Saviors of the planet are lost in translation

By Ji Kou ( China Daily ) Updated: 2007-07-06 14:20:56

The reason why many of our countrymen consider environmental protection to be some idealistic thing divorced from reality is partly because some of our environmentalists are idealistic, bossy, unapproachable and self-centered.

This disappointing realization comes from my own experiences of trying to get along with a few of them.

Saviors of the planet are lost in translation One is a lady whom I met several years ago in a shabby classroom on a remote county in the Tibet Autonomous Region. She was making a passionate speech about her experience at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, how important grassroots democracy is to our environment and how humans should revere Mother Nature.

When she asked if there were "any questions" she received no response. Her listeners - most of whom were non-Mandarin-speaking Tibetan villagers - wore blank expressions. Even though an interpreter tried hard to translate the names of all discussed foreign countries and cities, and her trendy environmental jargon into Tibetan, I guessed that they just didn't get it.

Later, I was told her nickname: "Sentimental Environmentalist".

Another guy is a project manager of a conservation organization who happens to be a vegetarian. In a nature reserve in northern Inner Mongolia, we shared the same table with a few Mongolian rangers.

It's OK for me to have more vegetables than meat and listen to this guy promoting his healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyle. To our mutton-loving hosts, however, his vegetarian lifestyle seemed a little strange. They ate almost nothing and said nothing. The lunch was one of the most awkward I have ever had.

He was there to launch a project to persuade the locals to give up their long-time practice of hunting wildlife for their meat. I don't think that he could make it promoting his vegetarian lifestyle everywhere.

Last comes the guy I liked least. I met him during a trip to Sichuan. Knowing that I'm a bird-watching newbie, the environmental writer said he shared the same hobby. He started bird watching three years ago, which was two years earlier than I'd taken up the leisurely pursuit.

In a country with less than 5,000 birdwatchers, happening across such a fellow during a trip was certainly a surprising delight.

But all was not as it seemed. When I asked him if he had any special bird he sought in particular, his answer was "any bird beautiful". And his copy of the birdwatching guidebook looked brand-new in his hands - as did his binoculars.

In our circle, this is called a "dude" - a novice birdwatcher or non-birdwatcher.

I got further proof during last year's bird watching race held in Hubei Province. He was the only one dressed in a red jacket. Like a bullfighter with a piece of red cloth, he startled the birds from the distance. Naturally, he became the person every team tried to avoid.

Imagine how I smiled when he called recently: "Dude, I'm gonna publish a new book; it's about bird watching."

(China Daily 07/06/2007 page20)