Richard, When I arrived at our beloved university I had an assistant for my classes. I really smart, lovely girl/woman. She was a CCP member but not what I would call a true believer in Communism. She joined because it was such an honour to be chosen, I think when she was in Middle School.
Anyway, she was the only one here in China that I felt comfortable talking with in terms of the evils of the CCP and its history. She did know about 1989 but had been so thouroughly brainwashed by the education system that she insisted the Tiananmen protest was 100% caused/started by foreign agents and any crackdown was entirely justified. She believed not too many people were killed/injured.
I really weep for my students who are smart and have such potential but have been so completely ruined by their system.
Unfortunately I've not met anyone here who was open enough to talk about these things! I suppose brainwashing is not really the correct term, but I'm constantly surprised at how thoroughly they have been indoctrinated. The Government tells them explicitly that anything negative written by foreigners about China is a lie, and they believe this to be true.
It reminds me of when the Turkish defence minister (I think) was once asked if she believed the reports of Turkish army helicopters destroying Kurdish villages. Her response was that even if she saw it with her own eyes she wouldn't believe it. She of course had a vested interest in denying the plain truth; it's hard to see what the Chinese get out of automatically rejecting all opinions that don't coincide with what they've been told by the authorities.
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I'd not noticed this, but thanks for pointing it out!
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When I arrived at our beloved university I had an assistant for my classes. I really smart, lovely girl/woman. She was a CCP member but not what I would call a true believer in Communism. She joined because it was such an honour to be chosen, I think when she was in Middle School.
Anyway, she was the only one here in China that I felt comfortable talking with in terms of the evils of the CCP and its history. She did know about 1989 but had been so thouroughly brainwashed by the education system that she insisted the Tiananmen protest was 100% caused/started by foreign agents and any crackdown was entirely justified. She believed not too many people were killed/injured.
I really weep for my students who are smart and have such potential but have been so completely ruined by their system.
Reply
Unfortunately I've not met anyone here who was open enough to talk about these things! I suppose brainwashing is not really the correct term, but I'm constantly surprised at how thoroughly they have been indoctrinated. The Government tells them explicitly that anything negative written by foreigners about China is a lie, and they believe this to be true.
It reminds me of when the Turkish defence minister (I think) was once asked if she believed the reports of Turkish army helicopters destroying Kurdish villages. Her response was that even if she saw it with her own eyes she wouldn't believe it. She of course had a vested interest in denying the plain truth; it's hard to see what the Chinese get out of automatically rejecting all opinions that don't coincide with what they've been told by the authorities.
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