Yesterday, I learned that the jasmine flower is believed to have originated from Tibet! If this is true, there is a poignant serendipity in the fact that "Jasmine" has come to be a term applied to the revolution in Tunisia, and now it has become a banned word in China. In fact, "Jasmine" has not only been banned as a word, but it's been banned also as a flower.
Last Sunday, when Chinese responding to an online call for a Jasmine rally turned up outside a McDonald's in Beijing, they were immediately arrested. A few Chinese were arrested for carrying jasmine flowers in their hands!
First they banned "Egypt." Then they banned "Jasmine." What will they ban next?
Click here to read a longer article I wrote in the Huffington Post, explaining why China is not immune to the winds of change blowing from the Arab world.
No comments:
Post a Comment