My question is, do these type of people know what they are doing? Do they even care about the legitimate grievances of the Chinese people have against the bias and violence brought on by the western press? Their idea of being "fair" is to automatically assume their own people are "wrong." Such people can only appreciate their own self-righteousness and vanity.
This NPR piece not only does it reinforce the dominant narrative that any Chinese people who support China is "not informed." But it uses one of their own to divide and conquer, effectively dismissing mainstream overseas Chinese indignation over the bias of the western press by painting it as a disorganized (i.e. "divided") "mob mentality".
Western paternalism - another emerging willfully ignorant narrative is that nationalistic sentiments immediately makes the whole of China as "immature," an attitude that seeks to silence the voice of Chinese protest against the violence wrought against Chinese Olympic Torch carriers. This is their sense of superiority over "non-democratic" China.
Frankly, this paternalism is reflective of a sense of self-delusion. An impression that comes from the error of perceiving Chinese sentiments as appeals to western sensibilities when, in fact, they are revolting against the very same western narcissism.
As an overseas Chinese, I am disgusted by this western paternalistic fantasy that ranges from portraying Han Chinese as non-humans (as oppose to the happy, child like Tibetans who targeted and killed Han and Chinese Muslims alike), to painting overseas Chinese who shows solidarity with China and the Olympics as brainwashed nationalists or even communist agents.
The thing that must be done is to deconstruct these rhetoric, to claim one's own narrative in history. It is naive to leave people's voices to the western press, to leave it to those who have no stakes in the livelihood of Chinese people.
