One world, two dreams

Carleton Cole, Sutamon Lertmanorat

The Nation

In what looked like a scene out of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese-Thai of all ages and mainland Chinese students marched with flags held high and loudly sang nationalist songs on Saturday near Sanam Luang.

Wearing large Chinese flags like capes, waving smaller ones, and sporting painted versions on their cheeks, the young Chinese were out in force to proudly celebrate the Olympic torch coming to Bangkok ahead of the Games in August.

"There are many Chinese students from many Thai universities here today," said Yan Pan, 19, from Dalian in northeastern China, a business student at Bangkok's Assumption University.

"We are proud that China is hosting the Olympic Games and we are here to protect our torch - because some people want to snuff it out."

After passing through New Delhi under tight security due to the high number of exiled Tibetans in India, the flame was warmly welcomed on Friday night in Thailand, a country with seven million Chinese - the second-largest Chinese population outside the homeland.

Shinawat Tarapan, chairman of the Chinese Foundation in Phetchaburi, said he was happy to make the trip.

"The Olympics promote sport in a harmonious way. It is a sacred ceremony which should not involve politics."

Lin Chao Bu, a shophouse owner and former Chinese-language teacher at the Jianhua Chinese School in Nakhon Pathom, was holding a poster that read "One world, one dream". "People around the world," he said, "are joyful about China fulfilling its dream of hosting the Olympic Games."

Waiting provocatively behind barricades on Rajdamnoen Avenue near the United Nations building were some 150 pro-Tibetan protesters on one side of the road and 300 pro-Chinese on the other.

The groups exchanged verbal assaults, with the pro-Tibetan camp yelling, "Hu Jintao, free Tibet!" To this the Chinese retorted, "One world, one dream, one China!"

"It's impossible to separate politics from the Olympics," said one pro-Tibetan protester - a man from Chicago who is working in Thailand and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It's like 1936, when Europe turned a blind eye to the true nature of Hitler and still let the Olympics go on in Berlin.

"Some people say the protests will make China even angrier, but somebody has to say something - if not, it will be only the people across the street who say something.

"If you look at the opposite side of the street," he said, "you see a homogenous group of Chinese students. On this side is the rest of the world, where there are Thais, Westerners and Tibetans."

"I am here to tell the Chinese to support human rights," said Angkana, a Thai woman wearing one of the common protest signs at the gathering, each bearing the name of a person arrested in China for their political views. Her sign read "Lobsang" and the date March 18, 2008.

Also on view was a poster proclaiming "The evil empire strikes back" with an image of Darth Vader wielding a red Olympic torch rather than a light sabre.

While the protesters' mottoes and signs were blatant and to the point, the Chinese signs were more poetic and akin to a fortune-cookie message, like "Light the passion, share the dream" and "Lasting forever: Thai-Chinese friendship".

"Protesting the Olympic torch is not good for anybody, not for Tibetan, not for Chinese," says Tenzin Josh. The Englishman and former monk in the Tibetan tradition, who was ordained by the Dalai Lama, was one of the speakers at a panel discussion at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand on Tuesday.

"Instead of seeing peace and harmony, we see problems and protests. It could have been a wonderful thing for China to bring the Olympic torch to the whole world. For the first time in history people around the world can see China and relate to China. Protests in London, Paris or in Bangkok are not going to help. It has to come through meaningful dialogue."