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A Beijing newspaper was recently critical of its fellow citizens for trying too hard to paint a perfect, unrealistic picture of their country. "We should exhibit the true and natural China to the outside world," the editorial said. "We also have problems, but we should not be afraid for everybody to see them." It is a sentiment shared by many of my Chinese friends, but they are still very sensitive to barbed criticism about their complex homeland. "Don't worry, it's nothing personal," I tell them. "Us Westerners, generally speaking, like to complain loudly about pretty much everything." "You'll get used to it, and after a while, you'll learn to ignore it like we do." While many in the West struggle to try to understand the Chinese psyche, my Beijing friends are sometimes bewildered by the Western media's never-ending moan about China's differences. "Foreigners only read that we're all poor, corrupt, polluters, human rights abusers and we have no rights," my 23-year-old Chinese language teacher told me. "I know this because I read these stories on the Internet, which the foreign media says I'm banned from reading," she said laughing. She stops laughing when I tell her it is common practice for my home newspaper in Australia to run a monkey cartoon of our state leader. "That is so disrespectful!" she cries. "Why would people want to see their leader like that. How would that help him do his job?" | 
