Just a little word of caution about corresponding with strangers from non-free nations.
That does not answer what I was asking.
Worst case scenario, what is wrong with strangers posting here? You're a stranger to me, I'm a stranger to you, we both assume that we are both Americans but really unless I had met you during a FReeper event, there would be no way I could confirm that you had ever set foot in the USA. And even if I had met you, and assumed from your unbroken English that you were a native born American, you could still be a foreign spy.
So what if you were a foreign spy? Wouldn't then your exposure here to discussion about how concerned Americans are about the catatrophic events in China go a long way to making things better?
Maybe it’s just Chinese teenage angst posted on FR. Be kind.
They feel the same way.
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled a chinese boy have words to say to MARKUSPRIME and others, PLMerite wrote:
Just a little word of caution about corresponding with strangers from non-free nations.
My feeling is that most of American people are kind-hearted, friendly, and very pleasant to be around with, though correct me if I was wrong, most of Americans do not know much about the rest of the world, especially the development of China and their knowledge of China is mostly negative and out-dated, and it seems a lot of them are not interested either. I was shocked to realize how many do not even know where the capital of China is, how many have asked me if we still live in bamboo houses. That is fine, it’s not their job to learn about China.
Although, in the current sentiment of anti-China and anti-Beijing Olympic, stirred up by the biased and untrue reports by some western medias and some western political leaders, it is not fine to criticize China unfairly, it is certainly not fine to spread lies about China.
And PLMerite,if you spend a bit more time and effort and try to understand the Chinese and China, then perhaps you will have another epiphany leading to ‘enlightenment’? You seem to want to start with or reference stereotypes, but would it not be better to just ignore these as much as possible, and build up your own profile of what the chinese are, now that you are there in china?