Responding to Google, China's Xinhua invokes the spirit of Lady Gaga

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(Photo: a cc-licensed image by Flickr user Cory M. Grenier)

After condemning as "Totally Wrong" Google's decision to shut down Google.cn, China's state-run news agency issued an article today titled, "Can China live without Google?"

In a word, yes. Wipe the sneer off and read with a straight face. It's fascinating. They namedrop Gaga and The Colonel, and describe the standoff between the search giant and "the world's biggest internet market" as "a shocking cultural clash between the West and the East." Snip:

The Reform and Opening-up policy in China has been carried out for 30 years since 1979, with earlier icons like Coca-Cola, and later McDonald's, KFC and Starbucks Coffee. The incoming Western goods also brought Western cultures and lifestyles. For instance, the biggest Internet retailer Amazon named its service in China Zhuoyue (excellence).

The albums of the U.S. pop star Lady Gaga and Britain's talent Susan Boyle fly off the CD shelves in China.

All commodities come with some cultures and ideologies. China definitely is influenced by the West, but the influence is mutual. People of a certain culture learn to know a different new thing, but the new thing also has to learn to suit its new customers. That's why KFC serves Chinese porridge and McDonald's provides Chinese food menus here.

It all shows that China never rejects Western culture, but not all Hollywood movies will be a hit in China like "Avatar".

Can China live without Google? (Xinhua/Han Jingjing)