On Sunday, December 12, the Tibetan community in New York City led by members of the Tibetan Youth Congress as well as members of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) sang boycott Christmas carols in front of Toys-R-Us in Times Square asking holiday shoppers to boycott products made in China.
In costume as Barbie dolls, teddy bears, bunny rabbits, toy cars, Elmo and PLA soldiers, dozens of Tibetans and their supporters sang songs such as “Boycott Bells” and “Deck the Jails” aimed at raising awareness of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Despite the serious subject matter, the crowd created a lighthearted holiday atmosphere.
“Watching the tourists walk by, I heard many people saying: ‘They’re boycotting Chinese goods because they’re Tibetans, that’s good. We should too.’ Many of the shoppers stopped to explain the action to their children,” said Sonam Topgyal, Joint-Secretary of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of New York and New Jersey.
Similarly, Tendor, Grassroots Coordinator for SFT, said that “Many people were coming up to me saying that they had been waiting for something like this to happen. They personally have been boycotting ‘Made in China’ goods and were hoping that a more coordinated, nation-wide campaign would be organized.”
Recognizing the difficulty of completely avoiding Chinese-made products, Tibetans and students passed out fliers listing alternative products available at comparable prices not made in China.
“It was an upbeat, fun action that appealed to a variety of shoppers while at the same time raising awareness about the severity and importance of what’s going on in Tibet,” said Cameron Cole, a member of NYU Students for a Free Tibet and one of the people behind the action.
The event was organized as part of an international campaign to boycott Chinese goods launched by Tibetan organizations and solidarity groups, such as the Rangzen Alliance and Students for a Free Tibet. In addition to the 55-year Chinese occupation of Tibet, the campaign also focuses on human rights abuses in China itself and the outsourcing of American jobs to the People’s Republic.
Signs at the rally read: “‘Bring the jobs back’ as a way to help people connect Chinese government policy to their own lives,” Cole said.
A large Tibetan national flag was hung near the Christmas carolers to express solidarity with Tibetans inside Tibet who have been tirelessly and fearlessly working to reclaim their independence.
The boycott Christmas caroling builds on the momentum of the release of ‘Buying the Dragon’s Teeth,’ a book by leading Tibetan political writer Jamyang Norbu that lays out the case for the boycott in considerable detail. The book is available for purchase via credit card at http://studentsforafreetibet.org/article.php?id=475.
