The attention of the international media to the Tibetan issue is set to continue for some time. But a part of the Chinese media and internet community has been sidetracked by a 21-year-old philosophy student in Hong Kong whom they have christened “Tibet Independence Girl”. Tibet Independence Girl (aka Christina Han Chau-man) was one of nine protestors arrested in China for wrapping a Tibetan flag around herself during the Olympic torch relay and has now sprung to internet fame – for all the wrong reasons.

Almost no one writing on Han’s arrest is focusing on the issue to which she was trying to draw attention. Rather, photos have been spread around the internet of her private life and relationships. A Chinese sociology professor points out that “(t)he focus is less on the issue itself, but on personalities, focusing on an individual” and that this is the more the fault of the media than of Han herself. But whoever is to blame, it does beg the question of how and why particular personalities succeed in being linked to particular issues. There were eight supporters other than Han who were also arrested for their pro-Tibet protests and of them, there is little discussion. Then again, they are perhaps neither 21 nor a model with an Australian boyfriend and therefore not newsworthy.

The media is superficial even when it comes to a serious long-standing issue such as this one. This will not change. But although Han is interesting enough to warrant shifting attention away from the debate at hand, a focus on her could increase the potential for analytic debate on the subject. A unique individual can certainly inject life into a cause, but the internet community and media should challenge those individuals to use this new-found attention to further discussion, as one media observer suggests. Let’s watch this space on Han and hope that she does not allow the important questions on Tibet to be lost in the media scrum for scandal.