我是美国人 (I'm American)

Ever since coming to China, "Where are you from" is among the first questions that people ask me (an issue I addressed in this earlier blog post). When they learn that I'm American, their reaction is generally very positive. The most frequent response I get is "哦，美国好！是个很强的国家!" (Oh, America is great! It's a very powerful country!) I generally respond, "对，我也觉得还不错" (Yeah, I also think it's not half-bad). As a result, I was never concerned or self-conscious about being an American in China. However, that's changed in the past two days.

When chatting with people back home, several of my friends and family members have asked me about the news coverage in China, and whether I had heard about the death of Osama bin Laden. I realized that I couldn't answer them. Yes, I had heard the news, but my sources were the New York Times, CNN, and a range of posts on Facebook. I don't have a television in my apartment, and I don't read Chinese newspapers. I live in what I fondly call "The China Bubble."

"The China Bubble" is a very particular place. In this realm, I am distanced from American life and media, and only receive news through specially selected, streamlined sources. However, due to my ability to live comfortably and with such luxuries as a VPN, I don't experience China like its natives do. Also, due to the language barrier coupled with a lack of initiative on my part, I don't read Chinese newspapers to gain their perspective. In sum, "The China Bubble" is a very pleasant yet naïve place to reside.

For this very reason, my friend Alina reads the China Daily, an English-language Chinese newspaper. Of course its not the same as reading an actual Chinese paper, but it does present news from a different perspective that is geared towards a different audience.

Today I decided to heed her advice. I can tell you, however, that all of the headlines of the eight-plus Chinese newspapers I saw read along the lines of "Americans Kill Osama." So yes, everyone in China knows about it. Generally speaking, the Chinese are much more lax with world news than their own.

Front page of 05/03/11 China Daily newspaper

While reading various headlines such as "Bin Laden's journey to fanaticism, terror" and "Killing may have little impact on network," the cafe's resident cat jumped on my newspaper. When I pulled him off, he scratched me in the process. Ironically, just as I wrote the word "when" in the preceding sentence, the little devil leaped from the top of the refrigerator behind me to the back of my chair, effectively scaring the living daylights out of me. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that he's riled up over the news, too. Either that, or he's angry over the fact that I'm not sharing the leftover milk from my coffee.

But I digress. I have to say, after reading through the paper it's not quite what I expected. The articles on Bin Laden read similarly to their American counterparts. The remaining national articles were a strange mix of drama and fluff, ranging from "53 officials punished for roles they played in melamine milk scandals" to "Lovelorn passengers seek partners aboard a love bus" and "Kate's dress a hit with copycats."

Is this a step towards Chinese online dating?
If so, can we backtrack? This is awesomely ridiculous.

Now every Chinese woman can be a princess!

So no, I still don't know what Chinese people think about Osama's death. While I'm curious, I'm also not keen to truly investigate. I don't know if it's cowardly or sensible, but I make a point to keep a low-profile when I'm in China. I'm also not an overly political person by nature, and am reluctant to speak with authority on subjects I'm not well-versed on, especially not when I'm the representative American for these people, and am thereby regarded as the "voice of America." While some people are very curious and love to talk politics, others are also quite wary. For example, even an earlier discussion I had with a girl at the museum about how American history has directly affected our constitutional law and culture got her into trouble with our supervisors. Since I considered it more of a matter of history and culture than strictly politics, I didn't think anything of it at the time.

What do Chinese people think about the death of Osama bin Laden? I know that I, for one, am still trying to figure out my own thoughts on the subject.

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5/4/11: This article posted in the Wall Street Journal addresses the range of Chinese responses to Osama's death: http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424052748704740604576301112983040114.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Asia