Random Play by Graham Reid

Right now in Wellington (well in the Top End Of Cuba St Autonomous Zone, which I guess is regarded as Wellington) there is an exhibition on at the Thistle Gallery of artworks about the Zapatista movement in Mexico.

Now these guys have been, since 2004, engaged in a rebellion against the Mexican government.

Has the Mexican government been calling the mayor and other dignitaries and demanding they don't attend? Were there middle class Mexican students picketing the place? Has anyone written to the paper attacking the Zapatistas as unrepresentative political extremists?

And if the Mexicans did these things, would anyone care?

I just think people are being really disingenuous in saying that: the Chinese have a point, they're a wonderful booming nation, they have their own forms of democracy, the Falun Gong are slightly scary extremists, etc.

When the subtext is really that the Chinese have loads of money and we want to sell them milk.

I guess that's the price of being South Pacific Milk Sheiks!

Oh, I forgot to pimp the link.

I am amazed at the amount of money the FG seem to have to cloth their bands and run their shows. Does it all come from their individual supporters? How wide is that support in NZ?

Not a fan of repressive regimes myself, but nor am I a great fan of cults.

The Zapatistas are a very different beast, honest at least. Conflating the two is disingenuous.

Disingenuous indeed. Mexico is a long way from being the next "rising power" and doesn't inspire anywhere near as much fear in the western world.

"The show aims to appeal to the Chinese audience's sense of cultural pride in the 5000 year history and suggests that the current regime is an aberration in the grand scheme of things."

Oh, I don't know. I would've thought Qinshihuang would've approved of Mao Zedong, and the CCP seems to conform quite well with Han Fei Zi's doctrines, even if Wen Jiabao seems to take a more Mencian tone.

The Zapatistas are a very different beast, honest at least. Conflating the two is disingenuous.

No comparison is ever wholly valid, we can cluck about that all our life or we can try and take meaning from the questions that are being asked.

The Zapatistas are in open rebellion (previously armed, but not at present I understand) against a government which most of the world thinks is legitimate.

Falun Gong, as far as I know, isn't in open rebellion, they're just demanding the right to practice their religion and not be persecuted. Non-violently I believe.

I suspect the Falun Gong gets much worse press, and less problems, because they're seen as a bit of a religious wacko cult, and because the Chinese government works hard to make sure they get bad press. Maybe their lack of honesty about what their show is in the mix as well.

Personally I don't mind if they have a show, thought I'd be very unlikely to go see it. The removal of adverts about the show by supporters, and the targeting of anyone important to try to get them not to see it - seems to be taking it a bit too far away from 'free debate' and more towards 'shut down debate'.

Your Chinese lecturer's comment about China sounds like quantum theory.

In Toronto last year, every two weeks, there was a Falun Gong parade down Spadina Road in Chinatown. A full blown parade - elaborate costumes / uniforms, marching bands, floats, banners......all of it.

On the 4 corners corner of Spadina and Dundas there was a group of elderly Chinese men and women playing tapes on amplifiers, handing out pamphlets all day, every day.

There has been speculation that Falun Gong gets cash from the CIA to create "leverage" with the Chinese leadership for the US. I don't know whether it is true. But everywhere i see them, they are well-resources and very well organised.