Chen Jia, One of Five Victims at Yishion
The March 2008 Tibetan riots and the troubled Olympic torch relays around the world have created Chinese women martyrs and icons promoted by the Chinese government and the Chinese public. On March 14, five women, four Han and one Tibetan, who worked at a well-known casual wear store called Yishion (以纯专卖店) in Lhasa's tourist district, were burned to death when they were trapped inside the store that had been set ablaze by Tibetan rioters. Moments before her death, 19-year old Chen Jia (陈佳) had just sent off an SMS [ch] to her father saying that there were killings outside the store, that they were hiding inside and that her family should stay indoors and not worry about her. Tibetan Cirenzhuoga (次仁卓嘎) had emigrated from the Shigatse (日喀则) region four years ago, and had only gone home once as she was sending most of her monthly salary of about 1,000 yuan to her family of 13. 19-year old He Xinxin (何欣欣), who had discontinued her college studies due to financial difficulties in 2006 and worked at a restaurant, had just started a new job at Yishion for not even one week. 24-year old Yang Dongmei (杨东梅), the oldest employee at Yishion, had recently started a serious relationship with a new boyfriend. 22-year old Liu Yan (刘燕) was originally from Fujian, but moved to Tibet last year after becoming engaged to a Lhasa-based soldier.
The Chinese government treated these five women in death as martyrs in support of its version of what happened on Maarch 14: supporters of the Dalai Lama instigated ethnic Tibetans to riot, kill, burn and loot shops owned by the Chinese. Meng Jianzhu (孟建柱), head of the Ministry of Public Security (公安部), visited Lhasa [ch] on March 23 and 24, to drive home this message, to investigate the destruction done by the rioters, and to convey to the different ethnicities of Tibet the heartfelt concerns of the Chinese Communist Party and its leadership for their well-being. He emphasized that the violent actions of the rioters involving a small minority of monks, not only resulted in loss of innocent lives and destruction of massive amount of property, violated the laws of China, but also exposed the deceitfulness of the Dalai Lama who had professed to advocate non-violence. Meng made it a point to visit Yishion, bowed before the five victims' portraits and laying a wreath. He then declared, "The government will lead people of all ethnicities to smash the Dalai clique's intentional and secret effort to separate the motherland and undermine Tibet's harmony and stability." The government of Tibet Autonomous Region promised compensation of 200,000 yuan to each of the families of the 18 victims of the March 14 riots. As of April 10, 15 families, including those of the five salesgirls at Yishion, had been compensated, with the remaining 3 families yet to be identified.
During the Olympic torch relays plagued by disruptions of pro-Tibet demonstrators and confrontations between them and Chinese demonstrators, an apolitical young Chinese woman, who said that she had not heard of the Tibetan Independence Movement before, rocketed to national fame as a defender of China's national honor. A 27-year old resident of Shanghai, Jin Jing (金晶) had suffered a malignant tumor in her leg when she was nine years old. Her leg had to be amputated, and she had to undergo a year of chemotherapy. But Jin Jing did not lose her zest in life. Inspired by the television hero Zorro who fought for justice with his rapier, she took up fencing. On July 13, 2001, the day when Beijng won the right to the 2008 Olympics, Jin Jing was chosen for Shanghai's wheelchair fencing team. She later became a member of China's national wheelchair fencing team, winning numerous medals individually and as a team member at various national and international competitions, including an individual bronze medal and a team silver medal at the 2002 FESPIC (Far East and South Pacific Games to Disability) in Busan, South Korea.
Jin Jing Protecting the Torch from Protesters
Too old to compete at the Beijing Paralympics, Jin Jing was selected by Lenovo, an official sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, to be an overseas torchbearer. On the Paris leg of the torch relay on April 7, she was the third torchbearer when she was confronted by several pro-Tibet protesters who tried to take away the Olympic torch from her. One protester lunged at Jin Jing's wheelchair and grabbed her hair, but she managed to turn away and shielded the torch with her body before her attacker was hauled away by the police. Jin Jing suffered scratches and a bruised leg, but completed her section of the relay smiling.
Jin Jing Holding the Olympic Torch
Acclaimed as the "smiling angel in the wheelchair (轮椅上的微笑天使)" and "the most beautiful torchbearer (最美火炬手)" by the Chinese news media and netizens, Jin Jing came home to a hero's welcome. "Since returning home to Shanghai, she has been treated as a superstar, mobbed by fans and reporters, racing from one public appearance to another." She said, "I don't think I did anything great, Any Chinese or Olympics-loving torchbearer would protect the torch under such circumstances."
However, another young Chinese woman, Grace Wang (王千源), who is a 20-year old freshman at Duke University, became the icon of a traitress in the eyes of the angry Chinese youth (愤青) who adopt a strongly nationalistic stance and brook no dissension from their view of the Tibetan unrest as the machinations of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan splittists. But to some Western observers as well as more rational Chinese, she is a defender of dialogue and tolerance.
Grace Wang's ordeal began when, on April 9, she ran into a dozen or so of students (mostly Americans) in a pro-Tibet vigil confronted by a much larger group of pro-China demonstrators of about one hundred. During the 2007 Christmas break when the dormitories and the dining halls were closed, Wang had been housed off-campus with four Tibetan students, who were the first Tibetans she had known and with whom she had developed a friendship and exchanged life experiences. In particular, Wang began to reflect about the spiritual aspects of life under the influence of her Tibetan friends who are devout Buddhists.
Grace Wang Addressing Chinese Demonstrators, with Pro-Tibet Activists in Background, Giving Unfortunate Impression that She is a Free Tibet Supporter
Knowing people in both the pro-Tibet group and the pro-China demonstrators who were engaged in a shouting match, Wang attempted to mediate between them and to get the leaders of both groups to talk to one another. In an effort to persuade the American leader of the pro-Tibetan group to speak to the Chinese group, she agreed to write "Free Tibet, Save Tibet" on his back, an action that would be interpreted by the angry Chinese youth as support of Tibetan independence. Her various efforts to get the two groups to listen to the other side and engage in rational discourse came to naught, and Chinese demonstrators started to shove the Tibetan demonstrators and curse her as well.
That night Wang wrote a message to the Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association, pleading for mutual understanding and thinking before acting: “Take away your anger, and your heads will become clear, your minds will become sharper, and then your judgments correct” (消除怒气，头脑才会清晰，思维才能敏捷，决断才会正确).
In the following days she received numerous online and offline threats, and her U.S. phone number and address as well as her parents' address in her home town of Qingdao were published online. Wang received torrents of abuse online from Chinese in both China and overseas who believed her to be a supporter of Tibetan independence, with only a few openly expressing support for her. The first message in a long thread in the online forum Tianya (天涯社区) is typical: "That foreign toady face of yours will always be a shameless one to the Chinese people! (你这样的崇洋媚外的嘴脸是要永远被中国人民所不耻!)" Some netizens threatened to tear her to pieces if she were to return to China. Some doubted that she supported Tibetan independence, but was instead promoting herself in front of the Western students and Western media, or trying to get a green card. China Central Television (CCTV) has gotten into the act of villifying Grace Wang as well: on April 18, its Web site showed her picture along with a video of the Duke protests under the caption "The Ugliest Chinese Student Abroad (最丑陋留学生)."
Grace Wang (Photo by Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times)
Wang was placed under police protection and unable to resume her classes. Her parents' home in Qingdao was vandalized and her parents went into hiding. She is most worried about her family in China. According to Radio Free Asia's account of its Cantonese Service's interview with Grace Wang:
Wang doesn’t support Tibetan independence — she sees herself as a champion of human rights and free expression. “I think that Tibet is definitely a part of China. It is indivisible from China. This means that we must deal with Tibet and Tibetans as our brothers and compatriots,” she said.
“That means that we should use other methods than those used to deal with outsiders. You can use whatever methods you think expedient with outsiders, even very forceful methods. But with Tibetans we are dealing with our own relatives. There should be more reason and more relatedness in our dealings with them.”
On the angry youth phenomenon which is a major driving force in contemporary Chinese society, Grace Wang observed:
This very strange phenomenon of the angry youth among the Chinese today is a psychologically imbalanced manifestation, an abnormal patriotic way. But in reality it is definitely not patriotism.
Actually there are a lot of people in China who do not speak out and constitute the silent masses. They have the ability to observe and to think. Currently the people who observe and think with depth have not yet spoken. So floating on the surface is a layer of words spoken by those who are relatively agitated. [ch]
Wang hopes for a China that allows everyone to hear diverse political opinions and different voices. She is particularly concerned about tyranny, not just of the government, but also of the people. To her, those who assaulted her parents' home by writing big character posters, political slogans, and even spilling feces in front of their door are employing the tactics of the Cultural Revolution. What is terrifying is that this time it is the Cultural Revolution committed by the people (人民文革).
Ironically and ominously, even the "smiling angel in the wheelchair" became the target of vituperative invective by some angry youth. Angered by the assault on Jin Jing and other disruptions of the torch relay in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's threat to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, an alleged support of the Free Tibet Movement by the French retail giant Carrefour (家乐福), Chinese netizens called for a boycott of Carrefour. Jin Jing, however, expressed reservations about such a boycott, since Carrefour's many Chinese employees would be hurt. In response, Jin Jing was called "Chinese traitor" (汉奸) and worse names by some angry netizens.
Last revised: May 3, 2008
