As mentioned, I am a writer. I write. Sometimes more than I should. And it's probably deeply significant that most of the subjects covered on this blog have nothing to do with the subject of the book I am now working on. My MA Thesis was on the subject of the international discussions that went on behind the scenes and enabled the finding of the first Peking Man bones. Peking Man was an early hominid, a variety of homo erectus, whose remains were first discovered near Beijing in the late 1920s. It's an interesting story with many interesting people and events, and therefore I'm using the thesis as the basis for a non-fiction work aimed at a popular audience on the history of the Peking Man digs.
Today this was shared on the East Asia Paleontology Yahoo group.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-06/25/content_8321603.htm
A couple points jumped out at me. First the article, which comes from Xinhua, the official Chinese press, uses the term "Peking Man" consistently. A few years ago, they were trying to rename "Peking Man" as "Beijing Man" so it's interesting that they don't do so here.
Secondly, they state."Chinese archaeologist Pei Wenzhong found the first complete skull at the site in December 1929, together with a large number of stone tools and evidence of fire use by humans."
Although it's true that Pei found the first complete skull, they neglect to mention that this was not the first evidence of Peking Man nor that he was working as part of a foreign-led team. The part about the tools and evidence of fire is highly controversial at best.
In other words, there is the usual traces of Chinese propaganda mixed into the article.
Oh well, as mentioned in a previous post, I am currently enrolled in an education program. I am finding the occasional side-trips into trite multi-culturalist, anti-White propaganda difficult to swallow. This is terribly ironic, as although I am proud of my ancestry, a quick check at such things as my cell-phone records, my facebook friends, my e-mail account or my personal history will reveal that I spend at least as much time around non-Whites as Whites. So what's the problem? Probably too much exposure to bubble headed liberals and ethnocentric Chinese. That's one of the great things about dealing with the Chinese. They are among the most ethnocentric people on Earth and even when they try to behave in a culturally accomodating manner they still somehow manage to come across as condescending. (For instance, look at almost any Chinese major event and you will see a contingent of minority non-Han people dressed in their "traditional" dress. This traditional costume was chosen for them by Han Chinese propagandists.) Simililarly the American multi-culturalists somehow seem to assume that should they encourage minorities to adhere to non-Western cultural traits, they will somehow naturally drift towards thinking like American liberals, only with different snacks and dances.
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