Great. Classroom.

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. education & free discussion are the antidotes of both."

- Thomas Jefferson

Lately Chinese have been getting angrier about new Japanese textbooks that whitewash Japanese atrocities during WWII. Yesterday the Japanese prime minister gave an unreserved apology for Japan’s actions, and this was at least the 16th time Japan has apologized. The Chinese government doesn’t allow broadcast any of these apologies within China.

Meanwhile, masses of Chinese are throwing rocks at Japanese embassies and violently protesting outside Japanese businesses in Guangzhou, unaware that Japan has ever apologized for anything.

Yesterday, before watching the news broadcast (or not broadcast) one of my students told me that she wanted to give her informational speech about Taiwan and Japan and China’s relationship with them, but that the university had told students not to discuss political matters in the presence of foreign teachers. I told her she’d better not.