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Originally Posted by climber07  However, I will tell you mine definition between Patriotism and Nationalism:
"Patriot" is someone, when given a choice, , choses to truly love, serve and support his/ her country for the betterment of it's citizens (often through selfless acts). (i.e. in the words of JFK - "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!"
"Nationalist" is someone who is determined to achieve unity, independence, and often domination of his/her nation at any cost. Nationalistic movements are typical under regimes which allow no other choice (i.e. Nazi Germany, Soviet Union / Russia, etc). When you can't criticize your government or face retaliation, your only choice is to support it and "try to Make it great". Thus making the Superiority and ambition as no real other choices exist.
Thus, in my book, it's the fact that that flag waiving American has a choice to burn it and piss on it (along with the photo of the president) in front of the White House, but yet choses to waive it.....is what makes him a Patriot rather than a Nationalist.
Now go get your "I Love China" or "China Wins" t-shits, I heard they're selling like hotcakes. Giordano has an advert in today's local newspaper, their new Patriotic shirts will go on sale May 1 (May Day). I'd get in the queue now  |
EXACTLY! My point is that the choice of words is extremely influential - basically chinese people are "nationalist" and the west are "patriotic" - by calling the cheering chinese crowds nationalistic, the western media portrays these people as brainwashed and their love for their country as fake and trivial... when you see HK people waving the Chinese flag, are they nationalists or patriotic...? again, word choices can make a world of different
by the way it is NOT ACCEPTABLE for americans to publicly burn the American flag... !! Are you nuts?! You'll get arrested right then and there!! If you're of another ethnicity, you'll probably be assumed a terrorist... C'mon, didn't you see how Obama's preacher was criticized for being 'anti-american'?? It was a huge controversy - which means it is NOT widely acceptable to be anti-american in the U.S....! You can disagree, up to the certain point. China has a lot of work to do, but the west is NOT honky dory either... racism, classism, ageism, sexism... very well practiced in the west as well. For example, it sucks to get old in the U.S., here at least there's more respect for the elders...
I, along with many people, do love china, what's so wrong with that. This love is not only shared in hk/china, but overseas Chinese even more... my love wasn't borne out of being brainwashed - as I've been living outside of HK/China for the past 25 years. But just like you probably love the country you're from wherever that may be... is that wrong? Especially as an overseas chinese, you see the injustice, you have no representation in the media (lucy liu is like the only asian-american actress... and she's barely working...), no political clout... living as a second class citizen in a foreign country actually brings out your love for your country even stronger. You value an identity and recognition that chinese /asian people living in asia take for granted... bottomline, you're never the mainstream once you leave your homeland, expats should identify - hence sites like geoexpat / expat communities exist... as a support system. This is why you see such strong support from overseas chinese - even more so than in the mainland...
USing words like patriotic vs. nationalistic gets people to think that the west is soooo open minded and soooo value free speech while chinese people around the world are brainwashed... let see how far free speech goes if African Americans start burning White businesses and killing white people because they've been suppressed for the past 150 years... i'm sure the national guards would be called in --- uhh... remember the LA riots anyone... no killing but imagine if violence was escalated? I was in LA at the time and it was not a pretty site... maybe foreign countries should have marched and protested against racism in the states...oh yeah, it's an INTERNAL AFFAIR to be sorted out INTERNALLY....
As for Giordano's shirts, kudos to them, how many stars and stripe shirts i have seen the gap / american eagle etc make...??? huh??? Why is it to wrong and negative when CHINESE people want to show pride for their country.. especially after having gone through hundreds of years of western imperialism.
Sorry to go on and on, but needed to share. Thanks Geoexpat for giving us this forum... hey perhaps the free-est speech is on HERE!!
