Comments on: The straight dope on Tibet?

Question: The straight dope on Tibet?

qxntpqbbbqxl — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:54:24 -0800

Looking for authors/forums/sources with scholarly discussion of the Tibet situation.

Specifically, I'm hoping for point-by-point analysis of the claims made by both China and the Dalai Lama, and the rational weighing of argument against counter-argument by subject experts on both sides.

After spending many hours with Google, the only thing clear to me is that most media sources (Western and Chinese) have such heavy biases that taken together they present disjoint realities. The net effect is that I don't believe anybody anymore.

[and please refrain from chatfilter - I'm looking for expert sources, not opinions (unless you happen to be an expert)]

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:13:08 -0800

interesting question - can there be such a thing as a scholarly opinion on such a current event?

Would you want someone who is an expert in sino-tibetan relations, or someone with deep knowledge of separatist movements?

By: amyms

amyms — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:16:03 -0800

Foreign Policy has a web-exclusive article called "Seven Questions: What Tibetans Want" that might be useful to you.

By: qxntpqbbbqxl

qxntpqbbbqxl — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:27:43 -0800

Would you want someone who is an expert in sino-tibetan relations, or someone with deep knowledge of separatist movements?

Both, preferably. More = better, so long as the opinions are informed and not just based on whatever the BBC or Xinhua said last week.

By: gemmy

gemmy — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:27:15 -0800

It's going to be hard to find scholarly articles yet. Most good academics would probably want to spend some more time studying the situation before they write serious analysis on it.

But I would focus on finding magazine articles in publications like Foreign Affairs and the Far Eastern Economic Review, that might have some more in-depth perspectives than the regular newspapers. They also do forums and online commentary, where you might find some additional perspectives.

The various Washington, D.C. thinktanks have all done pieces on Tibet as well - although you will find bias there too, of course. Try to balance the Heritage Foundation with Brookings, with the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Wilson Center, and you will get a very broad view of what Asia analysts - who spend their days pondering these issues - are saying.

Try also the recent Congressional Research Service report on China, which covers this issue as well. There was a PBS NewsHour segment on Tibet that was good also, and the participants later took questions.

By: waylaid

waylaid — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:22:50 -0800

There's a great book called Dragon in the Land of Snows:A Modern History of Tibet, which is the closest there is to an academic, scholarly look at the subject. I own it and highly recommend it.

By: alicesshoe

alicesshoe — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:14:41 -0800

Those media sources are giving you material for you to begin to weigh the argument.
Don't know if you've searched these, but that's what I have to suggest in case you may have missed them.

There's English Al Jazeera.
St. Peterburg Times, English, not controlled by Putin er, I mean Medvedev.
And Canada Tibet Committee.

By: megatherium

megatherium — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:36:54 -0800

Consider also Peter Hessler's Tibet Through Chinese Eyes.

By: gemmy

gemmy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:30:11 -0800

Fragile China: Beijing struggles with unrest in Tibet.
From today's Daily Standard, by Gordon Chang (who wrote "The Coming Collapse of China").

By: klue

klue — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:37:33 -0800

Wang Lixiong's essay Reflections on Tibet is available online.