Knowledge is Power

"Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past." (George Orwell 1984)

There are some things in the world that really tick me off, and this is definitely one of them: blatant Censorship. I'm still amazed how major governments in the 21st century can still censor major world events to its citizens to control their worldly and political views.

Just compare these two Google Image Searches on Tiananmen: China vs. US.

When I was in the Middle Kingdom, I was amazed how little college students even knew about the history of their own country. It wasn't because they were too lazy to learn, it was because anything that remotely casts the country in a negative light is glanced over in the history books. That's why they didn't really know what Tiananmen Square Tragedy in 1989, nor do a lot of them know about things like The Great Leap Forward.

The scary thing is that this happens in all aspects of life. The next time you happen to be in China, just turn the TV to the sports channel (CCTV 5) - you don't have to know Chinese to watch sports! If you watch this channel enough, you will soon start to think that the Chinese are the greatest athletes in the world. They never lose!

For some reason they like to replay Olympic footage week after week, and sooner or later you'll see the trend. When you see China competing against another country, it doesn't matter what sport, chances are that they will win. Honestly, of all the hours I spent watching CCTV5, I can can only think of a handful of times where Chinese athletes actually lost.

FYI - this blog is censored by the Chinese government.

Comments

Anonymous said…

ironically people always know that picture of tianamen square where that man is standing in front of the tanks, but probably not many know what happens after that scene. that is a very famous picture of the tianamen square ...

-Steph

2:12 PM

jen. said…

i never even heard about the tianamen square until i read your entry. then i had to look it up on wikipedia and read up on it. i'm very ignorant of china's history. so sad.

4:29 PM

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