Brookline High School in China

China 21: Oh Rwanda, Rwanda

Saturday, March 19th, 2005
10:39 AM Xi'an time

Last night, Friday night, we had what is becoming to be our weekly movie night. The six students and the teacher gathered at Edna's house. And as the day came to an end we prepared ourselves to watch "Hotel Rwanda" (newly arrived at our pirated DVD store). The atmosphere seemed odd; I mean here were 7 Americans and two Chinese hosts watching a movie about a Rwandan genecide in Xi'an China. Truly the distance of a miles have grown gradually smaller with each year of the past thirty. Thirty years ago, we could not have been in that apartment, the Chinese host mom and sister would not be allowed to watch this film even if they had a TV, and I couldn't instantly publish my reactions to becoming aware that 1 million people were slaughtered during MY lifetime.

I'd already seen "Hotel Rwanda" right before I left, and was extremely affected by it. However, watching the movie with these 6 other people who are quickly becoming my family with each day and being in China only heightened the power of the film.

After the movie ended, the credits began and rolled by w/o a word from anyone. Looking around the room expressions flickered with from frowns to struggling eyes to blank stares. Sara, and I hope she doesn't mind me saying this, was in absolute tears.

One scene in particular resonates with the icy guilt of responsibility, or lack there . The terror had taken full control of the city as the civil war escaladed, and European forces sent in troops under the pretense of an intervention force to protect the millions of refugees who each day only wished they wouldn't have to watch their friends dying around them by the machetes of the crazed Hootu rebels. The "intervention force" came to the protagonist's four-star hotel, but only to take their citizens out of harm's way and back to their country. The Rwandans who celebrated when the forces arrived watched as they were carefully divided from the foreigners and then watched all the "intervention" leave the entire country. They were left alone as machine guns hissed just outside the hotel's walls. The entire international community turned their eyes away from Africa once their valued citizens had escaped the terror.

The best movies are those that make you think after. The best movies are those that inspire you. The best movies are those that can make you laugh, smile, swear, grit your teeth, and cry. And yet, as I walked out of Edna's apartment the movie's message did not seem as applicable as it did when I saw it in the States. Why didn't I blame China for not noticing Rwanda either? It wasn't that I wasn't a Chinese citizen; I felt angry at the European nations that failed to acknowledge genocide in front of them. And the thought came to me, perhaps I didn't feel angry at China for the same reason Americans in '94 could watch Rwandans killing each other as they ate dinner. Because they are not part of what we, the Western powers, consider civilized. Despite the economic boom and increasing amount of press China recieves they are still do not represent the "democracy" that the US wants to instill in all nations around the world so that we, the US, can control them. Why is it that I consider it solely the job of these primarily white powers to control and "protect" the world? Are we "protecting" Iraq? Shouldn't I be just as pissed at places like China for not helping Rwanda? Or is it just the guilt of being entirely unaware of this tragedy that happened while I was playing video games, makes me want to say, "Well, this isn't entirely my fault look how many other nations could have done something."?

I guess what I'm getting at is who is China in our minds as a global being? To put it in 2pac's words do Americans see China as "a rose that grows in concrete" and is bound to die because they don't follow our prescribed democratic republic? Maybe China is not responsible b/c the American film producers who made "Hotel Rwanda" think that when it boils down to it the US is simply watering China's growth picking the roses as they sprout.

but today is saturday, such thoughts aren't comforting. I'm off to an American steak lunch

posted by dAVID @ 9:38 PM