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Title: The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama by Melvyn C. Goldstein ISBN: 0-520-21951-1 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An excellent survey of the "Tibet Question".
Comment: I have to take issue with a previous review. The reviewer questions first whether it is a genuine historical study, and second suggests the work has racist notions. To the first question, Goldstein cites historians (including, yes, E.Sperling) who are trained in both Tibetan and Chinese source material. Second, the reviewers claim that treating the Qing and Yuan Dynasties as different (than, say, the Ming) is racist, commenting, "Are America [sic] with black/native American/and [sic] Hispanic president [sic] and congress [a] legitimate American government?" This ignores of course the fact that the United States is a democracy while Qing and Yuan China were Chinas ruled by alien conquerors. Perhaps a small difference? Both the PRC and the Republic of China (Taiwan) claim the political boundries of the Qing State (except the PRC recognizes the Republic of Mongolia while the Republic of China does not); so we ask, is this a legitimate claim? Goldstein is interested in the claims of both the Tibetan Government in Exile and the PRC for Tibet, and he has written an excellent introduction.
Rating: 4
Summary: A very good survey.
Comment: The last review has completely misunderstood the book, and I think I need to point this out so future readers won't continue to misread it. The reviewer from Santa Fe has three arguemnts: 1) He says that Goldstein argues that because Tibet has been part of China it's a good reason to remain so, and that this is nonsense, 2) the reviewer states that 'Chinese sovereignty in the age of horses is one thing, in the age of the airplane and the TV another, and, 3) The reviewer argues that Goldstein glosses the 'cultural genocide'.
First, Goldstein never advocates the PRC's view that China should control Tibet. How the reader arrived at this conclusion doesn't surprise me. Anytime I have tried to explain the Chinese position people have confused it with mine (which is quite different, as is Goldstein's). Goldstein has tried to write a history of how the two sides have agreed, compromised, misunderstood each other and fought each other. The historical question has been taken seriously by the Tibetan Government in Exile (see Shakabpa's history, which takes the historical relations very seriously and relevant to the question of independence), the PRC and Western Nations. Because the players involved take it seriously, Goldstein must address this.
Second, the age of the horse and the age of the TV isn't an argument. The Republic of Taiwan still claims Tibet, and the Dalai Lama has agreed to this claim (as Goldstein points out); not because the TV has been invented but because he has little choice. These questions will continue to be argued when Buicks and Volkswagons drive to the Moon.
Third, Goldstein does address the Tibetans' wish to preserve their culture (I find it distasteful that 'genocide' is tossed around so much these days; the whole world is being 'Americanized' and nobody [save the French, perhaps] has called it 'genocide'. Then again, it has a rhetorical ring that sets the liberal hounds straining at the leash...): Goldstein carefully explores China's despotic policy towards Tibetan culture in explaining why the Dalai Lama has moved towards compromise while others (say, his brother Thubtan Norbu) urge fighting. The Dalai Lama wishes to preserve his culture, so he must deal directly with the PRC. To think otherwise is to wish away a reality (something Buddhists are good at).
In the end, Goldstein is merely outlining what each side wants, and what he thinks the Dalai Lama should do to achieve his goals. The Tibet movement, though optimistic, is losing in the long run. Even if communism ended in China (and the Dalai Lama's laughable argument that communism has a half-life is being disproved in the former Soviet republics), the 900 million Han would still believe that Tibet is theirs. Only the utter collapse of China and a Tibetan revolution could grant independence. The question is, what can the friends of Tibet do to preserve Tibet's culture in the face of unlikely independence? I haven't heard a good idea yet, and time is running out. Maybe the reviewer in Santa Fe could start running guns from Kazakstan.
Rating: 5
Summary: A book that will broaden our minds about the Tibet issue.
Comment: There is no easy solution to an issue as complicated and intricate as the "Tibetan Problem". As much as I abhor the human right abuses in Tibet (which the author does too, apparently), I agree with Prof. Goldstein that the Chinese are really those who hold the trump card. I believe that if the exile government were to accept some sort of comprimise that will actually allow them to work INSIDE Tibet, their chance of achieving a genuine autonomy and preserving the Tibetan culture will be much enhanced, at least from a long term perspective. Important as the much publicized demographical change in Tibet is, one cannot neglect the elements of materialism that is continuously being brought into Tibet. As a friend of mine from China pointed out half mockingly, all that the communists have to do is to build more entertainment establishments to promote indulgence of sense pleasure among the younger generation. That in itself will be a huge blow to the preservation of a genuine Tibetan culture. Thirty years from now, if the exiled are still in exile, the situation will be grim. Time will be running out on a peaceful solution -- China will be substantially stronger, the nationalistic pride of an average Chinese will be stronger, the frustation of the Tibetans who support arm struggle will no more be contendable, and the Dalai Lama will probably no longer be there to represent a voice of peaceful struggle which will anyway have its credential debunked by then. As Prof. Goldstein pointed out, many opportunities for continuous negotiation had been squandered by misjudgement and misperception on both sides, I pray that when the door of negotiation is reopened, more subtantial results will be made.
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Title: The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 by Tsering Shakya ISBN: 0140196153 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship With China by Jim Mann, James H. Mann, James Mann ISBN: 0679768610 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 15 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Interpreting China's Grand Strategy : Past, Present and Future by Michael D. Swaine, Ashley J. Tellis ISBN: 0833027670 Publisher: Rand Corporation (NBN) Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy in the Era of Reform, 1978-2000 by David M. Lampton ISBN: 0804740569 Publisher: Stanford University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Modernizing China's Military: Progress, Problems, and Prospects by David Shambaugh ISBN: 0520225074 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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