By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Do Chinese people care about Mandela?
Sad to hear about Nelson Mandela's death but happy about the positive effect he had on the planet. He has been an inspiration and hero of many but today the Chinese reaction seems somewhat muted.
Are the Chinese people educated to understand the Mandela struggle?
high school English textbook ,people's education press, new edition , 10th grade, unit 5 ：Nelson Mandela ,a modern hero .
so I think if a Chinese has listened carefully in that class, he/she is supposed to know Nelson Mandela's story.
IrvineWelsh:
Fair point, but knowing the story and understanding the meaning behind it are two different things...
i don't believe Chinese are too well read when in comes foreign news/politics. (I'm not relating his death to politics in anyway) i believe they know exactly what "they" want them to know. when i ask my university students questions about another country's history, i am happy if they have even heard of the country. the rest that comes out of their mouths is either a total crock or laughable.
with that said, my girlfriend chose her English name after Mandela's wife (the first one). so i guess that goes to show his impact on the world is felt here in someway.
Being South African, I've had a lot of opportunities to speak to Chinese people about Mandela. After I tell them where I'm from the normally say 'Ah, Madela, hen lihai". But this is generally the older generation. I often take cabs or meet old people in elevators who know a lot about him, the fact that he was ill and everything he had done. So I think there is an awareness. But, generally, the younger generation don't know him or what he did.
We do care, check out the link:http://v.qq.com/cover/i/icmm2tyhlk1c67y.html?vid=n0012csz2rk
Anyone I have personally talked to doesn't seem all that bothered. One guy took the biscuit and just said, 'he was a negro'.
Obviously I explained why he shouldn't say that but he wouldn't listen to reason.
Sometimes it's like banging your head off a wall...
Samm11:
Just read your comment to my chinese friend. She keeps on laughing. Go figure
Ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!! Are you serious?! The Chinese don't give a damn about ANYONE but THEMSELVES!!
mArtiAn:
Congratulations man, you made it through a post without using the word 'ethnocentric'.
Maybe yes, maybe no, Irvine. That being said, his passing was given much extended all day long on all the government media TV stations and also on the Hong Kong TV stations as well.
Ah, Nelson Mandela, the anti-semitic, communist, terrorist supporter. What about his lovely wife, Winnie, who oversaw the "necklacing" of thousands of south africans?
Pretty much anyone who disagreed with him was brutally killed. Sounds like a great role model in the same vein of Mao. So yeah, I'm guessing they like him very much. 
Hulk:
No. Has anyone here actually looked into what Nelson Mandela did?
mArtiAn:
Have you ever looked into what happened in South Africa under apartheid? Sometimes I wonder about you mate?
Hulk:
Yeah, apartheid was terrible for sure.
So were many of the things Mandela did. Sure, him opposing apartheid was a good move. Not debating that.
brother1818:
I wish you would explain some of your accusations. Sure, Mandela wasn't perfect. BUT he peacefully lead a country through a transition that could, and should, have been a violent. When he first became president he forged a government filled with whites, blacks, indians, socialists, democrats etc because he was wise enough to know what the country needed instead of just hiring his cronies. Ya, he was jailed for being a 'terrorist' but he was fighting against a regime which tried to place over 80% of the country on 10% of the land and which was one of the most racist goverments in recent history.
Hulk:
Google "Nelson Mandela necklacing," "terrorism," etc. Amnesty International refused to take his case because of his methods. He was rightly tried and convicted of terrorism, and received a fair sentence.
If I recall correctly, nearly 11k people were brutalized under apartheid, and over 308k people were brutalized by Mandela's government. I'm not saying he didn't do the right thing in opposing apartheid, but many of his methods were in the same vein as Mao, Stalin, Hitler, etc.
brother1818:
No one was 'brutalized' under his goverment (maybe before he became president but not after) There have been no necklacing incidents since we had our elections in 1994, when Mandela came into power. I have never walked the streets with a fear of being necklaced. EVER! As someone who lived through it, I can tell you that South Africa under Mandela's goverment, was a peaceful, amazing place to live. You're looking at Mandela as portrayed by the Apartheid goverment and by other pro-apartheid goverment regimes and media agencies.
I asked two people today what they knew of Nelson Mandela. The first one, a grade 10 student, said she knew he was the Sth African president and the other person, a female adult, said he had many wives.
Neither could tell me much more.
