Is the Chinese dragon snarling again? Well, thanks to the relentless onslaught of 24×7 news channels, the Chinese dragon became the new obsession of India’s chattering classes. When the hype was on the verge of spinning out of control, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to gently chide journalists at an iftar party at his residence that he saw no evidence of Chinese aggression.
The China threat may be a dramatic story for news-starved channels, but people plain forgot that Chinese dragons, unlike the European dragons, are neither evil nor aggressive. In Chinese mythology, dragons symbolise potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall and floods. So much for the China threat!
rounak