【英语原文】5.29

Q: How do people in mainland China feel about Yang Shuping's speech about freedom and air quality?

Paul Denlinger

Have lived in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong

She really was bending over backwards to make Americans feel good about their freedoms.

The American media loves stories about immigrants who come to the US and achieve some degree of material success. When these immigrants are interviewed, EVERY SINGLE ONE says “I could only have achieved this kind of success in the US!”

Why do they say this? Because it is a myth which most Americans have been brainwashed into believing by the American mainstream media. If it were really true, then why are India and China creating millionaires at a faster pace than the US, and why are so many Americans falling below the poverty line? And what about the political and social divide in US society?

In bad times, people need straws to grasp at. Straws which offer hope.

Yang Shuping was simply saying something which Americans like to believe in because it makes them feel good. There is a rule in Chinese etiquette: Always flatter your host, even if you know the compliment is not true. Since she is a recent immigrant to the US, she still considers herself a guest of the US.

There is another side to this story, and I call it sour grapes. Many Americans have this nagging awareness that China is catching up to the US in many areas, and Yang Shuping fed this sour grapes mentality by saying: “Even if China is catching up in many areas, the US still offers FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY!” Having someone who had only recently come to the US from China made them feel even better about it, because here was a Chinese saying it, so it must be true!

“USA! USA! USA!”

To be honest, I don’t think her speech should have been covered by the US or Chinese media; she didn’t say anything substantial or offer any insights.

It just shows you that the US and China are alike in one respect; they both have very fragile egos and love puffing themselves up so that they feel good.