First Lady Tai-chi

[Bao]

Death isn`t black , white or whatever colour .
She just doesn`t know

For the Chinese, the color of death is white. For the vikings, the color of death was blue, because that was the color of ice. When the christians came to the north, they have to speak about the blue fire of hell so they could understand that this fire was something bad.

Everybody look at life with cultural colored glasses. In my own view, there's a great irony in the racism of Israels, But I don't believe that they can see the black humor of it. ("Black" = yes, pun intended.)

[wiesiek]

I should use "not differentiate " , for clear message

[Taste of Death]

There are more emoticons in this thread than a Hello Kitty tweet fest.

[wiesiek]

first lads always gets the biggest emotional ovations

[jonathan.bluestein]

Judging from JB's comments I believe he's being more political than anything, I have a hard time imaging him saying those things about Laura Bush or Nancy Reagan.

Do you think Israelis/British/French/etc care about Democrats vs. Republicans inside politics? I sure don't. The Bushes and Reagans sure did a whole lot more damage to this world than the Obamas anyway.

As for the racial slur accusations... Completely out of place. The reasons for me not liking her have nothing to do with her being black. I have black friends, served and worked with black people, and in Israel we very rarely had any racial clashes based on skin colour.

I have called this 'lady' a "Behemoth". The latter is a word in Hebrew. The meaning is usually livestock (plural). In singular form (Behema), it is used to denote in slang a person whose way of carrying himself/herself is grotesque and/or clumsy (one of the most commonly used Hebrew slang words). Perhaps unbeknownst to me, the word has connotations to slavery days, which in turn made people take this as a racial comment? I am honestly not aware of that.

I am happy to live in a country in which you can express the opinion that someone of a different skin colour is not to your liking, and not be blamed for being a racist for thinking that way.

He is part troll and part Israeli.

Want to hurt CMA? Have more people like JB teach CMA to beginners.

Why the personal attacks?... I have never tried to offend you, as far as I can recall. Please refrain from these.

I notice JB hasn't the balls to back up his comments.

Here again... Why go so low, taunting me as if we're 13 year olds in an alley? I have only now replied because I had forgotten about the thread altogether.

[Steve James]

Well, I thought the comments were more amusing than anything else. I think it's a joke to make fun of anyone doing tcc, especially on their first day. Actually, I expect students to be clumsy on their first day. Anyway, I think that it's hard to tell much from pictures.

Afa behemoth, I don't know how much it's used in tcc classes in Israel. But, just as in the responses to your comments, it depends on how the person so named takes it. In English, behemoth refers to something big and powerful. It is rarely used to refer to a person, but hey, it's a free language. Fwiw, I didn't think that the use of the word was racial, though I thought that it's overuse indicated that it came more from a dislike of her because she is BO's husband. I'd go so far as to bet that you wouldn't have said the same about anyone else.

Well, okay, I also thought it was funny that a European (?) guy in the ME could decide that someone is making Chinese ma look bad and leading to its destruction. Um, I'm not sure that anyone was overly impressed with the TCC people were doing in the pictures.

Anyway, when the discussion did turn to "race," I had to say something. (Btw, having black friends doesn't mean a thing. I know racists with black children). This is not a funny or trivial subject. I pointed out that these black/white categories and stereotypes are created here. Maybe you heard about this incident: http://abcnews.go.com/US/jewish-center- ... d=23314978

The irony is that none of the people he murdered were Jewish.

[jonathan.bluestein]

I honestly haven't a clue how this turned racial, and I sincerely don't have anything against Barak Obama or the Democrats. I mentioned Bush originally just to show that even he could show a little bit more respect (he is not known for his great respect of other peoples or nations).

I also did not mean to suggest that the Taiji in that article was impressive or great representation of Chinese culture. What I meant was that in the bigger context of things, this is a trademark news report that symbolically demonstrates how the U.S. uses soft power (culturally and economically) run over traditional Chinese culture.

[Steve James]

What I meant was that in the bigger context of things, this is a trademark news report that symbolically demonstrates how the U.S. uses soft power (culturally and economically) run over traditional Chinese culture.

And, very few people here saw that as a good example. Nothing at all is happening to traditional Chinese culture because of the interference of US cultural power. I didn't understand the claim that she was imposing herself on Chinese culture or taking it over. I don't know how you could tell whether she asked or was asked to try. Moreover, if Golda Meir would have gone to China and tried tcc, my mother would have smacked my mouth if I'd talked about that woman's looks or compared her to Chinese women.

Hey, I get it. I am totally for people speaking exactly what's on their minds. I also think that along with that comes the fact that people are totally free to express their opinions about what someone says.

[Michael]

American culture, the part that is created and controlled by multinational corporations, who care nothing for Americans or Chinese, which is to say AMERICAN CULTURE as a weaponized export, is damaging China almost as much the USA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/healt ... .html?_r=0

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-0 ... reads.html

[Steve James]

Well, I think that Americans and Europeans are doing more to destroy Chinese culture than American culture.

[Patrick]

I think the chinese do more to destory Chinese culture.

[Steve James]

Nah, the Chinese create Chinese culture.

[Patrick]

Nah, the Chinese create Chinese culture.

Agreed, here corrected:

I think the chinese government did almost anything to destroy anything remotly close to ancient Chinese culture.

[Steve James]

Well, ok, that's an argument I've heard and understand. But, I'm sure that Americans and Europeans will/can do nothing to save ancient Chinese culture. I also think that "culture" per se is something that the people create based on the needs of their environment. I'm not sure it's possible to retain an ancient culture and be modern. When that happens, culture turns into a commodity. It's like walking through a Chinatown gift shop. I wouldn't say that is the effect of American culture, but it's commercialization none the less.

[jonathan.bluestein]

Well, I think that Americans and Europeans are doing more to destroy Chinese culture than American culture.

That much is true. But they are tremendously helped by Western powers. You wrote that you don't see how that's happening? I've had many examples on my trips to China. One of the most prominent had been the restaurant business. You walk 30 minutes around Tianjin, and can count at least 10 branches of KFC/McDonalds/Starbucks, etc. These are aggressively killing the local restaurant biz, and local food is cheaper and superior - just lacking in funding for advertising and brainwashing techniques.