Free Mandela!
Free Mumia!
Save the Whales!
Fur is Murder!
Jesus was a Vegetarian!
My Other Car is the Millenium Falcon!
There are all sorts of trendy causes out there. Some of them are serious and some of them are just plain silly. Just because others are ignored it does not change the validity of the trendy ones.
Marc
MGibson: My point isn’t that Tibet is an inadequate social cause, my point is that people support it because they think looking concerned on this issue will make them look better to, well, to whoever is in the car behind them, I guess. I’m talking motives, here.
However, your post raised another very important point, which shouldn’t be overlooked: All bumper stickers are pretty stupid.
But Mandela was freed, fur is increasingly anathema, whale hunting is illegal (for now) and vegetarianism is increasingly popular.
Of these, probably only Mandela has particular resonance with the “Free Tibet” stickers. But that resonance is pretty strong. Why was Mandela freed and how come apartheid ended? Couldn’t be anything to do with overwhelming international condemnation, could it?
If your government believes that the majority of its populace sees the liberation of Tibet as of primary importance, then it may bear this in mind in future negotiations with China. And if China believes that the rest of the world condemns it for occupying Tibet then it may bear that in mind as it tries to open up trade and tourism. Just maybe the bumper stickers as part of a wider awareness campaign can make a difference after all.
But Matt - I’m sorry, but I’ve never yet seen a bag covered in badges that doesn’t look like a stylistic disaster zone.
pan
:: enthusiastically waving hand in air ::
Ooh! Ooh! Me!! I got it! I got it!
I’ve seen it on a bumper sticker…
Yeah, Mizzou has one of them, that has to be the most wortheless resume club in existance! Just draw some chalk pictures, and show up to a rally or two, and you get a nice club to add to your resume with references. I want to start a Students for a China-controlled Tibet club. Just to have a little fun with the non-bathers.
Every time I see a “Free Tibet” sticker, I am tempted to take my magic marker and scribble in a parenthetical “(While supplies last!)”
kabbes: Well, I still don’t have a Millenium Falcon, so bumper stickers aren’t quite a universal panacea.
Seriously, though, I think the effect outside pressure had on the end of apartheid. I suspect increasing violence and unrest inside South Africa had more to do with reform than a bunch of whiney Berkleyites.
And setting that aside, the situations in South Africa and China are very different. The Afrikaaners were Europeans, originally, and are more sensitive to criticism from their homeland. China, on the other hand, has a long history of isolationism. In practical terms, they don’t give a fuck about what we think. And yelling at them isn’t likely to change their attitude. On top of that, South Africa was a democracy, and therefore more responsive to that sort of political pressure. Seeing as outside pressure didn’t stop China from running over their own citizens with tanks, I don’t see how its going to stop them from running over someone else’s.
I dunno, Miller. There’s never just one thing that creates the result. It’s gradual, insinuating pressure over long time periods - often from both within and without. Political climates change and when they do it’s as well to have those making the changes aware of where people stand.
If the bumper stickers go, it becomes a less trendy cause. If it becomes a less trendy cause then less coverage is given to it. If less coverage is given then it is easier to commit travesties behind closed doors. That’s one possible chain, there are others.
Anyway, I’d much rather see “Free Tibet” than some pithy and horribly unamusing “motto”.
pan
What I find annoying about the trendoids who sport “Free Tibet” bumper stickers that they know nothing about the history or culture of the place, let alone ever having been there.
As bad as the present situation is, the Tibetan people were oppressed by the native theocracy, which ruthlessly suppressed attempts at modernization. Mind, the current Han colonization has been disastrous for the Tibetan common folk, who have not seen any benefits from increased tourism and the influx of foreign money. I’m just saying Tibet was no paradise when it was independent.
It’s ironic that the Tibetan Empire almost conquered Tang China in 783 when Tibetan troops seized Chang’An (modern-day Xi’an).
Thank you goboy. I’m glad someone said something. In 1950 Tibet was about as remote and backward a place as existed on Earth. It had been ‘Chinese’ since it was declared a protectorate of China in the late 1700’s. China was only reasserting its rights when it invaded. Tibetians themselves were deeply divided when the invasion took place and many welcomed a more direct Chinese rule. That being said obviously China has been far harsher in Tibet than any Tibetians wanted. That should come as no surprise considering the general history of China this century. Tibet is just a specific manifistation of the same problems everywhere in China. So this begs the question, why does Tibet get special treatment. Why aren’t there bumper stickers to free Xi’an, Inner Mongolia or Manchuria. If anything these regions have suffered even more. Inner Mongolia and Machuria have had their cultures so assaulted only a handful of people there even think of themselves as seperate cultures rather than Chinese. In the end I think the only chance for a free Tibet was in the first few days of the war. Tibet would be free if Tibet had put a unified front and if India had recognized Tibet’s independence. After those first fateful days Tibet was, and for the forseeable future, will be Chinese. The best hope is that the Dali Lama can get a better deal ala Hong Kong. The next seven years will provide the best opportunity for a long, long time. And the US should realize we are basically inconsequential in those negotiations.
On the bumper stick front my favorite verstion is:
Free Tibet
With the purchase of equal or greater Tibet
Somebody earlier mentioned those “Free Mumia” stickers. those piss me off even more than the ones about Tibet. Fre him? Why? Because two seperate juries convicted him twice of murdering a cop in cold blood?
I believe you answered your own question, Bartman - The overwhelming majority of people in those places see themselves as Chinese, therefore it’s hard to see a problem without knowing the history of those places.
My High School’s got a branch of SFT, as well. It is one of the more pointless undertakings in the school, I have to admit. They circulate petitions, which are sent speedily to the Chinese heads of state. I am sure that these well-worded pleas are immediately give to the Chairman himself, whereupon he orders another Tibetan city knocked down, just for the stupid American kids.
Bartman: Manchuria isn’t such a good example, in so much as it largely ceased being Manchurian before 1800, entirely through peaceful emigration ( which the Chinese government tried to prevent ) 
. But I agree with your general point and I’ll extend it back even farther - Tibet has been under somebodies thumb since the Mongol warlord Altan Khan established the post of the Dalai Lama in the second half of the 16th century. Tibet’s history has largely consisted of being either an aggressive imperialist power itself in the distant past( as goboy mentioned ) or a quiescent client state of some Central Asian power or another. From the time of Altan Khan ( r. 1542-1583 ) to the disintegration of nationalist China into warring factions in the early twentieth century, it had essentially no independant status at all - At best it had limited internal autonomy. In fact the last foreign military venture the Manchu State engaged in was a cross-plateau attack into Nepal in 1792 to punish the Nepalese for their raids into Tibet.
Which, again, doesn’t justify modern Chinese brutality. But it does provide a little context in which to place Chinese-Tibetan relations.
-Tamerlane
“Honk if you can find Tibet on a map”
“Free the Darwin fish”
“My other car is hypothetical”
“Visualize where you’re going, dipshit”
“Honk if you love honking”
Careful! Can’t you get your liberal membership card revoked for noting heart-warming, yet ineffective, gestures?
You want bumper stichers? Here’s a whole mess of them.
Heck yeah, damn transnationals and their scheming ways!
I promise you will not see any Free Tibet bumper stickers here.[list][list][list][list][list]
Free Mississippi!