Yesterday was Mother’s Day, a day honouring mothers bringing us to the world.  No one can image no longer than 24 hours later, thousands of mothers will lose their children in the massive earthquake.

The aftershock of the train collision has not swayed away; the nature gives another heavy blow. China is destined to experience a tough year. Compared with losing face in the worldwide Olympic torch relay, losing life is the unbearable heaviness of being.

The death toll rose as time pass by, partly due to disruption in communications. One county is destroyed by the earthquake, large cities are hopefully undamaged. One high school collapsed, 900 students are buried beneath the rubble. When the disaster came, the most injured are always the disadvantaged groups.

When the pro-Tibetans disturb the torch relay, we can find someone to blame. When the trains collide with each other, we can find someone to punish. When it comes to the nature, we find no one to blame but ourselves.

This time western media and state media stand on one side, sharing the latest news of causality. When faced with nature disasters, bias and injustice are replaced by humanity.

Bless all the lost souls in the earthquake, and those young lives still struggling in the debris.

Today’s UK newspapers are flooded by the headlines of the relay torch held in London yesterday. Journalists focus on the protests during the relay. Critics remind China that sport is never pure and really simple. It makes me wonder who are using the Olympic Games.

To my surprise, in yesterday’s parade, more than half are not Tibetans. But they waved Tibetan flags and called for democracy. Where does their anger come from? Most of them have never been to Tibet, or even China before.  Their ingrained bias comes from the media. China is like Satan engulfing all the freedom and democracy in the media world.

If no news is good news, then all news is bad news. West media always focuses on the negative side. As far as I can see, people who support the Games along the street far outweighed the protestors. But they were neglected by the shot.

I was in the angry crowed yesterday. A mother lost her child and finally found her with the help of the police. The little girl was absolutely scared by the chaotic scene, crying loudly in her mum’s hug. Suddenly I feel sad about it. If there is reason for people to release their angry mood, it should never hurt the innocents. They may just happen to walk pass by, but become the victims of the chaos.

130 days of relay create 130 platforms for the protests around the world, those either against China or support democracy.  There is more challenge before.

Yesterday was western traditional Fool’s Day. BBC made a joke as usual to entertain the audience. Followed by the Spaghetti tree, this time a film maker discovered a colony of flying penguins in the Antarctic land. Such a white lie is easy for the public to tell from on such a special day, but can they tell the truth from daily news reports, especially on some places they have never been to, or something they have never understood.

These days a war broke out between western media and Chinese netizens. The root of this war is their news reports on the Tibet unrest. I have never been to Tibet before; all my past knowledge about Tibet is from documentaries and films. However, the scenes in domestic and western films are absolutely different. If films are the aggrandizement of real life, news should always reflect the fact. In BBC or Sky news, what I can see is Tibetans struggling for freedom. In our news agencies, it is a planned riot to destroy the ongoing Olympic Games. The truth has never been so complicated to see through.

According to my limited knowledge in history lessons in middle school, Tibet has always belonged to China since the Qing Dynasty. It ended the turbulence in 1959 when Dalai Lama exiled to India, but his influence has never been disappeared, even winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.Tibetans always regard him as the spirited leader. To be honest, I was born in a country where most people have no beliefs at all, so the understanding has never been easy between different cultures. Ever since I came to the western world, after visiting plenty of churches, I began to realize how powerful the sprit is.

Last Sunday when I visited the Tower of London, there is a place which used to imprison the dissidents. In a corner of the tower, there is a question put forward to every tourist, are you willing to die for belief? Most people choose not, while there are still some people choosing yes.

We should never deny that there are a group of people existing in the world, who are willing to die for their beliefs. Maybe in that mysterious land, belief is the most valuable thing they cherish. In our values, poverty is the source of all evil. The fact, however, proves that the economic growth cannot solve everything. The highest rail link seems bring prosperity to the development of Tibet. But in Tibetans’ eyes, it disrupts their peaceful and spiritual life lasted for years, which they called culture invasion. The more tourists go there, the more conflicts they bring. As even the globe becomes a village today, the integration of different cultures cannot be avoided. Learning to respect each other seems the only way to solve the conflicts, although it is never easy.

Thanks to the Internet, now we have the weapons to defend the truth. The young generation, the so called late 1980s, with good command of English, reacted quickly to found an anti-CNN website, gathering false news information across the world. That is what we study English for, to defend ourselves and speak loudly in the stage of the world. As all the critics are aimed at CNN, New York Times’ reporter in Beijing adds a blog entry to call for the voice from China, trying to find what they did wrong in covering the Tibet event. I cannot say that New York Times performs equally in this event, but this is what a responsible journalist should do, always keeping the balance of the information flow.

The unrest is calming down. The preparation for Olympic Games goes well. The controversy will be replaced by other hot topics. However, there should be something deserves thinking over for everyone.

The Spring Festival is just a few days to count. Like me, some of my friends in China found no way home. However, our situations are totally different.

This morning my colleague showed me two pictures on today’s Metro, which reflected tens of thousands of passengers stranded at Guangzhou Railway station trying to catch a train. He was absolutely shocked by the scene and asked me about this. Honestly speaking, I had never seen these before. So I tried to explain to him it is because of the heavy snowstorms this year that make things worse.

The same question haunts my mind, what is the real image of China among ordinary Britons? I realize when I came here, what I do most are explaining and comparing the situations in China to my colleagues. Who are they? They are descried as modern mid- Britons, friendly and open minded. But few of them have been to China, let alone understanding .The difference between cultures has never been so strongly influenced on my life.

February 6^th starts with the China year in London and will terminate on April 6^th with an Olympic torch relay. 2008 is definitely the year of China. On the one hand, the Olympic Games will be held in Beijing, which attract the worldwide attention .On the other hand, as the world economy is still struggling hard; China’s GDP keeps increasing at an amazing rate. No doubt these are big events showing China’s strength and pride as a nation, but in ordinary people’s eyes, they pay more attentions to individual happiness of Chinese people. That is why when China celebrated the construction of water cube; Sunday Times published a report investigating how many workers died during the construction works. That can also explain why netizens support Hu Ziwei strongly when she standed out bravely to criticize his husband’s affair with another women at a significant ceremony of CCTV 5.

As a graduate majoring in International Journalism, as a so-called student ambassador from China, maybe a news reporter in the future, I cherish and enjoy every moment spent in London. Encountering different cultures are interesting experiences. As I try my best to understand their culture, I also feel it is my duty to explain the real China to them. The problem is our aspect and ways of thinking are totally different. Just like I cannot understand their drunken culture, they cannot understand why Chinese people can endure such hardship to get a ticket home.

I always like snow in the winter, even going to Switzerland just want to see the snow. But this year’s snow can not make me happy, which even becomes a disaster.