Musings

It seems I have no picture today. Thus I will take this opportunity to reflect on some of my general impressions from China after having been here nearly three weeks. I must first admit that three weeks cannot do justice to even a small district of Shanghai, let alone China. Furthermore, I understand that Shanghai is in fact very different from the rest of China.

Nevertheless, I think I can safely say this is a godless country. There are, I here, millions of Christians, as well as Buddhists, Muslims, Daoists, etc, but I have yet to meet one personally. I keep intending to make it to a Church and perhaps I will this Sunday. This will no doubt become a later entry as there are sure to be interesting observations. But what does this mean? It's hard to say. You meet the same kinds of people as you do in the United States - friendly people, ethical people, mean people, fair people, kind people, etc. Most college students actually are required to read the bible, but apparently it is read academically and not for evangelical purposes.

China's cultural revolution of the late 1960's and early 1970's seems to have wiped out most of the traditional aspects of China that have made it so appealing to Westerners in the past. In fact, I think China is going to have to reinvent its old customs and traditions if it is going to become a major tourist destination. Cheap clothes and chopsticks can only arouse so much interest. Of course the economic incentives for business and trade remain, but these have little to do with the China we have all mused about. Perhaps I am seventy-five years too late in getting here.

I heard today that Confucianism, or at least Confucius' works, are "hot" right now. That is, they are the thing to be reading. Edward Bennett's roommate here (who is Chinese) believes the government is trying to legitimize itself with the new generation by superficially appealing to Confucianism. They're going to have to do something, because statues of Mao can only arouse so much enthusiasm in people who have no tangible connection to their history.

Things are going to happen here in the future. It was only 18 years ago that China used military force to suppress mass demonstrations of millions of people. Perhaps the spark will come from objections over internet monitoring, or similar filtering of information sources. Perhaps there will be no fighting, perhaps there could be another revolution. The question at hand, I believe, is whether the current government has control of the vast economic investments flowing in from other countries. I'll ask this question to one of our UVA economics professors whose specialty is China and get back to you.

Most of the people are great and they get by on modest lifestyles. But it just takes one visit to the mega grocery store to feel like a meaningless sardine.