made hints about "liberating the people's army to crush the taiwan pest" and make that actress do her daily makeup routine in a public chinese toilet."
- Oh, the fertile imagination of our dear Mr. Kabob...... The penchant for sensationalism and the sadistic glee rival those of the reddest-blooded Commissar! With so much in common, too bad you are on the opposite ends of the spectrum and don't like each other, as fellow idiots tend not to do.
The Whole video of teh show that Meng Guangmei was a guest on is on tudou.com. When you watch the whole show several things become clear -- the whole show is about the differecnes between the entertainment business in taiwan and china and many of the guests have had experience working in the mainland, which is why they were invited on to speak. Meng Guangmei is actually not the most insulting of the bunch, she is actually the one that understands the most aboutthe mainland out of all of them; she corrects some of the others when they make statements that are not correct. Furthermore, her remark about the nanjing massacre was totally not as offensive as it was made to seem. She was explaining how chinese people felt about Japan and how it was different than it is for people from Taiwan. Of course, even being as fair as she was in explaining to people in taiwan that might not know better, there are [people who are going to distort what she says and then there are people who are going to blindly follow the distortions. Take a look at the whole show (if you understand Chinese), and consider her comments in that context.
YOu can also see in the link that i provided above that there is a clip from the Richard Gere movie "Red Corner" where Meng Guangmei plays teh temptress that gets naked and does the nasty with Richard. It's not coincidence that this has been uploaded recently, probably part of the smear campaign.
Shit like this makes me so glad I left the schoolground that is China. Country of kids.
Orpheus, that's exactly my point... the director really doesn't realise the shit that he is going to unintentionally stir up. I hope it's enlightening to all, but fear it's going to fuel an already inbred anti-Japanese hatred and (ab)used by many for propaganda.
Let's hope there's someone out there making a balanced, enlightening movie about modern Japan that follows shortly afterwards. Similarly, one for Mao wouldn't go amiss.
I thought Bai Ling played the model.
Nick Withycombe has left the building.
I saw the clip on Taiwanese news and I dislike her as a matter of personal taste not partisanship. I've certainly seen some problem bathrooms in a number of countries so I'm not impressed that she had an anecdote about toilets in China. I find it offensive that she copped a superior and mocking attitude whilst using ugly jabbing motions that were totally contradictory to the pose of being superior to anyone. She reminds me of an awful cape-wearing "aristocrat" who jabbed my companion and me, both of us simply dressed, in our backs because we were discussing travel in Asia quietly but within her earshot- after being jabbed, she then declared loudly to her companion that she was awfully tired from flying to Paris and London on a regular basis. That to me was absolutely grotesque and Meng Guangmei wasn't complaining as a matter of standard culture shock. She was certainly displaying hyena-like "Mean Girls" style of talking trash. That's what I got from watching the clip.
I also found it extremely telling that she knew how to blow smoke in her completely inaccurate reaction as if she was well-aware of how China's internet public was reported upon by foreign media so her reaction wasn't actually for the Chinese she offended. Tough noogies, you fool. Vindicting by puffing up the ugly image of Chinese isn't going to get you more jobs on the Mainland and there's not much use for you in Hollywood after you took it off and gave it all you got in Red Corner. Maggie Q just bought a house in Los Angeles. They've got their Asian babe du jour.