Comments on: Ai Weiwei Uploaded Video Of A Huge Brawl In Beijing’s Guijie, Purportedly Between Tibetan Peddlers And Han Chinese

By: probablynotbatman

probablynotbatman — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:37:27 +0000

girl standing with the red jacket tied around her waste at 4:38 seems to be the same one who was knocked out at the two-minute mark, so that’s good.

i give the cops high marks for restraint, but seemed to have no plan for dealing with escalation. when the violence and destruction is still ongoing like it is here, isn’t that reason to slap on some bracelets?

By: Jeff Crosby

Jeff Crosby — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:45:57 +0000

Yeah, because no one ever fights over money in China. /s

The Tibetan merchants definitely stick together, and that’s why they all turned up to back their friends when the fight went down, but I think it’s pointless to try and weave this into some grand narrative of oppression and Han hegemony. As far as I can tell, someone smashed a vendor’s cart and he called all his friends, resulting in a big fight. It happens every day in China, though not always with Tibetans and usually not posted to Twitter by Ai Weiwei.

By: terroir

terroir — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:18:35 +0000

Yes. All of your reasons logically explain why a people of one kind would start fighting with another people of another kind and escalate into a “huge brawl”.

Race is such an oversimplification when the ties that bind are so much stronger when it involves knick knacks.

By: KopyKatKiller

KopyKatKiller — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:44:52 +0000

Seriously though, this is pretty retarded. Go China!

By: Markoff

Markoff — Mon, 13 May 2013 06:12:15 +0000

And where is the huge brawl in the video? all I see is bunch of maybe 5 street sellers throwing chair and few stones in the other direction and that’s all, any fight at local restaurant/bar is bigger than this

I hope police checked their license, because they were for sure there legally as street sellers are usually.

By: Ronan

Ronan — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:09:38 +0000

The power of a few bricks ! Always pack some bricks in your backpack.

By: Jeff Crosby

Jeff Crosby — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:17:12 +0000

I think you might be reading too much into this. The sidewalks in Guijie are packed. It’s a restaurant street, and each restaurant has people standing in the sidewalks and streets trying to pull in more customers. They also lay out lots of chairs for overflow, and they have patrons park right on the sidewalk as well. This squeezes the crowds of people walking by looking for a place to eat. Then you have lots of street merchants, Tibetan and otherwise, trying to sell stuff to all the passersby. In that environment, there’s a lot of opportunity for conflict.

By: Gay Chevara

Gay Chevara — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:15:31 +0000

In England they would be up against all the Muslims and Romanian pick pockets.

Oops, did I just say that out loud?

By: Rajan Kusinic

Rajan Kusinic — Sun, 12 May 2013 22:32:51 +0000

If it true that this was an ethnic brawl I can only say its not surprising. Han hegemony in China and increasingly around the world is going to result in more and more of this. It doesn’t help that most Han have a massive chip on their shoulder and are frankly quite racist.