The Peking Duck in a bigoted Westerner

Lau Guan Kim  Updated: 2004-07-12 08:27

Bread baked by a sloppy baker in Peking Duck just isn't rising enough, going by his signature of having baked a hot-bread-repartee to legitimate Chinese sentiments.

So, the bread that came out was just a hardened and unleavened type that was hard to digest.

I remember when China rightly chose to alter its capital from "Peking" to "Beijing", that was one sovereignty act the majority of the world accepted except for quite a while BBC, and finally after some thirty years of China under a new leadership the US and England accepted "Beijing" instead of "Peking", a name coined by the imperial West in the heyday of their might and China's weakness.

One is alerted by this stagnant stance in the use of "Peking Duck" in a Website; to all intent, as you read the proceedings, it was one of intense hatred of the Chinese Communist Party. Hence it is interesting, but not surprising, that a fossilised and ossified Website with that archaic name can never be objective with reference to the ills inflicted against China by the West.

In the first instance, I would not carp on this infliction by the West on China because enough had been said. Nevertheless, the point brought up by any Chinese about this dark episode of China is as valid yesterday, today and tomorrow.

There is even doubt whether that piece was written by a Chinese; it was likely a non-Chinese with a sense of mission about a people he loves came much to the fore, and in presenting his views, he might have passionately prised open a Pandora of feelings against the West.

But at this juncture let me state where my stand is. I have on numerous occasions upbraided, and in a number of lampoons, caricaturised such stance by any Chinese as retrogressive and not conducive to presenting the mellowed, pacific and cultured side of China.

To this approach I was vilified no end, but I was careful never to inflict more wounds by pretending such humiliations and exploitations never happened, or they were the faults of the Chinese.

Precisely I take umbrage against the contents of the "Peking Duck" Website. Rightly the China Daily threw that nonsensical and garbage out. That repartee by the host of Peking Duck sprinkled salts to Chinese wounds and was very offensive.

The sensible thing would have been never to pour scorn or ridicule on Chinese hurt feelings. That precisely was what one Richard TPD, host of Peking Duck, did.

His response was callous, and clearly showed he never accepted that there were exploitations and humiliations, with attendant killing of thousands of Chinese and the resultant poverty of a once proud and great country. What was reprehensible was he not only blithely ignored such historic holocausts by the West on China, but also chose to bring out what Mao Zedong did in the Great Leap Forward (1958) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) as vindication and mitigation of the West's nefarious role in China.

On this line of my reasoning, I say to "Peking Duck' what Mao Zedong did was policy blunders and not acts of exploitation, humiliation or aggression against China. The mistakes of Mao Zedong are for the Chinese to live and assess with, and not the mitigation for past monstrously unacceptable deeds of the West, aliens to the Chinese.

At no time "Peking Duck" accepted past humiliations, exploitation and aggression against the Chinese by the West. One is incensed and inflamed by the scorn the host of Peking Duck poured on Chinese feelings.

What a lamentable episode Peking Duck brought on the perception the West was, and is unrepentant of the misdeeds against China. In being smug and ideologically against China, the host of Peking Duck has discredited himself as an unbiased and objective writer.

That is a pity, for an opportunity to bring about a healing and reconciliation between China and the West, most importantly the US, was jettisoned in the stormy sea of vitriol and rhetoric.

One piece of advice to my Chinese compatriots: The ills of the past are water under the bridge. It passes on, and clearer stream follows on which may you see reflections of yourselves and children as the hope and aspiration of the future China.

For men may come and men may go, but the will of the Chinese people go on forever.

To all Chinese, lets get on with life!

The above content represents the view of the author only.

Close