My Tibetan Students and I

From Fool's Mountain, Nimrod translates a letter that originally appeared on Zaobao.com: a teacher from the Shanghai Administration School wrote about his experiences with his Tibetan students:

I love my Tibetan students very much. But my romantic vision at the beginning gradually disappeared. I feel that people everywhere are the same. If they have some special characteristics, these must be imprinted by their environment. Usually we believe Tibetan people are simple and warm, unmoved by materialism. But I think this is caused by living a long time in a closed and monotonous environment. In my observation, my Tibetan students all adjust to Shanghai very quickly. They go from nervous and shy to fashionable and confident quickly. In a matter of months, if they have the financial resources, they become no different from the young Shanghai boys and girls. They don't get assimilated into Han, but they get urbanized, modernized. This is certainly not the deliberate doing of the government.

I don't believe that Tibet was heaven fifty years ago, because my students showed me her family photos from the Fifties. They frightened me.

The original Chinese article from Zaobao.com.

Link picked by Danwei.org

Read the complete post at http://blog.foolsmountain.com/2009/04/29/my-tibetan-students-and-i/