Dutch author Annelie Rozeboom tells Patrick Brzeski about her decade documenting the lives touched by the endless crisis in Tibet

Annelie Rozeboom never really meant to become a China writer. She travelled to Asia seeking nothing more than adventure, but as a young Dutch study-abroad student living in Beijing in the late 1980s she was delivered the story of a lifetime when the Tiananmen protests erupted in the capital. Soon she was reporting from the front lines, her articles appearing on the front pages of Dutch newspapers, her voice on the radio, her interviews on the evening news. After “calm” was restored to Beijing, Rozenboom stayed on in China, working as the China correspondent for a Dutch national newspaper for 11 years.

Much of her later work focused on Tibet. Throughout the late 1990s she travelled through China and India, interviewing individuals on every side of the Tibetan crisis – monks, former Tibetan slaves, resettled nomads, business people, Chinese officials, and ultimately the Dalai Lama himself. She collected these stories and voices in her second book Wachtend op de Dalai Lama, published in Holland in 2000.
Observing the Tibetan protests surrounding the 2008 Beijing Olympics and realising how little had changed in the intervening years, Rozeboom decided to revamp and update the book for English publication. Waiting for the Dalai Lama – Stories from All Sides of the Tibetan Debate sees release by local Hong Kong publisher Blacksmith Books this month. We spoke with Rozeboom by phone from her new home in Antananarivo, Madagascar, to discuss her many years in China and the intractable, unpredictable situation in Tibet.

What initially led you to China?
I had been to China once on holiday when I was a journalism student and thought it was a fascinating place, so I went back to learn Chinese for a year and never left, as often happens. This was in 1987-88; the year after, I was studying at Beijing University when the Tiananmen riots broke out. That’s when I first started working as a professional journalist. My articles were immediately on the front page of the papers back in Holland every day.

What first drew your attention to Tibet?
I was living in Beijing in this compound for foreigners and Tibetans would occasionally come and mix with us, but they refused to even be in the same room as Chinese people. If we had Chinese friends over for dinner they would say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m leaving.’ The Chinese took over their country and they hated them and that was it. So, Tibetans were living in Beijing, but they were so isolated and among themselves. Naturally, that got me curious and I started to write about these people. I started to meet so many interesting characters and then the idea of a book of people’s life stories came to mind. From there I travelled the country; I travelled to Tibet; I travelled to India, collecting people’s stories and views on the Tibet issue.

Your book reveals how much misinformation there is on every side of the debate, whether it’s Chinese state propaganda or the glamorised Hollywood version of the old Tibet. Was that a source of frustration to you?
Well, no, I thought it was interesting. I just wanted to tell people’s life stories and present their individual views. It’s incredibly interesting because it explains so much about the situation there, because you can come to understand why these people oppose one anther so passionately. You can see how big the gap is between them and how incredibly hard it is to bridge that gap.

Did your own view on Tibet shift as you put the book together?
No, I don’t think it really did. I started out with simple curiosity. I admired the Dalai Lama, but on the other hand, I lived in China and had great love and respect for the Chinese too. I went and met these people who had been tortured by the Chinese and I knew what they were doing in Tibet wasn’t right – that it was functioning as a colony. But I can’t say my views really changed. It’s incredibly complicated and I have always felt kind of trapped in the middle of the issue.

Are there any characters or stories that have stuck with you?
The former Tibetan slave was very interesting to speak with. But really, there were so many. The businessman who worked as an actor playing Mao Zedong – he was an incredibly fascinating guy. Then there was the 16-year-old monk that I met in India. I met so many people; it was quite amazing. There were some that I threw out though. For example, when you go to Dharamsala and you meet all these refugees – it sounds sort of terrible – but one refugee’s story is much like another. And I needed just one very good one to make a strong point.

I realise this is a ridiculously huge question, but after exploring all sides of the issue, from top to bottom, what’s your general sense: are you optimistic for a resolution?
Well, I think it’s very, very difficult. The Chinese of course feel very strongly that Tibet belongs to them, and that it’s a poor area and the people should be grateful to be considered Chinese – the whole idea that these Tibetans wouldn’t want to be part of China really stings the nationalism and is a huge insult. But the Tibetans have no power to do anything about their situation but hold these demonstrations, so I’m not optimistic for them. On the other hand, great empires are often more unpredictable than they seem – consider the Soviet Union. All you need is one leader who is weak or who says, ‘well, this is ridiculous, we’re going to change it,’ and things can change in an instant. Even
though I can’t see it happening, historic change does come very, very quickly sometimes. So I don’t think it’s completely without hope.

Waiting for the Dalai Lama – Stories from All Sides of the Tibetan Debate is available at bookstores citywide.