Olympic Float at the Rose Parade

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I realize this is a little untimely, but after seeing the beautiful float celebrating the 2008 Olympics in Beijing that was displayed at the Rose Parade, I though I would post the link to the article that appeared the Sunday before New Years Day in the LA Time

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chinarose30dec30,1,7434413.story

This article is about the protesting of the parade due to China's human rights violations, as well as general disagreement with the Communist politics of the country. The article mentioned that due to Southern California's close business relationship with China, as well as the enormous Chinese population living in San Gabriel, tha protesters of the float have been dismissed, and even ignored, by the major media outlets, and even in Chinese media here.

It's an interesting article, and it also links to photos from the parade and pictures of people protesting.

I think it's a good article to use with students to discuss the upcoming Olympics and why some people are upset about the Beijing location. Starting with something closer to home and then opening the discussion up to the wider view of protesting human rights violations and media coverage/bias.

[Anonymous]

I read about this also on the latimes.com website. Do you know if people actually turned their backs to the float at some of the protest organizers tried to do? I didnt hear about it afterwards.

[Anonymous]

I was very happy to see how many asian floats there were this time around. I wasn't actually going to watch the parade but the news clip of protesters at the parade caught my attention. It was such a beautiful float-all of them-, about people actually turning their backs I saw on T.V while they were covering the parade that many people didn't even turn around

After the parade, the reporters interviewed many people and asked about the float-they said that many people didn't care that others were protesting. They taught that the float was great and that they are aware of the issues back in the country.

[Anonymous]

The views of the Chinese friends I know were divided, mainly between people who are recent immigrants and those who have been here for generations. I know a Chinese woman who is part of the Rose Parade Committee and she was saying that her friends warned her to not make "too much of an issue out of the protest, since they are now Americanized." I thought it was an interesting comment: any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I have something to say regarding that comment. I am an american citizen but I still feel strong ties with my birth country. I consider myself a latina, and love my culture and try to learn as much as I can about it. I feel that issues that go on in Guatemal affect me because it affects my relatives and I feel obligated to help in one way or another. On the other hand my sister who was born here she feels she is an american, and that's fine by me but her roots are from central america. She doesn't like the culture, and last time she was there she hated it. I feel sad that she can't embrace the culture as much as I do and a little bit of it is ending with her. I see trough her that people whos parents are from other countries and they are born here, they feel american and do care a little about their culture but their tieds are in the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Naturally I think there's going to be a difference between those who feel more associated with the US than of their ethnic native countries. For me, I do care what happens with Chinese being Chinese myself. However, I was born here in California and actually have never even been to Asia. What do I know about what is really happening in China? I cant speak for them if I really dont know what is going on first hand.

[Anonymous]

Until people really understand what culture and heritage really is they will continue to think that it is an honorable thing to disown and look down on where they come from and who they represent, namely their ancestors who might have sacrificed a lot for them. Many times when people forget their roots they have nothing to hold onto and nothing to pass on to their next generation. People try hard not to forget their tradition their customs their culture and their food. These things are the makeup of a people. America is a nation that is made up of immigrants.

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