A foreign teacher’s love for China

Mark Levine was born in Los Angeles and lived in New York as a grownup.

The reason why he chose to teach in the Minzu University of China, according to him, is that he wanted to experience the extensive and profound Chinese culture there.

Over half of his students are from ethnic minorities, with whom he could join the various ethnic festivals to experience different cultures.

“I am deeply impressed by a talented Tibetan girl, who often sings Tibetan songs accompanied with a Guzheng, a traditional instrument in China. She shows us Tibetan culture proudly and invites us to travel to her hometown.” Mark Levine said.

“Different ethnic students get on very well with each other in my class, and they study and live together like a family.” he said.

About China, we should look on the bright side.

“During the 8 years in China, I have witnessed the earth-shaking changes in China, where the people’s living standard improves increasingly.

“However, reports about China from western countries are almost negative,” Mark Levine said.

His friend from US once asked Mark Levine why he saw China differently from the media coverage in US.

“My answer was that every country has its problems. It is unfair to contrast one country with another and unscientific to compare China with America. On the contrary, it is sensible to compare today’s America with that of 50 years ago. Therefore, we should highly appreciate the economic progress in China and the raising living standard of its people,” he said.

The essence of the “Tibet issue” is the political intrigues of western countries including America.

“When talking about China, I must think of Tibet, a mystical holy land. Although I have never been there, the pure, kind and friendly Tibetan students impress me a lot. Western countries have some misunderstandings about Tibet, which may have political undertones.” Mark Levine said.

“The reasons are in two aspects, on one hand, some people are short of the knowledge about Tibet; on the other hand, some people disregard the real Tibet by some ulterior reasons.” he added.

“Since Tibet is a part of China, the so-called “Tibet issue” is absolutely an internal affair if it really exists, which has nothing to do with western countries such as America. No country should interfere with another country's internal affairs. America should pay more attention to their own problems, not those of China especially Tibet.” he said firmly.

Mark Levine’s opinion about the Dalai Clique is really thought-provoking. He said: “It is nonsense to advocate the slogan ‘Free Tibet’ for it is the political intrigue of western countries to split China, which means that even Tibet got ’free’, it would certainly fall into western power’s control such as America. In that case, “Tibet” has no right to manage its internal affair, let alone freedom.”

About recent incidents of self-immolation, Mark Levine pointed out: “it is stupid to incite self-immolatin meaninglessly, which cannot change anything. I have never believed that the Dalai Lama, a fugitive religious leader, would devote himself to solving the “Tibet issue”. Instead, he fled as a way of escaping, aiming to get help from western powers.”