Dalai, Your Smiles Charm But Your Actions Harm

2008年04月24日 浙江在线新闻网站

the plane with the protesting banner

Over 500 demonstrators protested outside the University of Washington in Seattle, US, where Dalai Lama was invited to give students a speech on Apr. 14th. The demonstrators waved big Chinese national flags and banners alleging media discrimination and protesting the violence of rioting by Tibetan monks. The signs called Dalai Lama a liar.

The China-born community rented a small plane for the banners on Apr. 12th and 14th. One of the banners said "Dalai, Your Smiles Charm But Your Actions Harm". This is the first face to face confrontation between overseas Chinese and Dalai Lama. Even the American media described it as "good behavior".

One of the organizers of this protesting activity is from Hangzhou. Her name is Xie Jie, who immigrated to Seattle with her family in 2005. We interviewed her by telephone on 17th.

Xie Jie made a lot of preparations for the protesting with the support from her family and friends. It was proved to be the most effective and creative to rent a plane for demonstrating the banner.

"We did all these in order to tell the truth to the people who were misinformed by media bias." she said.

Media reports on Dalai Lama and "independence of Tibetan" caught the eyes of the Chinese community in Seattle a few weeks ago. However, not all information exhibited the truth.

Xie Jie, together with her husband Yun Haihua, got acquainted through the internet with Xiaolong, the main organizer of the protest, a doctor from Zhejiang University doing postdoctoral research in US.

The proposal of a protest initiated by Xiaolong didn't receive too much respond at first, while protesting were going on in Cananda, UK and Australia by local Chinese community. Xiaolong didn't give up till he was almost desperate, when Xie Jie contacted him via E-mail.

"Xiaolong replied that he couldn't go to sleep for three days." But it was not until the Olympic torch got hit by the protestors in Paris that the overseas Chinese really got angry and began taking action.

As the protest was scheduled on Monday, a working day, they were concerned that not many people would participate, however, over 500 Chinese gathered on the site. Some of them even drove for over 4 hours from Portland and Vancouver to join in the protest.

It is not cheap to rent a plane, 400 US dollars an hour.The plane with a banner of 20 meters long saying "Dalai Lama, Stop Supporting Riots" appeared overhead as Dalai Lama was making a speech in a Seattle arena on Apr. 12th. Everyone in the arena was astonished, including Dalai Lama.

The local Chinese community held a 3-hour protest despite the heavy shower outside the University of Washington in Seattle on Apr. 14th.

"We played videos, made speeches. During breaks we sang Chinese songs. Many a people were in tears when we sang My Chinese Heart," said Xie Jie, "When you are in a foreign country, you will do it very naturally."

Xie Jie remarked that many westerners have misunderstandings of China. It is an arduous deed to tell them the truth. "But we will keep trying."

There was another protest in LA last Saturday and more protests will be held in other American places like Minnesota and New York City.

来源： Hangzhou.com.cn 作者： Chen Dong 编辑： 侯玮