Protest in Guangzhou: Why would you burn garbage?
Week Around the Ists
Interview: Coco Zhao, from jazz to M. Butterfly
Cinematheque: Mulan is finally Chinese again! (and other film news)
... and we thought Xinhua's mistake of illustrating a story on the causes of the debilitating disease multiple sclerosis with an X-ray photo of Homer Simpson's brain was bad!
In his latest blog entry, Richard Spencer of the Telegraph cites a report by a group of Sinophile Brits organising a festival called ChinaNow that supports the notion (held by well-educated Chinese types) that "Chinese people were better informed on foreign affairs than British people were". The survey found among other things that:
A quarter (24%) of Chinese respondents could name Gordon Brown as current British Prime Minister (although 22% still thought it was Tony Blair) whereas only 7% of UK respondents correctly identified Hu Jintao as President of China. More than half (54%), of UK respondents could not name a single Chinese politician.
It would perhaps not be so ironic if the subject matter at hand wasn't the supposed China/Britain knowledge gap, but the Telegraph has chosen to illustrate the point that "93% of Brits couldn’t identify Chinese President Hu Jintao" with a picture of former Shanghai mayor Chen Liangyu who has been ousted for corruption! Major OOPS indeed!
It may be the case that to the eyes of the writer, President Hu and Chen Liangyu look very similar (compare pictures for yourself!), but it may also be the case that he relegates the menial tasks of picture selection and/or uploading of the blog entry to a:
1. photo editor,
2. young wide-eyed foreign intern, or
3. local assistant,
in which case the first two should be sacked and the third beheaded!
It was perhaps divine providence that Shanghaiist should be struck with insomnia again tonight. It is 5.13am Shanghai time now, and our Google RSS reader tells us the above post was just published a while ago at 3.24am. We're going to bed right now and since it is highly likely that the picture would have been changed by the time we're awake, we decided to take this screenshot for posterity's sake.
UPDATE: Looks like the mugshot was changed at 12:12pm Shanghai time!
Related links
Shanghaiist: More on Xinhua and Homer Simpson's brain
The Telegraph: The China/Britain knowledge gap
ChinaNow: Report on lack of knowledge between Chinese and British people
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Ha! Great grab in the throes of insomnia. Congrats.
But don't all Asians look the same? I often mistake someone else for myself.
Who pays attention to colorless bureaucrats who constantly repeat the same cliches?
As for the survey, based on my personal experience, I have some serious reservations about the results. Are we really talking about "average" people here? Where was it taken? Who were the respondents? What were the questions?
Having lived in China long enough to know better (just who is an average Chinese for starters), it sounds like a bad survey that was intended to get a desired result.
I suspect that Richard may be testing the readers of his blog to see if the percentage of recognition is any better than average Briton.
There's a big difference between being ill-informed and not giving a shit. Fact is, it doesn't matter who is the leader of China ... they're all corrupt murderers and they all look the same. They're devoid of personality and would be dreary dinner party companions.
Ummm, this is ironic in a post about an ironic post going bad...
But did you notice you said the photo editor and the
foreigner should merely be fired, but the local, presumably Chinese, should be BEHEADED?
I am going to forward this link to another site for some fun...Let's see what the locals think about this...
See how fast you pull it?
I know you probably didn't mean it that way, but looks pretty bad to me.
of course the chinese guy should be beheaded... if he as a chinese doesn't know who president hu is and substitutes his pic for a corrupt official? imagine what would happen in the days of chairman mao!
Whatever.... I am a chinese, and to be this is really really like a big big surprise to me.
Having to spend 16 of 21 years of life in HK, i can tell how arrogants Brits are anyway. The fact that they expect someone to know enlish, and when the person doesnt really know how to respond, he raise his voice and repeat again, trying to make a fool out of that poor dude... Of course the british arrogance are not isolated incidents, they are shared amoung other english speaking countries, but the brits does stands out alot..... Its funny, i try to learn a few basic words before i visit any foreign nations, but those english speaking dirt bags, actually expect others to understand completely, when they are in a NON ENGLISH SPEAKING TERRITORY. Well I dont really think that learning a few local words before coming here or atleast try repeating it nicely and slowly is just too much to ask for MIGHTY English.
As for Chinese leaders are murderers, blah blah blah blah, i completely agree, but sames goes for all leaders of any nation in this fucking screwed up world.......