By Kuo Yin Chang, a Chinese American living in San Francisco, US.
It was with great anticipation when we woke up on the morning of April 9, 2008. We got up early even though we went to bed after midnight because we do not want to miss the torch. Due to threats of violent demonstration by so-called 'Tibetans' in, the city officials kept the exact timing of the torch relay secret.
After taking public transportation BART - for Bay Area Rapid Transmit, we got off Embarcadero subway station at 8 A.M. and walked up a short flight of stairs to Market Street in downtown. The first person I noticed was a young Asian girl with a flag that I have never seen before. Since it was not the familiar national flag of China I knew it was a 'Tibetan' flag from the old days. There were not many people around downtown at that time. On the train sitting next to us were four Asian men in their thirties and forties whom I recognized at 'Tibetan' demonstrators from the 'Team Tibet' headbands they were wearing.
They did not look like educated professionals; they could be auto mechanics or construction workers, rather big and rough-n-tumble type. That was my first look at a 'Tibetan' and what struck me was they looked like me, sun-tanned Chinese. "So that's what Chinese Tibetans look like", I said to myself. Of course, I have seen pictures of The Dalai Lama and Tibetan monks but still it was an eye opener.
The Asian girl holding the 'Tibetan' flag was dressed like a typical American teenager, in tight blue jeans, long black hair and a couple of sweaters. That was my first look at the separatists' flag.
We walked a couple of blocks to the Justin Herman Plaza, where the welcoming ceremony was to be held. The weather was clear, cool and sunny. It was a great day to catch a glimpse of the torch. As we approached the plaza, we saw more 'Tibetan' separatist flags and then, to my great pride, the familiar red 'Zhong Kuo' flags.
Many Chinese Americans would have come were it not for rumors floating around after the London and Paris torch disruption that there would be violence on April 9. We Chinese Americans are peaceful people and law-abiding. Violence is not in our culture whether we are Buddhist, Christian, Muslim or others. Many of my Chinese friends stayed away which is unfortunate; there would have been more than 10,000 of us if only a few more showed up.
There was a stage set up with a giant screen and a local band was entertaining the people who, by 10 A.M. had grown into a huge crowd. The number of red flags outnumbered the 'Tibetan' separatist flags.
The separatist Tibetan crowd consisted mostly of young people with a sprinkling of over-forty demonstrators. Not all of them were Tibetan though; there were a handful of Caucasian (Americans) and rumors had it that the young Tibetan expatriates were from a local school, the University of California at Berkeley, and had persuaded some of their white American friends (who probably could not point to Tibet on the map) and paid Thai students with similar dark complexion to join their protest as 'Tibetans.'
To make up for their small numbers the separatists marched up and down Embarcadero Avenue with megaphones, shouting "Free Tibet", "Shame, shame, China, shame, shame!", etc. When peaceful Chinese Americans were provoked and voiced their opinions like, "Tibet is China, China is Tibet" they were met with obscene gestures from the noisy separatists. I personally saw two-heated argument that almost ended up in physical blows. Fortunately, it did not happen.
Around noon, the tension grew as everyone expected the torch to appear at any moment. The official route was published in the local papers and there were a dozen officers from San Francisco Police Department moving traffic barricades around and clearing the crowd from the street.
We strolled around and took many pictures of both the noisy separatists and patriotic 'Zhong Kuo ren' and university students from China who were studying in America. I could hear chants of 'Zhong Kuo, san Sway!" and the national anthem "Chi lai, chi lai…" from patriotic Chinese students and Chinese Americans alike.
Two o'clock came and still no sign of the torch. The crowd grew larger and they started to mill around in the middle of the street in front of Ferry Building. Chinese Americans and many Chinese university students wave China national flags and sang the national anthem. There was a rumor that the torch was coming by boat from the starting point at AT&T Park a few miles south and would be brought ashore through Ferry Building. At that point I had the feeling that perhaps the route had been changed because suddenly no police officers could be seen.
Three P.M. and I knew that was it. I decided to return home as it was six hours since arriving at 8 AM. Without lunch and standing on my two feet with two camera bags. I was tired both physically and emotionally. I knew there was a last-minute route switch which turned out to be the case. The torch was routed to Van Ness Avenue a few city blocks away and concluded peacefully.
Due to the selfishness of the separatists I missed the Olympic torch.
(China.org.cn April 17, 2008)