One-sided report misleads public, unfair to students

One-sided report misleads public, unfair to students

By Shin Tai

This is a reaction to the front page story written by Daily
Bruin reporter Tatiana Botton on Jan. 25. She reported on the
Chinese New Year Festival sponsored by CGSA (Chinese Graduate
Student Association).

When describing the Chinese fashion show, she writes that many
of the models were not Chinese, which resulted in a great deal of
laughs from the crowd at the sight of non-Chinese models wearing
traditional garb. Then she goes on to cite a Lion Dance performer
saying "I’m laughing because (the models) are some of my friends
­ and they’re Caucasians."

There is nothing untrue about the report. The problem is that
only one perspective is presented, which makes the whole thing
misleading and hurts the feelings of the Caucasian students who
were in the show.

I was involved in the organization of the fashion show.
Believing that the best way to understand a culture is to
experience it, we invited non-Chinese Asians, such as Japanese, and
even non-Asian students to be models to create a great chance for
mutual understanding between cultures. These non-Chinese models did
a great job on the stage, and all of them agreed that this was an
exciting and unforgettable experience.

It was true that the surprised audience laughed at the sight of
the non-Asian models at the beginning, but it was also true that
the laughs were followed by applause when the audience got used to
it and started to appreciate their performance. After all, if
Chinese can dress up as Santa Claus or Snow White in their country,
why can’t Caucasians wear Chinese costumes in America?

Why did the reporter hear only the laughs, not the applause? Why
didn’t she ask non-Asian audience members what they thought? We
tried very hard to be open-minded to the other cultural groups, but
such a biased description done by Botton ignores our efforts and
discourages people’s interest in participating in the cultural
events of other ethnic groups.

I am very disappointed in that. I hope the Daily Bruin can be
more cautious in presenting perspectives of any similar events in
the future.

Tai is a second year TESL/Applied Linguistics student.