{"id":73687,"date":"2017-05-23T14:25:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T14:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=73687 "},"modified":"2017-05-23T14:25:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T14:25:00","slug":"73687-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=73687","title":{"rendered":"Chinese student abused for praising \\&#8217;fresh air of free speech\\&#8217; in US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br style=\"font-size: 12pt;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Tuesday 23 May 2017 08.57 BST Last modified on Tuesday 23 May 2017 15.49 BST<\/span><\/p>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2017\/20\/2017523image.jpg\" alt=\"2017523image.jpg (620&#215;349)\" \/><br \/>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iZyU4FzJRKE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A Chinese student has faced abuse from nationalists in China after she used her graduation address at a US university to celebrate &#8220;the fresh air of free speech&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Yang Shuping, a psychology and theatre graduate from Yunnan province, came to study at the University of Maryland five years ago, as a dramatic clampdown on civil society and academia began back home under Xi Jinping.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">During the speech at her graduation ceremony on Sunday, Yang recalled her delight at the US&#8217;s cleaner skies, saying &#8220;every breath was a delight&#8221;, and having the freedom to speak out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">I have learned [that] the right to freely express oneself is sacred in America &#8230; I could even rate my professors online,&#8221; she said. &#8220;My voice matters. Your voice matters. Our voices matter.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">In her eight-minute address, Yang said she had been inspired to see her American classmates vote and take part in political protests. Another inspiration was a performance of an Anna Deavere Smith play about the 1992 LA riots, in which racism, sexism and politics took centre stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">I was shocked, I never thought such topics could be discussed openly &#8230; I have always had a burning desire to tell these kinds of stories, but I was convinced that only authorities owned the narrative, only authorities could define the truth,&#8221; she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Freedom is oxygen. Freedom is passion. Freedom is love. As the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said: &#8216;Freedom is a choice&#8217;.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">In one-party China, where there has been an intensifying offensive against free speech since Xi took power, the comments proved extremely contentious.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">After a video of her speech was posted online by a Communist party newspaper on Monday and went viral, the backlash began.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Some attacked Yang, who is from Kunming, one of China&#8217;s least polluted cities, for depicting it as smog choked, even though her comments on China&#8217;s air quality appeared to be largely a political metaphor, not a reference to the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">In a social media post, Kunming&#8217;s government defended its &#8220;fresh and sweet&#8221; air and said the city was spring-like throughout the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Others accused Yang of denigrating China in online posts. &#8220;She has demonised China with the nonsense she has talked,&#8221; one person wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Another said: &#8220;She has an incredible ability to lick feet. Don&#8217;t worry about coming back to China. Our motherland doesn&#8217;t need a bitch like this.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A third called on internet users to dig up dirt on her family through a type of online campaign known in China as a &#8220;human flesh hunt&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Studying in the US costs a lot of money, so where is it coming from? She must come from a rich family. What on earth does her family do?&#8221; they asked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">State-run newspapers fanned the flames of the controversy. The party-controlled, nationalist Global Times quoted an anonymous student as saying that publicly talking about free speech was &#8220;immature and mean&#8221;. The student accused Yang of spreading &#8220;radical opinions&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The People&#8217;s Daily, another Communist party-run newspaper, accused Yang of &#8220;bolstering negative Chinese stereotypes&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A second student, who also declined to give their real name, was quoted as saying: &#8220;What you gave is not free speech, but rumour mongering and favour currying &#8230; Your freedom cannot stand, either factually or morally.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">In an apparent attempt to defuse the situation, Yang issued an online apology. &#8220;I&#8217;m sincerely sorry for the speech and hope to be forgiven,&#8221; she wrote, adding that she had not intended to &#8220;insult&#8221; her country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The University of Maryland stood by Yang, describing her as a &#8220;top student&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The university proudly supports Shuping&#8217;s right to share her views and her unique perspectives, and we commend her on lending her voice on this joyous occasion,&#8221; it said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/may\/23\/china-yang-shuping-free-speech-university-of-maryland-us-student\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Yang Shuping, a psychology and theatre graduate from Yunnan province, came to study at the University of Maryland five years ago, as a dramatic clampdown on civil society and academia began back home under Xi Jinping.&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}