Isn that an imperialist, colonial perspective?
TS: Absolutely. The fact remains that so many well educated Chinese I have met don’t even know that Tibetans have their own language, written and spoken, and culture. Many Chinese as soon as they find out I’m Tibetan, they start talking to me in Chinese. When I tell them I’m sorry, I don’t speak their language, they respond, ‘What do you mean, you don’t speak, you’re Chinese.’ I tell them no, I’m Tibetan, I speak the Tibetan language. Then they ask me to say something in Tibetan and when I do, they don’t understand. For example the Chinese will say, ‘Nee how ma?’ (How are you?). Tibetans will say, ‘Kherang kusug depo yinpe’, which also means how are you?
