Catscam explodes in China; Ignatieff still in denial
Catscam
started out as a story limited to Canada’s Chinese language media. Then
a keen-eyed David Akin picked up the story, and it went national, in
mainstream newspapers from Nanaimo to Ottawa. Even the Globe and Mail
picked it up. Warren Kinsella, senior aide to Liberal Leader Michael
Ignatieff, was forced to issue a grudging apology for having said that
Chinese Canadians served cat meat at restaurants. (Ignatieff himself is
still in denial about the story, refusing to acknowledge any moral responsibility for his aide’s bigoted remarks – but also distancing himself from Kinsella.)
Given
Kinsella’s half-hearted apology and Ignatieff’s attempt to pretend
nothing’s wrong, it should come as no surprise that Catscam has exploded
in China. Here are a sampling of pages from Google China’s news search, translated into English. And here is a broader Chinese language Google search – 325 hits, many of them in the past few days.
It’s
not just huge. It’s monster huge. Look at some of the titles that have
picked up the story: China News; China.com; Sina.com; China Broadband,
People.com.cn etc. Several even have that awful picture of Kinsella
standing on a snowy street corner wearing a ball cap, looking old, angry
and white.
It’s
one thing to embarrass the Liberal Party here in Canada – who cares
about that. But it’s another to embarrass Canada overseas, to cause an
international incident.
What’s that? You’ve never heard of China.com or China News? Are they really that important? Uh, yeah. In a country with 300 million Internet users,
the biggest names in news are going to rival CNN and Yahoo. And that’s
just the online community. There are another 900 million Chinese, many
of whom read paper editions of those news sources.
China.com’s website has a traffic ranking
of 2,508, according to Alexa. That means of the billions of web pages
in the world, only 2,507 are busier. For comparison, the Globe and
Mail’s website is ranked 2,720. And China News’ website has a traffic ranking of 1,584.
And People.com.cn checks in at number 246.
Oh, and Sina.com.cn? That’s the 18th busiest web page in the world.
All of those websites have carried news of Kinsella’s cat meat slur.
And then there are countless Chinese blogs and chat sites, like this one, buzzing about Catscam.
Other than Pamela Anderson, I think Warren Kinsella is now the most famous Canadian in the world.
Some
of the reports vary slightly (though I’m only going by Google’s rough
translation software), but they all seem to be variations of reports
from Chinese-Canadian newspapers.
Take the story in China News.
It mentioned Kinsella once – but it named Michael Ignatieff and the
Liberal Party of Canada six times. Ignatieff might think he can duck
this one. But China doesn’t think so.
What’s
interesting is that China News didn’t just focus on Kinsella’s slur. It
focused on his ham-fisted attempt to delete his slur. Of course they
did – because that goes to his bad faith in the incident. He insulted
Chinese people, and then when that blew up in his face, instead of
taking responsibility manfully, he tried to hide what he had done. It
made his subsequent apology look less than genuine, a fact that wasn’t
lost on China News. Here are some excerpts:
…hurt
the Chinese people… improper remarks deleted from the blog… Chinese
vilification… attempt to conceal their improper remarks… expelled from
the Liberal Party…
You get the picture, even with Google’s awkward translation.
Is this story over yet?
No. It’s circled back to Canada again. It’s not just international. Now it’s non-partisan.
Here is a letter sent
out by the Chinese Canadian National Council, Toronto Chapter, which
describes itself as “an organization of Chinese Canadians in the City of
Toronto that promotes equity, social justice, inclusive civic
participation, and respect for diversity.” That’s the kind of group
that, in the past, would have been pretty open-minded to voting Liberal.
Now? Fat chance. They’re appalled. And note that their letter has been
copied to Ignatieff. Will he continue to deny any moral obligation to
respond? And how about one of the other groups to whom the CCNC’s letter
was sent – the Chinese Canadian Liberal Association? What do they have
to say about Kinsella’s smear? Which is more important to them – their
identity as Liberals, or their self-respect as Chinese Canadians?
P.S.
Yesterday, when I listed the Canadian daily newspapers that covered
Catscam, I missed the most important one: the Vancouer Sun. It's the
newspaper of record in Canada's third-largest city -- a city that just
happens to be 20% Chinese. Their headline? Ignatieff urged to fire top aide.
P.P.S.
Kinsella created Catscam and Ignatieff's silence will prolong it. But
you really do have to hand it to Liberal Robert Silver, who is still defending the cat meat insults
over at the Globe. None of the Globe's commenters are buying it, of
course. But Silver is sticking to his guns that the remark "was in no
ways racist or even offensive -- at all."
Does
Silver really mean that, or is he just putting party solidarity above
common sense -- and tolerance for minorities? If Silver thinks accusing a
Chinese restaurateur of serving cat meat is fine, I'd invite him to say
so to his local Chinese Canadian chamber of commerce; or Chinese
church; or Chinese newspaper editorial board; or even his waiter at a
Chinese restaurant. Silver wouldn't dream of saying the same thing
about, say, an Italian restaurant. Why does he think Chinese restaurants
are fair game? I've got a hunch that Silver is the kind of guy who
also tips less at a Chinese restaurant, too. No offense, right?
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