Soundings in Creative
Chauvinism
Tashi
Rabgay
REVIEW
This provocative volume brings together
thirteen essays by prominent Chinese writers on the pressing question
of Tibetan self-determination. Originally published in Chinese in 1996,
the present translation provides a rare glimpse into some of the most
dissident views on Tibet among high-profile Chinese intellectuals.
While they must all be regarded as unorthodox,
the perspectives represented in
these timely pieces are far from uniform. Indeed, they range from the
conspicuously cautious to the defiantly radical. This diversity is due
at least in part to the different purposes and audiences that the authors
originally had in mind. Some, such as political scientist Yan Jiaqi and
democracy activist Shen Tong, offer policy-oriented reflections on future
political arrangements--ideas that are clearly intended to draw the attention
of both the Chinese and Tibetan leaderships. In contrast, Wei Jingsheng's
1992 letter to Deng Xiaoping famously criticizes the Chinese Communist
Party's Tibet policies, charging the then-paramount leader personally
with "incompetence and ignorance" (75). Others, such as Beijing
academics Ding Zilin and Jiang Peikun, are concerned simply to break the
complicit silence that most Chinese have long maintained on the plight
of Tibetans. They exhort Chinese intellectuals in particular to "reconsider
the Tibetan issue without ideological blinders". Co-editor Cao Changching
emerges as perhaps the most persistent voice of conscience in this collection.
Although his essay, Independence: The Tibetan People's Right, might come
across to some readers as a dutiful rehearsal of common arguments in favor
of Tibetan independence, his second piece makes it clear that such a restatement
of the basic position is essential at this early stage in Chinese reconsideration
of the Tibetan issue.
What unifies all the essays is a general
endorsement of the principle of self-determination as applicable to the
Tibetan people. However, not all the writers are equally enamoured of
the notion. For example, Yan Jiaqi and astrophysicist Fang Lizhi give
the notion little more than a passing nod before moving on to their own
prescriptions for the future of Sino-Tibetan relations. It is regrettable
that the writers do not reflect more deeply about the substantive content
of this abstraction since, as with all assertions of rights, the dilemma
of competing rights quickly rises to the surface. Shen Tong thus warns
that while he is in principle in support of the Tibetans' right to self-determination,
"[i]ndependence cannot be established at the cost of loss of freedom
for non-Tibetans in Tibet" (50) --a risk he believes to be sufficiently
costly as to preclude the Tibetans' full exercise of their right. Speaking
within an uncritically liberal paradigm, Shen insists that we are obliged
to seek a "better solution" and that his proposal for "integration"
is a logical alternative, a "rational choice" that will engender
an inclusive, participatory and open society.
Underlying this view lurks the aphorism
within which Tibetans now find themselves entrapped: "Without a democratic
China, there can be no separation. Once China is democratic, there is
no need for separation." (104) In his brief but refreshingly far-sighted
piece, Xue Wei observes that overseas democracy activists are fond of
repeating this slogan. It is in fact a corollary of another proposition
put forth by reform advocates and many of the writers in this volume:
that all contemporary ills in China today are to be blamed on the CCP,
including (as Wei Jingsheng puts it) the headache of Tibet. This misses
the point that the Sino-Tibetan conflict is, at heart, not about corruption
or ideology, but rather about race and ethnicity. Even in this collection
of dissident writings, few are willing to name Chinese chauvinism for
what it is--a practice in racial discrimination. One is more likely to
find oblique references, as in the statement: "We must also change
our manner toward the Tibetans and treat them as equals." (33) Similarly,
Fang Lizhi's remark that he happens to have had a close Tibetan colleague
recalls the comment that African Americans have long had to endure in
this country: "I am not a racist. I have a Black friend." Indeed,
Wei Jingsheng's experience regarding his Tibetan fiance intimates that
the view of Tibetans as "half-human, half-beast" (85) does not
lie far below the surface of social politesse.
While all the contributors are to at
least some degree sympathetic to Tibetans as a people, a number of the
essays demonstrate a surprising attachment to anachronistic ideas about
imperial China. Thus, Wei Jingsheng cites approvingly the Chinese leadership's
decision to carry out the "peaceful liberation" of Tibet and
laments the fact that China has already lost nearly half of its "High
Qing ancestral territory".(85) Harry Wu's narration of his moment
of epiphany in Xining provides an illuminating counterpoint to this view.
As a patriotic young man, he had been taught to identify his great nation
with the shape of a mulberry leaf. He later realized that his cherishing
of that very image prevented him from understanding the imperialism at
work behind the potent symbol.
With the notable exception of Song Liming's
engaging and memorable piece on the 1951 Seventeen-point Agreement, the
essays in this volume do not themselves make a scholarly contribution
to the problem of Sino-Tibetan relations. However, to the extent that
the publication of this book in itself represents a political event, this
collection will most certainly be of scholarly interest to all concerned
about the future of Sino-Tibetan relations. Indeed, it will very likely
be remembered as capturing an important moment in the long road to peace
between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples.
"Tibet Through Dissident Chinese Eyes: Essays on Self-Determination".
Edited by CAO CHANGCHING and JAMES D. SEYMOUR. New York: M.E. Sharpe,
1998. xxviii, 133.
Reprinted from the "Journal of Asian Studies" (Vol. 58:1, 1999 pp.187-188), with permission of the Association for Asian Studies.
