Trying to educate the world just furthers mistrust

• Source: Global Times
• [21:22 November 22 2009]
• Comments

By John Holliday

Look through Chinese newspapers each day, and they are filled with stories seeking to reassure the world of the country's intentions.

Whether it is the quest to decrease China's cultural deficit through Confucius Institutes, or the attempts to promote the nation through events such as the Frankfurt Book Fair, no country is making more effort to project a particular image to the world.

As a foreigner, I can't help thinking that this makes things worse, not better.

In fact, people in Western countries aren't instinctively biased about China or fearful. They are simply quite ignorant.

Geographically and culturally, China feels very distant. Chinese history is not generally taught in schools and few Western children learn the language. Ask the average European man on the street to name a city in China beyond Beijing, Shang-hai and Hong Kong, and nine out of 10 would be stumped.

This isn't a criticism or even a surprise. China's rise up the economic charts has been so rapid, it is inevitable it takes ordinary people overseas a certain amount of time to catch up.

Because of this, it is easy to understand why China feels it should be “educating” the world. The problem is that this makes the world feel very uncomfortable.

Foreigners like to gain their knowledge on their own terms. We are accustomed to making choices about information sources, consuming a range of media viewpoints, and being taught not just facts, but also how to make judgments.

Being told about China by China is not going to be effective. It is like being given fashion advice by a clothing trader – instinct tells us that there is an ulterior motive. We'd prefer to get our fashion advice from a magazine we trust, and then go to the clothing trader in a position to make an informed judgment.

The people with the most influence over foreigners' viewpoints on China won't ever be government spokesmen, state-sponsored authors or CCTV-9. It will be foreign media organizations, independent writers, and bloggers – people who are able to inform the public overseas in a language they can trust, and understand.