Exiled nuns put the pressure on London over Tibetan

Guess I'm one of those who disagree (with the "100 times more powerful" -- not the "1000 times more meaningful"..."than Bjork's 3 second protest in shanghai".

Why? For the simple reason that Chinese, at least those not actively looking for news on Tibet, won't know about what happened in Britain. Bjork had a full stadium of Chinese (okay, some were foreigners) most of whom were arguably in the dark about the contestedness of the issue, and some of whom may actually have looked up the reasons why Bjork uttered "Tibet, Tibet" after her song, or may even have drawn their own, individual conclusions.

Maybe this comment on Danwei‘s recent post on Tibet has been written by someone who attended the concert?

"Hope day will come when common mass in China will get free access to media and other side of the story.

At moment media is strictly controlled the Govt. and people are taught that Tibet is part of China. They never mentioned about it's illegal occupation and immense suffering it cause to Tibetans. Forget Tibet, even Tiannamein Square massacre is unknown in Chinese history."

... let me add: You may be right with the "100 times more powerful" *if* the pressure those nuns exerted on London actually translates into pressure exerted on China -- which I doubt. Politicians have that unfortunate habit of avoiding contentious issues.

Or as you write on your About page: "Politicians with a vested interest in ensuring that current events and historical accounts are recorded only in a way that is favorable to their cause."

Having yourself lived in China for some time you may be aware that most Mainlanders call Tibet 西藏 or 藏区 (There's also 西藏自治区 and 吐博 , but let's not get into that right now). My point being that, given Bjork's accent, the acoustics of the venue, and the general unexpectedness of it all, I'd have to question whether more than 40% of those present even know what it was that she shouted.

In both the short and the long term a Western singer getting 5 minutes in the headlines isn't worth very much. 99.9% of Chinese don't know about Bjork's protest and those who know about it they are split into three groups

1) Those who agree with her 2) Those who are confused over what exactly her point is 3) Those who see her protest as an attack on China (Imagine how you'd feel if a couple of Iranians hijacked the halftime show at the Super Bowl and started shouting about the need for a free Native American homeland, because that's how many Chinese will see this).

Of course, a couple of elderly nuns spending 15 minutes with a world leader who, let's be honest, has more to loose than to gain by raising the Tibet issue with Beijing, isn't going to do much either.

Where the good comes in is not that the nuns will galvanize London into action, because they won't, but rather that the humiliating situation that London is in right now will highlight 1) The situation that Tibet is in 2) The hypocrisy of Western governments over it. This will in turn help to keep the protest alive amongst Tibetan supporters and will give them extra ammunition with which to publicize their cause.

I think you somewhat understate the number of Chinese who actually understand the English term "Tibet," (0.01 %) and may underestimate the amount of 'discussion' Bjork has caused on Chinese-language platforms such as Tudou.

But I do agree with most of your points, and hope you're right about the effects of the exposure of Western hypocrisies.

Sorry, maybe my English was unclear. I estimate that between English speaking ability, Bjork's accent, and the fact that she shouted it unexpectedly in a noisy statium maybe only 40% of those present actually got the fact that she was making a pro-Tibet statement. The other 60% either misunderstood or didn't understand.

The 0.01% referred to the Mainland population as a whole and wasn't meant to be taken literally.

Ban China from the world until they free Tibet!!!! FREE TIBET you slant eyed bastards!!!!

Yeah, and ban the US from the world until it returns every last inch of Native American land, too. And Iraq, and Okinawa, and Puerto Rico, and so on.

I'd like to see the US economy survive a hit like the banning of Chinese goods. China's too important to the US economy for it to take any meaningful action over Tibet. The same goes for Japan and the EU, too. China's got the free world over a barrel of their own making. There's no way that most Western countries could find alternate sources of goods fast enough to save their economies. Only the least consumer driven of them would survive without huge amounts of damage to much of their retail and consumer sectors.

is racist "Daniel" typical of Time readers? Or is he typical of racist and genocidal Americans? Why does he not go back to being part of the "huddled masses" that was Europe? I resent his racist name calling and invite him to reveal himself.

It is ACB's policy to allows anonymity. Daniel may remain anonymous if they so wish. However they may not be as European as you think. Statically speaking, most of ACB's Western readers are American. In fact ACB has more readers in the USA than in the entire of the European Union.