What’s the whataboutism re: Kent State? My point is the average Chinese citizen cares about Tiananmen about as much as the average American cares about Kent State, which is to say not at all.
I guess we can continue to be fascinated by it and Chinese citizens can continue to look at us weird when we speak about it like it’s the secret to immortality or something.
The average Chinese citizen doesn’t care about Kent state because no one is trying to ban talking about it. People here aren’t internet in 6/4/89, they are interested in the CCP’s banning of it. Anything you try to ban will stand out.
Having lived in Beijing for 9 years, Chinese are mostly the same, they are interested in whatever is controversial in the states (if they are interested in the state, since we don’t ban much) and ignore anything else. Ya, you aren’t going to get any points bringing up 6/4, even at PKU (but you can’t go to PKU on 6/4 so don’t worry about that), but you’ll hear plenty of dirty laundry about your country from them, so don’t worry, the conversations will still be good.
I guess we can continue to be fascinated by it and Chinese citizens can continue to look at us weird when we speak about it like it’s the secret to immortality or something.