They think Bush is a protocol-impaired dweeb. I base this conclusion on an e-mail that was being widely circulated among the Chinese staff in the office today. This mail included a couple of choice photos from a post (in Chinese) on the CCHere forum, and was sent under the following subject line, taken from the headline of the post:

国在胡总欢迎会上的不和谐音（美国的表现，太没出息）-没有素质的牛仔

Or, roughly:

"A wrong note is struck at President Hu's reception (America's behavior, highly unpromising) doesn't have the makings of a cowboy"

I'm not quite sure about that last phrase, and corrections will be entertained on any part. Here are the photos that were in the e-mail:





Even I noted Bush's yank on Hu's sleeve when I was watching the live broadcast last night (at least, the parts that weren't blacked out), as well as several jocular backslaps that Bush gave Hu. I thought to myself, "Hu ain't gonna like all that touchy-feely stuff." Jeez, I wouldn't like it.

There are more such photos in the post from which the mail was derived, including a priceless one of the two wives. By all means, go have a look. Also worth noting is that while official Chinese press coverage makes no notice of American protocol gaffes (including the announcer's now infamous pre-national anthem flubbing of "People's Republic of China" into "Republic of China", which is the official name of --gulp--Taiwan) or of the Falung*ng protest, this forum post recounts all of it. It doesn't, however, identify the protestor as Falung*ng. The post's author also complains about the quality of the translation, asserting that Bush's translator blew it in sixteen places. I'll have to take his word for it, but that's a perennial problem. Welcome to the club.

My Chinese colleagues pointedly didn't forward the mail to any of the Americans in the audience. Another American colleague saw it over someone's shoulder. When I asked one of my Chinese colleagues to forward it to me, she sent it without the subject line above, which she diplomatically removed because she thought might offend me because it was critical of America. I asked her about this later, so this isn't conjecture. I told her that America was quite capable of offending me all on its own, and that she shouldn't worry about it. She then also told me that she personally thought Bush acted "improperly". At the risk of putting words in her mouth, for "improperly" I think you can read "boorishly".

So there you have it. My Chinese colleagues think that the Americans were grabby, rude and incompetent, but they are courteously trying to spare their American colleagues the discomfort of confronting this unpleasant reality. Sweet, really.