Old Tibet

The major focus of Chinese Media's description about Old Tibet,is the serf system. That is where Chinese and Western media diverge from each other. Beijing has emphasized the cruelty and backwardness of Tibet's feudal and superstitious past, highlighting the physical punishments such as mutilations of body and the burying of children[1].  These focuses can be clearly seen from a large-scale propaganda in 2009, “50th Anniversary of Democratic Reform in Tibet Picture Exhibition”. In contrast, Dharamasala and its supports (mainly Western media) tended to argue that the society before so-called "Democratic Reform” fulfilled everybody's needs[1]and it was Han Chinese's ethnocide policy that ruined Tibetan's religious and spiritual life.

The second dramatic contradiction between Chinese and Western media lies in the revolt in March 1959. The Chinese media regards it as “democratic reform” while the Western media marks it as the beginning of modern fight for “free Tibet”. Dalai Lama’s accounts of event in March 1959 have long been viewed as unquestionable by Western journalists and scholars, though recent documentary reveals that some aspects of his accounts are worth questioning. More importantly, Dalai Lama’s old accounts continue to be prevailing in Western main stream media even though Dalai Lama himself has admitted the incorrectness in some parts of the narrative. Then it comes as no surprise that Western media gives a romantic ring to the uprising in 1959, believing it marks the beginning of fight for “free Tibet”. 

[1] The China Quarterly, No. 83 (Sep., 1980), pp. 568-579, Some Thoughts on the Current State of Sino-Tibetan Historiography by A. Tom Grunfeld