I'm still alive.

Don't worry, I haven't been detained for "Olympic" protests of any sort- I'm simply too employed for that kind of stuff. Rather I've been working 55 to 60 instead of the usual 50 hours over the past few weeks, and when I wasn't exhausted physically, my mind has been painfully blank. As much as I'm looking forward to the Games and as much as I feel the people over here deserve them, as much have I been saddened and deeply disturbed by the incredibly biased, destructive and untrue coverage in the European, and sadly the German media in particular.

Whether it's the complete ignorance of anything to do with sport in favour of some pseudo news of how many thousand police are patrolling the streets over here, pain-inducingly unprofessional and unashamedly racist "articles" such as this (Stern.de) or the simply hilarious report on the danger of stray dogs in Beijing. The latter would have made me laugh out loud if it wasn't so sad. Reasonably renowned German magazine FOCUS found it necessary to dedicate a page to the warning issued by some American "Tropical Health" magazine on the risk of rabies imminent when petting stray dogs in the capital. What stray dogs, may I ask? These don't exist here. No, that's not because they end up on the barbie or anything, but because dog ownership is strictly regulated by size and race, and because pet dogs are quite simply expensive. Therefore, the only times dogs are ever to be seen here are the early morning and late evening, and they're always these cute little suped-up rats who are practically being carried around by their elderly owners. Rabies from a stray dog simply ain't gonna happen here. Of course, FOCUS was relying on the lack of knowledge and ignorance of its readers, and on the never ending thirst for negative "news" on China.

A couple of days ago, the same magazine praised most highly a TV documentary by German cheese and kitsch fabricants RTL, which dealt with trade in babies in China, citing several hundred cases (sounds impressive, but please do bear in mind the size of the population). As disturbing an issue as this is, and as much as it is a consequence of government policies, these allegations are coming from a country where you can set the clock by the emergence of new cases of children being found in freezers, or bins, or flowerpots. Which is worse (in that it is more avoidable), child labour or trade in a developing country, or an unparalleled return to barbarism bang in the middle of one of the world's most economically advantaged nations? Why not sort out the cases of all the Lea-Sophies and Taleas in the country before you point your finger? Shame on you!

And then, of course, we have all those gloriously brave fighters for freedom who are currently descending on China like a massive, FREEDOM! shouting swarm of mosquitoes. When they arrive, however, they are all too surprised that they can't view their favourite human rights web sites and climb up flagpoles any way they like. Not like these laws are new, anyway, and not like sports journalist need to be able to read the Amnesty International web site to report on the triathlon. But then again, it's not like they're here to report on sports now, is it?

To all those who believe they are doing the world good by condemning China and its people without ever having studied them (while, of course, still relying on Chinese-made bargains), I hope that there will be a moment when you hold on and think for a second who exactly it is you're helping. (Hint: It won't be anyone wearing orange.)

Free Tibet? Why don't you get a job first?

Bis dann,

Nadine

Yes, I'm looking forward. And I'm proud to be here.

Casting the first stone

Tibet and China have been a hot topic in global media for some time now. After the end of the riots, however, western coverage seems to have slowly transitioned from “Support Tibet!” to “Let’s all hate on China!” I have been following German-language media closely and have found that some rather renowned publications have ditched their journalistic objectivity to indulge in uninhibited China bashing, creating facts from opinions, evidence from rumour and turning news coverage into a merry old, anti-Chinese story hour.

The following is the translation of a letter I recently sent to the editor of Spiegel magazine in response to their ongoing, severely biased, incomplete and inaccurate China coverage. (For the German original, please click here.)

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For Germany and other European nations, China and other far-eastern countries are out of reach, which is why those nations have to rely on media depictions of these countries and their cultures.

For some time now, your publication has been abusing its informative function to create a completely distorted image of China which depicts the Chinese people as primitive, brainwashed, randomly spitting animals. Articles such as this one (http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,549666,00.html), unfortunately, are merely the tip of the iceberg.

To quote from your article: “The communist Party has launched campaigns and educational measures to teach citizens how to queue properly, not to spit on the street and not to swear…”

And Germans never swear? (If you’re not from Germany- we do. A lot.) Are expressions like Scheisse (You know what that means!) not more than accepted in colloquial speech? Would you write an article about the frequency of swearwords in the German language?

Like swearing, in Beijing spitting is chiefly done by construction and other migrant workers (including those from Tibet, who’d have thought?) Are those people not known for their rough behaviour in any society? Would you call dog loos and “Please keep _________ clean” signs an “educational campaign” to keep the German working classes from having their darlings poo everywhere? (Again, they do. A lot.)

Regarding the topic of the article in question (The planned Beijing smoking ban)- I only need to read back to you one of your own pieces on that joke of a German smoking ban to show how much you are blowing this Chinese “problem” out of proportion.

Your bias rivals that of the Communist Party’s media- your depictions do not serve any other purpose than to create hatred, which leads to nothing but racism.

What are you trying to achieve with this campaign? Would you like to create an anti-Chinese atmosphere? Are you hoping for the German society to discriminate against Chinese citizens? Or are you trying to hurt the Chinese economy? (In which case you’d probably have to rid the German people of their cheapskate attitude first.)

It may be about time for you to think about who exactly you’re supporting and whose hands you’re playing into- you’re certainly not helping any oppressed Tibetans.
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Of course, this is not an exclusively German phenomenon. This is one of a number of letters and comments my boyfriend and I have sent to numerous publications, including Spiegel, FOCUS, Stern, The Guardian and The Times.

And now guess what- none of these were ever published or responded to. It seems that other opinions, or the whole picture, haven’t been particularly popular with the western media lately. (Ironically, of course, the same media never stop pointing out the one-sided bias of the Chinese press.)

Even if it weren’t for the issue of the idealised and uninformed western image of Tibet and its leaders, the self-righteous smugness with which some western countries are preaching moral to the east is outrageous.

Amongst the most outspoken media and nations are Britain and France, who for centuries have set out to rob, rape and murder across the world, all in the name of glorious colonialism.

Also, anyone who has even taken history class would know about the shocking atrocities that were committed in my own home country of Germany just under 70 years ago.

And I simply don’t have the time to even touch upon all the appalling business that the US has been involved in over the years.

Therefore, one can hardly begin to imagine how hurtful and how much of a slap in the face it must be for any Chinese person to have some of their own colonial tormentors and other “developed” nations spitting contempt at them from a moral high horse that they have absolutely no right to sit on.

In the meantime, of course, the denouncing continues and newspapers produce new haphazardly researched “articles” and columns that barely disguise the authors’ hate by the hour.

And readers, commentators, bloggers and Youtubers alike are blindly parroting them, revelling in their comfortably ignorant superiority. Oh that glorious western freedom.

I sincerely pity anyone whose lack of knowledge prevents them from experiencing, and learning from, this beautiful country and its kind, open-minded and inspiring people.