Trampling in China not a new thing..

Starbucks China is in the hot seat after a China Central Television host, Rui Chenggang, wrote on his blog that he wanted Starbucks out of the Palace Museum, aka the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Forbidden City was once the seat of power and the palace of numerous emperors during China's dynastic era.

Rui wrote that the Starbucks location in the Forbidden city "undermined the Forbidden City's solemnity and trampled over Chinese culture."

I've traveled extensively throughout China and I'd like to say a few things about this stupid nationalist sentiment. I don't even know where to start, to tell you the truth. Let's forget the fact for a moment that there is another coffee shop in the Forbidden city and its management invited Starbucks to open up shop in the compond. Furthermore, as far as I know coffee came from barbarian lands (ie: outside of China), but it's funny Mr. Rui and his online Chinese supporters don't seem to have a problem with any of these things other than the Starbucks.

As far as I'm concerned solemnity doesn't really exist in Beijing anymore, or for that matter the rest of China. Beijing authorities gleefully raze generations old hutong communities to raise ugly, un(der)used skyscrapers. They have turned the Great Wall into a day at the circus. Sacred mountains that were once only homes to monks and nuns are now paved with roads and teeming with loud, polluting tour groups. Don't forget that this is the country that went through the Cultural Revolution which destroyed countless books, works of art and buildings back in the 1960s-70s. That was a helluva trampling they did back in the day. By the way, people Rui's age would have been the ones engaged in the revolution. They're the same people today who trample the roads of Beijing on their way to 30RMB Starbucks lattes. I haven't even mentioned the corruption, tainted food, pirated goods, etc that all go against Confucian and Buddhist thought, both a part of Chinese culture.

I was taught as a kid that when you point your finger at someone else there are four fingers pointing back at you; I think that applies in this case. Foreigners aren't the only ones trampling Chinese culture, the Chinese are doing a better job of it without our help. It's only when the foreigners are trampling that the Chinese public get touchy about it and raise a stink. Talk about misplaced outrage...