China: Interesting personalities

[yantong1980]

For Ping and Yang case, no place for drama queen!

 

[shadows888]

@JSCh

Chinese student sorry after uproar at US 'fresh air' speech

• 1 hour ago
  

Image copyright UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Ms Yang said the air in the US was "sweet and fresh"
A Chinese student has apologised following a furious reaction to her US graduation speech that praised the "fresh air of democracy".

Speaking at the University of Maryland, Yang Shuping drew a parallel between air pollution in China and the country's restrictions on free speech.

Angry Chinese social media users accused her of denigrating her homeland and told her to stay in the US.

But the university backed her, saying it was vital to hear different views.

Ms Yang - who was selected by the university to speak - contrasted wearing a face mask against pollution with the "sweet and fresh" air in the US.

"The moment I inhaled and exhaled outside the airport, I felt free," she said in a video of the speech posted on YouTube.

"I would soon feel another kind of fresh air for which I will be forever grateful. The fresh air of free speech. Democracy and free speech should not be taken for granted. Democracy and freedom are the fresh air that is worth fighting for," she continued.

Her speech became one of the hottest topics on the internet in China, with posts about it having been viewed more than 50m times by Tuesday.

Many Chinese social media users were angry, including a fellow Chinese student at the University of Maryland who accused Ms Yang of "deceptions and lies", the South China Morning Post newspaper reported.

The city authorities in her home city of Kunming in southwestern China also weighed in, saying air quality had been good almost every day so far this year and adding: "In Kunming, air is very likely to be 'sweet and fresh'."

Image copyright@ADMJEINSBT
Image captionMs Yang's apology on China's Weibo microblogging service

Image copyrightKUNMING GOVERNMENT
Image captionThe Kunming government insisted the city's air was "likely to be 'sweet and fresh'"
The People's Daily newspaper meanwhile accused her of making a "biased" speech.

Faced with mounting uproar, Ms Yang issued a statement on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, saying she was "surprised and disturbed" by the reaction to her speech and "deeply loved" her motherland.

"I apologise and sincerely hope everyone can forgive me. I have learned my lesson," she wrote.

She was nevertheless backed by her university, which said in a statement: "Listening to and respectfully engaging with those whom we disagree are essential skills, both within university walls and beyond".

Some Weibo users agreed. "It looks like even if Chinese people go to America, they still can't have freedom of speech," one said.

and of course, her boyfriend is white.. haha why does this keep repeating itself? i will enjoy seeing her kid on hapas in 18 years.

 

[yusheng]

 

[Place Of Space]

What Can I say ? A bitch,who flatters another country by humiliating her own motherland.

She is just a young student. Most young students have the similar personality: Critical Realism and Idealism! They will become more caoutious idealism till they have more social experiences and global perspectives.

 

[JSCh]

Some Weibo users agreed. "It looks like even if Chinese people go to America, they still can't have freedom of speech," one said.

She did deliver her speech, did she not? Her message is out. It is a way too political message that enforce the stereotypical image of China in US. Since I think the majority of the audience are American, they would not need a Chinese oversea student to teach them how great US is. It is therefore to tell them how grateful typical Chinese students appreciate US in comparison to China.

Since quite a few of the Chinese students disagree with how they were being portrayed and a vast no. of Chinese people too disagree with the way that view is presented, is it not their right and indeed their duty to make their own view heard? Especially since it was perceived that her speech contain some factual errors.

Or is it that I misunderstood what "freedom of speech" means? It only apply to a specific group of people?

Chinese idiom said 兼听则明，偏信则暗 - listen to both sides and you will be enlightened.

If western people is interested in the truth, they should at the very least listen to what the Chinese people say.

 

[egodoc222]

http://m.ndtv.com/world-news/chines...esh-air-in-us-1697306?pfrom=home-otherstories

 

[egodoc222]

Chinese Student Draws Criticism On Social Media For Speech On 'Fresh Air' In US
Yang Shuping, a Chinese graduate from University of Maryland was criticised for comparing her homeland's air and politics to those in the US in her Graduation speech.
Agence France-Presse | Updated: May 23, 2017 23:36 IST

A screengrab from video uploaded on Youtube by Trevor Rez.



Beijing: A young Chinese woman has drawn criticism on social media after unfavourably comparing her homeland's air and politics to those in the US during her graduation speech at an American university.

Speaking at the University of Maryland, Yang Shuping said that coming to the United States had been a breath of "fresh air" after growing up in China.

"The air was so sweet and fresh and utterly luxurious," she said, in a video of the speech posted on YouTube.

"The moment I inhaled and exhaled outside the airport, I felt free," she continued, drawing a parallel between China's notorious air pollution and its similarly choking restrictions on political speech.

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The reaction was swift and brutal, with comments in Chinese and English telling her to stay in America.

On Tuesday afternoon, posts related to the video on the Chinese micro blogging site Weibo had received over 56 million views.

"People like this, with biased opinions and broken English, should never be allowed to speak publicly as a commencement speaker," said one remark posted under the YouTube video. The site is banned in China.

Commenters who said they hailed from Yang's hometown Kunming accused her of lying about the air quality in the major metropolis in the city's southwest, with many claiming it was as clean as Washington's, near her university's campus.

"The only explanation for her wearing a mask in Kunming is that she's ugly," said one commenter on Weibo, referring to her comment that she had worn one to protect herself from the bad air.

On Tuesday, air quality readings in Kunming were as high as 107, four times the World Health Organization's recommended maximum exposure for a 24-hour period. In Washington, they were at two.

Thinly veiled criticisms of the speech appeared in state-owned media Tuesday, quoting some of the vicious responses.

An article titled "Chinese student at University of Maryland slammed for biased commencement speech" was ranked as the most viewed story on the English-language website of the People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece.

As the criticism piled up, Yang, who majored in psychology and theatre, apologised according to an article in the state-owned tabloid the Global Times, a reaction that seemingly proved her point that there is little space in China for critical speech.

In a statement responding to the uproar, the University of Maryland said "it is critical to hear different viewpoints, to embrace diversity, and demonstrate tolerance when faced with views with which we may disagree."

"Listening to and respectfully engaging with those whom we disagree are essential skills, both within university walls and beyond."

Some commenters on Weibo agreed: "it looks like even if Chinese people go to America, they still can't have freedom of speech," one said.

Watch the commencement speech by Yang Shuping during the graduation at the University of Maryland.
Intolerant Chinese!!!

 

[Pyr0test]

LOL not this free of speech crap, free of speech doesn't mean you're free from the consequences of your words. She spreads bs info and gets called out for it, in a sense Chinese commenters are exercising free speech as well.

The desperation for Indians to fling dirt at China is hilarious. Your insecurities are showing, just like this dude commenting on a Microsoft press event hosted in China

 

[kankan326]

If you read Chinese history, you'd know there was a dynasty called Ming. It was ruined partly because of freedom of political speech. Too many criticisms to whatever the government did. Turned out the government couldn't do anything but waiting for collapse.

Why is free speech so important for science and technology researches anyways?

 

[third eye]

If you read Chinese history, you'd know there was a dynasty called Ming. It was ruined partly because of freedom of political speech. Too many criticisms to whatever the government did. Turned out the government couldn't do anything but waiting for collapse.

Why is free speech so important for science and technology researches anyways?

Now .. this is something.

Why is free speech important ....... Just because Centuries ago a Dynasty could not handle criticism & ' waited' for collapse its stifled .

 

[mrfly911]

If you read Chinese history, you'd know there was a dynasty called Ming. It was ruined partly because of freedom of political speech. Too many criticisms to whatever the government did. Turned out the government couldn't do anything but waiting for collapse.

Why is free speech so important for science and technology researches anyways?

Do you have any resources about it? Yongle (Zhu Di) killed thousand of people because of their speeches.

 

[kankan326]

Now .. this is something.

Why is free speech important ....... Just because Centuries ago a Dynasty could not handle criticism & ' waited' for collapse its stifled .

No. What I mean is China once had freedom of political speech. Not just in Ming dynasty, also in the early of 20th century. But both were followed by miserable ends. China got nothing but chaos from it.

Do you have any resources about it? Yongle (Zhu Di) killed thousand of people because of their speeches.

At end of Ming dynasty, the political environment wasn't so harsh as Yongle period. I don't have English resource. Sorry.

 

[third eye]

No. What I mean is China once had freedom of political speech. Not just in Ming dynasty, also in the early of 20th century. But both were followed by miserable ends. China got nothing but chaos from it.

In which case the problem was not with free speech but with the Govt & national institutions which could not handle free speech & criticism which is a corollary to free speech.

 

[jetray]

Now .. this is something.

Why is free speech important ....... Just because Centuries ago a Dynasty could not handle criticism & ' waited' for collapse its stifled .

and you believed it? Remember poster still has no free speech.

 

[kankan326]

and you believed it? Remember poster still has no free speech.

Do Chinese posters in PDF look dumber than Indian posters? I don't think so. Seems free speech didn't help you so much.