What seemed to have died down in the last couple of weeks or so is back into the news press all over the world and it seems that the conflict has yet to be resolved. In New York City, home to a broad range of Chinese immigrants and their children, the attitudes of Chinese-Americans toward the conflicts are as diverse as the people themselves, depending upon how they feel about the government of China, the sense of an uber-Chinese identity, and the mixing of politics and sports. Something has to be done quickly about the conflict because the most-high profile Olympics in a generation approaches, just four months away, the world has simultaneously cast one eye toward the violent Tibetan clashes in China and the other toward the roving (and lately also violent) path of the Olympic torch, which has drawn the ire of protesters
Many people echoed the ideal that sports should be separate from global politics (though that did not stop the Americans from boycotting the Moscow Olympics in 1980 or the Soviet Union from reciprocally boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984). Others may contest the idea of whether Tibetans are actually Chinese in the same way that the dominant Han majority is Chinese.
In my opinion, I could really care less about this situation and I feel that it needs to be quickly resolved so everyone can move on and just enjoy the Olympics like they have in the past years. I also feel as if we should be putting our time and energy in things more important such as poverty, crime, and most importantly war.
I love your take on this issue. As I was reading your overview of the article, I couldn't help but think, "Are people really fighting over this stuff?" With everything else in the world, wars, hunger, poverty, genocide, etc. and THIS is what people are diverting their attention to. It is a little hard to believe that people can be so shallow.
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