Bug I can't say Mazegirl is regurgitating the party line given that alot of the material she has provided is from western sources and research. I think she is fairly appreciative of yours and some other posts but maybe feels frustrated at trying to respond to some of the more aggressive replys; hence it is difficult to maintain a sense of balance between providing historical cultural data associated to what she feels close to and proud of, and her honest acknowledgement of the negatives of the cultural revolution. There is bound to be some repetition given the climate of this forum.
North American society is fairly young in comparison to China and the developement of our democratic systems occurred in a very short period of time since our settlement here from Europe. I wonder what it would have been like for us if we had a comparative population base to deal with, along with the types of incursions which China had to deal with following the collapse their own feudal and dynasty periods? We will never know.
One last point: You can't blame a person for loving and feeling proud of their national cultural heritage despite any shortcomings. We love our Countries here in North American too but also accept and bare the scars of any misdoings in our history.
For what it's worth
