May Day: Save Our Sense

I may have to make a trip out to 家乐福 (Carrefour) and pick up a fan just so all the shit flying around will have something to hit. I'll have to go within the next week, though, or else risk being labeled an "anti-China" reactionary protestor. The anti-protest protests have begun, targeting KFC, Carrefour, and the Body Shop--and probably a lot of others I haven't heard about yet.

I first heard about the Carrefour boycott about a week and a half ago, and at that time the stated reason for the boycott was a simple one: France allowed the Olympic Torch protests to happen, so boycotting a prominent French company would send a strong message. Unfortunately, there must not have been enough people joining in the boycotts, so late last week SMS messages started circulating: Carrefour gave money to the Dalai Lama (who, of course, is the leader of a "terrorist" organization).


Now May 1st is set for the beginning of an extended boycott against Carrefour. And the mob mentality may have set in. Shanghaiist.com just ran an article about a 22-year-old American who was atacked by a mob of protestors after coming out of a Carrefour in Hunan province (or "Fulan" as the locals would call it). I have some misgivings about the article, such as the atrocious English written by "an Ivy League university volunteer programme" who would presumably be here teaching English. More in keeping with the sort of attitudes I've been encountering every day as of late are some of the sentiments expressed in the comments section, such as "he should have known that he was taking risk to do the whole thing at this time and place."


The comment that probably drives me the craziest is "When news or rumors pop out like this, the first knee-jerk reaction of you guys is blasting evil China and Chinese." Fair enough, some of the 老外 commenting on the story are knuckle-heads, but so are some of the 中国人. But lately, in every class, I've had to listen to the woe-is-us diatribe of how the PRC is a developing country that everyone steps on and takes advantage of and doesn't respect, while at the same time having to listen to lecture after lecture on how the Han are superior to other people, due in part to their 5,000 year old history. The whole country seems to be suffering from a sort of collective Napoleon syndrome, and it just gets sadder and sadder with each new update. Hopefully, the whole thing will start to disappear after the May 1st holiday, when everyone has to work the weekend to make up for the luxury of two days off.
And, now, KFC has made the list of places to boycott: "Worth mentioning that a few days ago and compared to boycott French goods, the famous American restaurant chains KFC has also been included in the boycott list, the 'charges' is 'the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to boycott Chinese Olympic.'" (That last link's a bit diffuicult to read, but at least attempting to be fair.) As an American, though, I'm looking forward to the boycotts for two very important reasons: 1) I can make a 不吃肯塔基 sign and parade the streets--"Don't eat Kentucky," which looks a lot like "Don't eat KFC"; and 2) I can finally start selling some 我是巴哈马人 T-shirts to other foreigners (What have folks from the Bahamas ever done to China, after all?).