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'Thunder proposals' by political advisers are just silly hot air
By Wang Xiang |
March 19, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
OVER the past two weeks, reporters thronged to Beijing for the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body. Unlike past sessions, this one saw quite a few ridiculous proposals making headline news.
Ban all private Internet cafes? Don't use the Chinese word "yellow" to mean pornography? Ban some popular Internet memes to defend the purity of our mother tongue?
These hilarious proposals were named "thunder proposals" because of they defied common sense. What's wrong with these political advisers supposed to be wiser and more enlightened than most of us small potatoes? They apparently turned into stand-up comedians and twisted serious political talk into something akin to farce.
Yan Qi, a member of CPPCC and a business woman running a restaurant in Chongqing, southwest China, suggested a nationwide ban on private Internet cafes, citing one letter she said she had received from a desperate mother saying online games were ruining her boy's future.
Yan thus blamed private Internet cafes for social ills like school truancy, petty theft and video game addiction. She said these are desperate diseases that must be cured with radical methods - ban them all. She said the government needs to step in and take over the business into its own hands. To Yan, government control would be a panacea for all ills, while history has proven that the world has never been short of corrupt government officials.
Stigmatization
Premier Wen Jiabao pledged early this month to give every Chinese a life with dignity. In proposing to ban all private Net cafes, Yan was stigmatizing every private owner of a Net cafe, essentially denying them a life of dignity.
After creating a public uproar, Yan fought back saying anyone opposed to the proposal must be a private Internet cafe owner himself or herself. Some Internet users were so provoked that they hacked the Website of Yan's restaurant.
If Yan's move to screen out vulgar online games was not without a bit good intention to protect minors, the proposals by CPPCC members Wang Quanshu and Shen Changfu were intended for bubble talk.
Wang, president of CPPCC's committee in Henan Province, said it is a blasphemy to the Yellow river, the nation's mother river, by associating the word "yellow" with pornography. Shen, general manager of China Mobile in Chongqing, suggested the central government filter all Internet memes, for example "orz," to protect the purity of Chinese language.
The two must not know a thing about linguistics before they proposed a reform in the current language, or they would know a key characteristic of language is arbitrariness, meaning whatever mixture of sounds spoken by people is considered meaningful if there is an agreed-upon convention among the language users.
These two political advisers believe in the arbitrary use of administrative power, calling for spending tax payers' money to change the language system people are already accustomed to. Like Yan, Shen cited the protection of children to justify his suggestion. He said such expressions could have bad influence on children's mental health. No one can be too careful with young minds, but won't depriving the younger generation of their unique language system cause more harm to children's mental health?
Unrealistic
Zhao Qizheng, spokesman of the CPPCC, said on March 13 that many proposals were unrealistic when reporters questioned him about the "thunder proposals." Ge Jianxiong, the curator of Fudan University library, criticized the quality of proposals at this year's CPPCC meetings, saying they were growing worse and worse every year because the members did not really care about the people.
Certainly not if the members stand to profiteer from these ridiculous proposals.
At least Yan confessed, after drinking too much wine, that her proposal added 500 million yuan (US$73.2 million) to the value of her restaurant brand.
According to Han Fangming, a member of the CPPCC, Yan bragged at the dinner table on March 11 about how smart she was to use her "thunder proposal" to attract attention to her restaurant. Han said Yan had told him that advertisements worth 500 million yuan would not have had such a huge effect.
Ban all private Internet cafes? Don't use the Chinese word "yellow" to mean pornography? Ban some popular Internet memes to defend the purity of our mother tongue?
These hilarious proposals were named "thunder proposals" because of they defied common sense. What's wrong with these political advisers supposed to be wiser and more enlightened than most of us small potatoes? They apparently turned into stand-up comedians and twisted serious political talk into something akin to farce.
Yan Qi, a member of CPPCC and a business woman running a restaurant in Chongqing, southwest China, suggested a nationwide ban on private Internet cafes, citing one letter she said she had received from a desperate mother saying online games were ruining her boy's future.
Yan thus blamed private Internet cafes for social ills like school truancy, petty theft and video game addiction. She said these are desperate diseases that must be cured with radical methods - ban them all. She said the government needs to step in and take over the business into its own hands. To Yan, government control would be a panacea for all ills, while history has proven that the world has never been short of corrupt government officials.
Stigmatization
Premier Wen Jiabao pledged early this month to give every Chinese a life with dignity. In proposing to ban all private Net cafes, Yan was stigmatizing every private owner of a Net cafe, essentially denying them a life of dignity.
After creating a public uproar, Yan fought back saying anyone opposed to the proposal must be a private Internet cafe owner himself or herself. Some Internet users were so provoked that they hacked the Website of Yan's restaurant.
If Yan's move to screen out vulgar online games was not without a bit good intention to protect minors, the proposals by CPPCC members Wang Quanshu and Shen Changfu were intended for bubble talk.
Wang, president of CPPCC's committee in Henan Province, said it is a blasphemy to the Yellow river, the nation's mother river, by associating the word "yellow" with pornography. Shen, general manager of China Mobile in Chongqing, suggested the central government filter all Internet memes, for example "orz," to protect the purity of Chinese language.
The two must not know a thing about linguistics before they proposed a reform in the current language, or they would know a key characteristic of language is arbitrariness, meaning whatever mixture of sounds spoken by people is considered meaningful if there is an agreed-upon convention among the language users.
These two political advisers believe in the arbitrary use of administrative power, calling for spending tax payers' money to change the language system people are already accustomed to. Like Yan, Shen cited the protection of children to justify his suggestion. He said such expressions could have bad influence on children's mental health. No one can be too careful with young minds, but won't depriving the younger generation of their unique language system cause more harm to children's mental health?
Unrealistic
Zhao Qizheng, spokesman of the CPPCC, said on March 13 that many proposals were unrealistic when reporters questioned him about the "thunder proposals." Ge Jianxiong, the curator of Fudan University library, criticized the quality of proposals at this year's CPPCC meetings, saying they were growing worse and worse every year because the members did not really care about the people.
Certainly not if the members stand to profiteer from these ridiculous proposals.
At least Yan confessed, after drinking too much wine, that her proposal added 500 million yuan (US$73.2 million) to the value of her restaurant brand.
According to Han Fangming, a member of the CPPCC, Yan bragged at the dinner table on March 11 about how smart she was to use her "thunder proposal" to attract attention to her restaurant. Han said Yan had told him that advertisements worth 500 million yuan would not have had such a huge effect.
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