By jingo, they're mad![1]_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

By jingo, they're mad![1]

Western observers may say this wave of ultra-nationalism has been stoked by the Chinese government but that is to disregard history. In the early 20th century, Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American actress, suffered a similar backlash whenever she portrayed a morally unsavory role. She had only a supporting role in the 1932 Hollywood romance adventure Shanghai Express and her occupation as a prostitute was only hinted at. Yet, there was still a boycott of the film in cosmopolitan Shanghai. There were no such problems in Germany, where Marlene Dietrich, who played the lead with a shady past, hailed from. And Dietrich was a much bigger name in Germany than was Wong in China.

Chinese people suffered a great deal of humiliation when their door was forced open by foreign invaders and they lost many wars at their hands. But the stigma of shame is not restricted to history. For the present generation, it's more from a skewed perception of history. We have never learned to look at foreigners, especially Westerners, as equals. We either pride ourselves on a superiority complex or banish ourselves into an inferiority complex, which are simply two sides of the same coin. Last year when some were calling for a boycott of a French retailer, Chinese visitors were spending a king's ransom in snapping up French wines at a Paris airport. Even if a Chinese brand had the same quality as its French counterpart and was cheaper, rest assured that most Chinese would go for the French brand without even pausing to think about supporting a domestic industry. Loving China is all rhetoric; worshipping all things foreign is all action.