原文：

Tibet: The Shangri-La that exists only in the West's imagination

With the Olympics over, I hope the Western sport of bashing China over Tibet might stop.
Working in Beijing during the Tibet riots and the preparations for the Olympics gave me a unique perspective. Growing up with Western media and Hollywood, I am used to our embrace of the Dalai Lama. Being in China, I saw the Chinese point of view.
Seeing both sides suggests the need to abandon simplistic political stances in favor of some self-reflection and historical context.
Although we should criticize China's censored media, the Tibet riots revealed some troubling blindness among our own media. While the causes of Tibetan unrest are complex, it is clear that the March riots were started by Tibetan protesters and that they were quite violent. Indeed, they were violent enough to lead the Dalai Lama to threaten resignation if his followers did not stop the violence.
Since "violent Tibetan" does not fit our stereotype, our media fixed the news. While Chinese media showed extensive footage of violence and interviews with Chinese and Tibetan victims, Western media manipulated images and even showed footage from other countries (Nepal and India) in order to paint a picture of ruthless oppression by China's government.
Chinese media exposed the Western media manipulations, forcing the BBC, N-TV and RTL-TV to apologize. Not surprisingly, the American media has yet to acknowledge
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its bending of the truth. The point is that while the Chinese know their media is censored and do not trust it, we believe our news is objective and end up being righteous while misinformed.
If we had seen the violence of the Tibet riots, our condemnations may be more nuanced. Quite simply, no government, democratic or not, allows such violence within its own borders. Providing peace and stability, even by force if necessary, is what governments do.
Large and powerful countries tend to have regions that were not always part of the country. In America, we proudly call it Manifest Destiny and never trouble ourselves with how we got much of California and Texas from Mexico, never mind the rest of the country and our sordid history with Native Americans.
On the Chinese flag there are five stars commonly interpreted as representing the five major ethnic groups in China. One of those stars represents Tibetans. China's claim to Tibet spans centuries and it is a claim that the United States and the rest of the world recognizes.
To Chinese people, removing one of those stars is akin to removing one of our states, such as Hawaii. Our history with the native people of Hawaii has been relatively brief and quite brutal and there exists a tenacious independence movement. Still, there is no talk in the mainstream media and among the Hollywood celebrity activist circuit of Hawaiian independence, not to mention Puerto Rican independence or the American Indian movement.
Government repression of these movements also escapes media scrutiny. Before we lecture China, we may want to tend to our own backyard.
Amid cries of "free Tibet" and calls for religious freedom, the question is what does freedom have to do with Tibet? Under the Dalai Lama, was there religious freedom? Was there any freedom? Actually, no.
We would recognize the Dalai Lama's Tibet as a medieval religious theocracy with a small elite class served by a large and oppressed serf population. The Dalai Lama ruled a region with no religious freedom, no political freedom, indeed, no human rights of any kind. The rulers were ruthless. Torture and mutilation were widespread. Poverty and starvation were rampant. It was Shangri-La only in the West's imagination.
Richard Gere, Sharon Stone and other Hollywood devotees may be surprised at their idol's current positions. The Dalai Lama condemns abortion and homosexuality while accepting prostitution. For decades the Dalai Lama secured millions of dollars from the CIA and runs his government in exile like a monarch.
Despite its shortcomings, Chinese rule has provided the Tibetan region with infrastructure and public schooling and provides Tibetans with widespread opportunities and a degree of personal freedom unheard of under the feudal theocracy of the dalai lamas.
China is far from perfect and deserves honest scrutiny and criticism. To expect China not to act like a large and powerful country, however, and to throw stones from our glass house, proves nothing but our own ignorance.
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* KEVIN DELUCA is an associate professor of communications at the University of Utah and author of "Image Politics."

翻譯：

美國《鹽湖城論壇報》9月1日文章，原題：香格里拉只存在於西方的想象中

隨著奧運的結束，我希望西方就西藏問題對中國的指責可以停止了。西藏騷亂和奧運期間在北京的工作經歷讓我有了一種獨特視角。我是在西方媒體和好萊塢影響下長大的，因而習慣於我們對達賴喇嘛的信奉。但在中國，我了解了中國人的觀點。

雖然中國的媒體審查應受到批評，但西藏騷亂暴露了我們自己的媒體在某些問題上的盲目。誠然，西藏騷亂起因很复雜，但顯然那是由藏人抗議者挑起的，而且他們相當暴力。但由於“暴力的藏人”與我們頭腦中的固有印象不符，於是我們的媒體開始對新聞做手腳。西方媒體操縱畫面，甚至使用發生在尼泊爾和印度等其他國家的報導，這一切不過是為了描繪一個中國殘酷鎮壓的畫面。

中國媒體揭露了這種造假行為，迫使英國廣播公司、德國N-TV等道歉。但我們相信我們的報導是客觀的，因而即便報導不實也還理直氣壯。無怪乎美國媒體至今不承認歪曲事實。

中國的國旗上有5顆星，其中(4顆小星)代表各族人民群眾。中國對西藏擁有主權可以回溯到幾百年前，這也是美國和其他國家都承認的主權。對中國人來說，把國旗上的一顆星拿掉，無異於將我們的一個州（比如夏威夷）分離。我們與夏威夷土著人的歷史相對短暫且相當殘酷，並且存在一種頑強的獨立運動。但我們的主流媒體及好萊塢活動家們從不談論夏威夷獨立，更不用說波多黎各獨立或印第安人運動了。在教訓中國前，我們有必要先打掃好自家後院。

在“西藏自由”和宗教自由的一片喧嚷聲中，我不禁要問，自由跟西藏何干？在達賴喇嘛統治時，西藏有宗教自由嗎？有任何自由嗎？其實根本沒有。我們所不知道的是，達賴喇嘛的西藏是中世紀的宗教神權社會，大部分被壓迫的奴隸伺候著一小部分精英階級。達賴喇嘛所統治的地區沒有宗教自由、沒有政治自由，甚至沒有任何人權。統治者殘忍，酷刑和傷殘司空見慣,貧困和餓殍觸目皆是。香格里拉只存在於西方的想象之中。

盡管存在不足，但中國的統治為西藏地區提供了基礎設施和公共教育，為藏人提供了廣泛的機遇和一定程度的個人自由，這些在達賴喇嘛時期的封建神權下是聞所未聞的。

中國遠非完美。但是，我們自己做得不好卻對中國指指點點，這只能証明我們的無知。