China is dangerous. You never know what’s next. If you’re not provoking vituperation by explaining how to make egg fried rice, you’re putting your job application at risk by failing to denounce the Dalai Lama.
One must not overgeneralize. It may be during only certain months that talking about egg fried rice is particularly vexing to those vexed. CNN tells us that egg fried rice has in recent years “become a highly sensitive subject for China’s online nationalists, especially around the months of October and November.”
On the other hand, one can’t really know for a fact that talking about egg fried rice would be okay in May or June.
Emotions are running so high this week [late November] that one of the country’s most famous chefs has been forced to apologize—for making a video on how to cook the dish.
“As a chef, I will never make egg fried rice again,” Wang Gang, a celebrity chef with more than 10 million online fans, pledged in a video message on Monday….
Angry nationalists accused Wang of using the video to mock the death of Mao Zedong’s eldest son, Mao Anying, who was killed in an American air strike during the Korean War on November 25, 1950.
Angry Nationalists are angry about mentions of egg fried rice that occur in the vicinity of the anniversary of Mao Anying’s birth (in October) or death (in November). According to a possibly apocryphal story, he was killed in an American air strike during the Korean War because instead of taking shelter as ordered, he was out in the open cooking egg fried rice. According to the story, the smoke from the cooking gave away his position.
What the Angry Nationalists are so dang angry about is still not entirely clear, but anyway…
Did Wang Gang go overboard in pledging to never make egg fried rice ever again? Well, a couple of years ago, somebody in Nanchang “was detained by police for 10 days for commenting in a post that ‘the greatest achievement of the Korean War is egg fried rice.’ ” Wang Gang was not trying to make a political or social comment when showing how to make egg fried rice. He was just being a celebrity chef doing a cooking video. But let’s face it. Egg fried rice is egg fried rice.
So, sensitive topic. Avoid.
If saying some things is dangerous in China, so is not saying other things. If you are trying to get a job in the Chinese government and you are expected to denounce the Dalai Lama, you had better denounce the Dalai Lama. According to Radio Free Asia:
Tibetans who want to get public sector jobs must comply with a harsh Chinese rule requiring them to denounce the Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibetan Buddhism….
An official directive from Beijing released this month advertised 554 new public job opportunities in the city of Sigatse (in Chinese Xigaze) for its Village Development Expansion Program. It sought college graduates from the Tibet Autonomous Region with training in medicine, counseling and village development.
Those applying for these jobs must be “trustworthy and reliable citizens,” renounce the Dalai Lama, refrain from separatism and remain loyal to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the directive said.
Of course, one must weigh relative risks when sallying forth in any situation in any society, and in the Tibet Autonomous Region, saying nice things about the Dalai Lama is probably riskier than saying nice things about egg fried rice.
But be careful. You can’t simply take for granted that the lower risk of discussing egg fried rice is so insignificant as to be no risk at all. To be absolutely safe, what the Chinese people must do is avoid any utterances about egg fried rice while also regularly and firmly denouncing the Dalai Lama.
